Taylor Swift dropped a snippet of her new single Saturday night, just as mysteriously as how she teased the slow reveal of single Look What You Made Me Do. In the early hours of the evening, Swift posted an enigmatic photo on her Instagram story with a time (8PM), a network (ABC), a college football game (Alabama vs Florida State), and a hashtag (#ReadyForIt). The barren straightforwardness of the post reminded more of an invite to a college house party than a highly anticipated announcement from one of the world’s biggest pop stars, but considering that Swift was spotted performing bridesmaid duties at a friend’s wedding earlier Saturday, the chances seemed slim that Swift was going to attend the game in question. The mystery was revealed at 8PM Eastern Time: a snippet of football imagery after the pre-game show turned out to be a teaser for Swift’s new single, called, you’ve guessed it, Ready For It, released Sunday 8AM ET.
This comes after Swift sent fans into a speculating frenzy when a duration appeared next to the still mysterious “track one” on her album in iTunes, while other tracks, minus Look What You Made Me Do, remained without further information. “Let the games begin, let the games begin,” Swift sings, taking a slightly different path than the dark and vengeful image she keenly constructed in Look What You Made Me Do. There are no references to feuds here, nor declarations that “the old Taylor is dead”–the only one Swift playing games with is a lover. In fact, with this reasonably cheerful track that is part love song, part stadium anthem, the old Taylor–the one whose love life, whether cemented in song lyrics or not, commands all attention–seems very much alive. There is are no extended rap verses here, nor anonymous beats—the catchy melody seems more like something high school sweethearts would make out to from under the bleachers. She starts the song with,“Knew he was a killer, first time that I saw him,” reigning back the span of “Look” (which seemed to address anyone from Kim and Kanye, ex Tom Hiddleston, to all of Taylor’s old selves) to just her and her romantic interest. “Me, I was a robber, first time that he saw me,” she sings, acknowledging a game of push and pull. “Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry.” This release is in step with an already extended promotional period Swift has embarked on for her new album, Reputation. To promote Look What You Made Me Do, Swift first wiped all her social media accounts clean, then slowly revealed a host of enigmatic images (including that of a CGI-snake), followed by the release of the single and a debut of its music video at last week’s VMAs. Though this release questions which other steps Swift will take in her “reinvention”, it’s certain that Swift’s well-oiled media machine is engineered to command all attention. She’s making sure that, by the time her album drops on November 10, we can not be other than ready for it.