Call It What You Want

Album: Reputation (2017)
Charted: 29 27
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by Taylor Swift with her "Look What You Made Me Do" collaborator Jack Antonoff, this personal song finds the songstress referencing her time away from the spotlight following her split from Tom Hiddleston and public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. She croons over Antonoff's dreamy synth-pop music bed.

    My castle crumbled overnight
    I brought a knife to a gun fight
    They took the crown but it's alright


    By the song's chorus, Swift has found peace, thanks to her new lover, who she believes is "The One."

    My baby's fly like a jet stream
    High above the whole scene
    Loves me like I'm brand new
  • As soon as the song was released, Taylor Swift fans identified the "fly baby" as her British actor beau Joe Alwyn, whom she started dating in early 2017.

    I want to wear his initial
    On a chain round my neck, chain round my neck
    Not because he owns me
    But 'cause he really knows me


    Swift has been spotted wearing a necklace that matches this description.
  • The revenge-pop queen acknowledges her "reputation" when it comes to her love life, but insists Joe Alwyn is the Real Deal.

    And I know I make the same mistakes every time
    Bridges burn, I never learn
    At least I did one thing right
    I did one thing right
    I'm laughing with my lover
    Making forts under covers
  • Many Swifties were quick to point out lyrical parallels with Taylor's 2008 hit song "Love Story:" She sings on "Call It What You Want".

    I recall late November
    Holding my breath, slowly I said 'you don't need to save me
    But would you run away with me?'
    Yes


    In "Love Story," which many fans believe was about Joe Jonas, whom she was dating at the time. Swift sang

    Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone:
    I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run
    You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
    It's a love story, baby just say yes
  • Jack Antonoff revealed in a tweet that the track was "made with an MPC, live kick, dx7 strings and samples of Taylor's voice as the intro and throughout." He added that he loved "making her voice into an instrument."

    Antonoff also advised that "Call It What You Want" is best listened to "on headphones at night on a walk."
  • This is the penultimate track on Reputation. The album is centered around the themes of Taylor's anger at the way she is portrayed in the media as well as being let down by certain individuals. She emerges as a happier person after finding love with Joe Alwyn. The songstress explained during the iHeartRadio Release Party:

    "The way I feel the album is, as far as a storyline, is I feel like it starts with just getting out any kind of rebellion, or anger, or angst, or whatever. And then, like, falling in love, and realizing that you kind of settle into what your priorities are, and your life changes, but you welcome it because it's something that matters to you. And this last part of the album feels like settling into where I am now. So it started with where I was when I started making the album, and ends with kind of my emotional state now. And this song, I think, really reflects that probably the best on the album."

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