A REPUTATION Song For Each Month of the Year

The List

January – …Ready For It?

• This was a bit on the nose. I originally had New Years Day set for January but after giving the album another listen – it’s clearly the album opener. The beginning of the year, a new chapter, a song fit for the rebranding of your entire life. What better month other than January?

February – Call It What You Want/King of My Heart

• CIWYW: While the “lovergirl” side of me would mark Dress for this month, there’s something about CIWYW. This February, our flowers growing back as thorns + a man that’s fit like a daydream walking straight to you.
• KOMH: There’s no reason why it’s here other than my personal bias: it’s my birthday month (it also reminds us of chess – can anyone relate?!).

March – Delicate

• March is definitely the turning point of the year, bursting into spring. Flowers everywhere, smooth atmosphere, the warm sun. There isn’t any other floral-like song is on this album. Absolutely perfect for plugging in your headphones and prancing around an open field.

April – I Did Something Bad/This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

• IDSB: April showers brings.. this song. A true revenge-in-the-rain song. Doesn’t it feel like a spring tune you can belt out in the middle of a thunderstorm? You and your girls outside, swinging bats, drenched in water (we were robbed of a video for this song!)
• TIWWCHNT: Here’s to my babyyyyy. Another rain tune and a note to not to F with me. Sarcastic, humorous, and clear reminder that every action warrants a reaction 😉

May – Gorgeous

• One of the more ‘poppy’ tunes of the album, it clearly marks the happiest (and brightest) month of the year. Just like the song – May is a gorgeous month marked for transitioning into summer.

June – Dress

• Taylor is great for those ‘summer love’ songs you can’t stop singing. While these are usually more pop-forward, Dress details that sexy transition from friends to lovers. It’s a real adult-lovin’ summer.

July – Dancing With Our Hands Tied

• July is a mont that I just can’t put my finger on. It isn’t as exciting as June or as calming as August. And that’s this song: stuck between a slow burn (tapping your feet along to the beat) and then bursting into a fast beat. It’s my throw away song, just like July is a throw away month! #sorrynotsorry

August – Getaway Car

• A song that reminds me of riding through the woods with my person only to take the wrong turn. Taylor’s very own Bonnie & Clyde. It’s the end of summer with him, and the beginning of fall without him.

September – So It Goes…

• My least favorite song of the album (don’t argue with me), and I honestly just felt like this song screamed September. I told you my credentials for this was nothing.

October – Don’t Blame Me

• Another one I had a tough pickle with – it was between Don’t Blame Me and I Did Something Bad, but there’s a chill haunting in this song that plays right into the themes of October. You can’t deny it!

November – End Game

• Not only does this album remind me of a cold winter, but this song sounds like you returning home for the Thanksgiving holidays and hanging around that person you grew up. Or meeting up with your old friends from high school.

December – New Years Day/Look What You Made Me Do

• NYD: My first favorite song of the album (which has soon changed). The end of a crazy night, the end of a crazy year, the end of an incredible album. See the correlation? After all is said and done, we’re cleaning up every bit of the party as we’re moving into a new year, with that person who makes it all worth it.
• LWYMMD: I mean she literally says she has a list of names that she checks once and twice. How much more clearer could it be? Also, her “bad girl” era comes to full completion in this song. Fitting way to close out the year and end that awful “American Sweetheart” trope pushed onto her by society.