Taylor-made for stadium rock
When, two years ago, Kim Kardashian posted a tweet that snubbed Taylor Swift with a string of snake emojis, the reality star may have expected the online hate campaign she ended up triggering.
What she could never have anticipated, however, was that Swift would later perform underneath the arch of a cobra, several storeys high, bellowing “Nobody trusts me!”
Welcome to the Reputation Tour, Swift’s first stadium show on these shores, arriving off the back of the 28-year-old’s most beguiling release yet. After a decade of building a career on the foundation that she could be every fan’s best friend, in November Swift brought out Reputation with little explanation other than a carefully orchestrated campaign of serpentine symbolism.
Her absence – from the talk shows, from Instagram, from the covers of magazines – left some fans feeling distanced, especially after waiting more than two years for a new album. People were further riled by the “Taylor Tix” scheme, which encouraged fans to buy merchandise to gain better access. Nevertheless, it has already proved worthwhile: Swift has become a record-breaking stadium artist, beating revenue and attendance figures previously held by One Direction and U2.
But those who have missed Swift will delight in this tour, in which she simultaneously reminded us of the humour and zeal that she brought to pop music while showing what a graduation she has made during her time away (mostly spent in the UK, she told us).
If Swift’s country-crossover output had so far dealt in the turbulent business of learning about and losing love, Reputation offered an adult reflection of sinking into it, surrounded by heavy synths. This provided ripe material for a slick, smartly produced stadium show that mostly managed to avoid the gimmicks and put Swift’s musicality in the spotlight.
Swift’s talent lies in her songwriting; she can emulsify a heartbreak in a sentence. But her previous live performances have been let down by a voice that can sound thin on stage. In Manchester, though, she appeared to have conquered this, channelling a power into mighty melodies that rang out across a crowd of 50,000.
The arrangement of this set – which was largely reliant on Reputation-era material – was also musically clever, contorting verses on I Did Something Bad and blending old favourites Style, You Belong with Me and Love Story into a euphoric whip of feeling. When her band thrashed into Should’ve Said No, Swift’s guitarist deftly folded in a line of Wonderwall’s chorus.
Manchester was honoured in other ways, too. Swift is famed for truly knowing her fans – she writes on their social media accounts, sends them presents that she thinks they will like – but she applied this sensitivity to a city when she took a moment to praise Manchester’s tenacity after last year’s bombing.
“You’re never going to let anyone forget about those victims,” she marvelled, leaving some of the crowd in tears.
While Reputation’s juddering heft easily filled this cavernous space, what was more impressive was that Swift managed to create the intimacy that has always personified her work – and initially seemed absent in this period of her career. She spent as much time alone on stage as backed by her (at times ludicrously) costumed dancers, hopping between three stages to immerse herself in the crowd.
And so, when she played Dancing with Our Hands Tied – potentially about her still-unconfirmed relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn – with nothing but a guitar, Swift was blanketed in the light of the flashing wristbands given to the crowd, telling us a story. Proof, if there ever was, that the old Taylor isn’t dead – she’s just grown up.
‘Swift’s talent lies in her songwriting; she can emulsify a heartbreak in a sentence’