Taylor Swift’s (Apparent) Remake of ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ with Brother Austin Fires Up Fandom
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Taylor Swift may have finally started to make good on her vow to re-record her entire Big Machine back catalog — although she never said she was going to put her brother, Austin, on lead vocals for the entire epic project.
Okay, so the siblings’ (alleged) cover of “Look What You Made You Do,” as heard over the opening of the latest episode of “Killing Eve,” is more likely a one-off than a sign of the direction that any future remakes of her oldies might take. But, for her fan base, it did turn Memorial Day into Easter… as in, a chance to hunt down the Easter eggs embedded in the track’s artwork and credits, which seem to confirm that this is an all-in-the-family remake.
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Swift took to social media to post that she was “very stoked” about the beyond-moody new version of “Look What You Made Me Do” that appeared on the “Killing Eve” series, credited to the heretofore unknown act Jack Leopards & the Dolphin Club. That she had a more proprietary interest than she let on seemed to be confirmed when credits on digital services showed the song’s co-producers are Jack Antonoff, her steadiest collaborator in recent years, and “Nils Sj?berg,” the pseudonym Swift used when she co-wrote “This Is What You Came For” for Rihanna with Calvin Harris in 2016.
That was fairly broad, as hints go. It took just a little more memory-jogging for fans to remember that Austin Swift, 28, once had “The Dolphin Club” as his Twitter handle… a joke likely based on a childhood photo of him wearing a T-shirt bearing those words. As it turns out, that same photo is the basis of the cover art for the new track, albeit with a square block placed over Austin’s face. (This may be an homage to David Bowie reusing the cover photo of “Heroes” for the front of “The Next Day” with a square block over the face, or just a case of great minds thinking alike.)
Further cementing the secret credits for the song: a report published in February that had Swift approaching “Killing Eve” executive producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge at the Golden Globes in January to ask if Austin could sing on the show’s soundtrack. The Swift siblings and Antonoff had been photographed together in a studio late last year, leading to fan speculation that the track might have already been recorded by the time Swift reportedly put in the request with Waller-Bridge.
Swift’s camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The singer does appear to be more excited about having her brother sing her old songs right now than about doing them herself, if her recent ABC special “Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert” is an indication. The hour-long show broadcast on May 17 included all eight of the songs from her latest album, “Lover,” that Swift sang at the Paris gig filmed last September, and none of the eight she performed from earlier in her career.
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