Taylor Swift releases ‘Gorgeous’ as next promo single
Taylor Swift had all eyes on her when, after literally not showing herself for a period, she stepped back into the pop scene with the polarizing comeback single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’. She dropped an all kinds of brilliant video to go with it, which broke a handful of records on YouTube. Soon after, the second track ‘…Ready For It?’ dropped to continue the buzz. Now, only three weeks before the record reputation is out, it was time for something new. And that something new is the latest promo single ‘Gorgeous’.

Taylor wrote ‘Gorgeous’ with Shellback and Max Martin, who also did the production side of things. Compared to the first two singles, ‘Gorgeous’ is a lot more laidback. The production subtly swings with a midtempo beat and a guitar like riff that repeats over and over. Lyrically, Taylor almost never disappoints, but I have to admit ‘Gorgeous’ is a bit hit and miss. It is all about this guy that is too ‘Gorgeous’ to handle for our poor Taylor, who sings: “You’re so cool, it makes me hate you so much.” Although I see what she is going for, some of the wordings just fall flat, because they sound like they were written by a bratty teen. “You’re so gorgeous. I can’t say anything to your face, ’cause look at your face!”, is just not strong enough to support the main hook.

I get that it is all tongue in cheek, but she has done much better in the past (yes, ‘Blank Space’ to just name one). Luckily there are still some moments where her lyrical genius shines through. “There’s nothing I hate more than what I can’t have, guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats… Unless you wanna come along?” is the right amount of playful and self mockery. I don’t think ‘Gorgeous’ will stand out as one of the highlights of reputation and does not sound strong enough to be the second official single, but as a promo track, it does its job.