Entertainment

Taylor Swift drops highly anticipated album Reputation

On the new record she seems to take aim at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
On the new record she seems to take aim at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. On the new record she seems to take aim at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Taylor Swift has recounted her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and told fans “my mistakes have been used against me” as she released her highly anticipated new album Reputation.

The singer unveiled the follow-up to 2014’s 1989 after months out of the spotlight and used the record to tell her side of the story about her highly publicised row with the couple.

In a lengthy letter to fans in the album booklet, entitled “Here’s something I’ve learned about people,” she writes: “We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them they have chosen to show us.”

She continues: “This is the first generation that will be able to look back on their entire life story documented in pictures on the internet, and together we will all discover the after-effects of that.

“Ultimately we post photos online to curate what strangers think of us. But then we wake up, look in the mirror at our faces and see the cracks and scars and blemishes, and cringe.”

Waiting for #reputation like…

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on

She goes on: “We are never just good or just bad. We are mosaics of our worst selves and our best selves, our deepest secrets and our favourite stories to tell at a dinner party, existing somewhere between our well-lit profile photo and our drivers license shot.

“I’ve been in the public eye since I was 15 years old. On the beautiful, lovely side of that, I’ve been so lucky to make music for a living and look out into crowds of loving, vibrant people.

“On the other side of the coin, my mistakes have been used against me, my heartbreaks have been used as entertainment, and my songwriting has been trivialised as ‘oversharing’.”

#reputation is out. Let the games begin.

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on

She concludes: “Let me say it louder again, louder for those in the back … We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them they have chosen to show us. There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation.”

The album’s lead track Look What You Made Me Do, released in August, appeared to take aim at West and seemingly continues on This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, in which Swift sounds off about being “stabbed” in the back by a former friend.

One lyric says: “Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you,” which seems to refer to the phone call between Swift and West about his track Famous, which was leaked by Kardashian.

Waiting for #reputation like…

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on

Swift was accused of lying after she slammed West for his lyrics about her before Kardashian released edited audio of the call which seemed to show Swift approving the line.

In the same song on her album she appears to take aim at the reality star, saying: “It was so nice being friends again / There I was giving you a second chance / But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand.”

Reputation is out now.