Oh, to be a historian, two hundred years from now, stumbling upon this blog post and able to judge whether my initial assessment of Taylor Swift's new single has stood the test of time...
Well, sans the benefit of several centuries of hindsight, I can only say that this song carries kernels of greatness, but does not reach greatness itself. The fact that Right Said Fred is co-credited (because of the song's resemblance to "I'm Too Sexy"!!!) says...something.
There are some killer lyrics here, as we've come to expect ("Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time" is one of my favourites), but, ultimately, without a melodic mega-chorus of the type T. Swift is known for, the song won't embed itself in our collective subconscious, no matter how great the bridge (the bridge is good but only raises hopes for the chorus that never comes).
Still, I'm going to play it on repeat on my commute home. Sometimes, you just need to become really, really familiar with a song before you love it. I'm afraid, though, that "Look What You Made Me Do" will never reach the firmament of Taylor's great singles, but is destined to join "Welcome to New York" in the lower strata of "singles that tried."
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