New Year's Day (Taylor Swift song)

"New Year's Day" is an acoustic ballad with a sparse arrangement incorporating recurring piano riffs and subdued guitar and synth notes.

[2] He said that "New Year's Day" was the fastest song to complete on Reputation, as the two recorded "scratch takes" that did not filter out unwanted sounds from the outside environment.

[2][3] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Antonoff recalled that the recording session was inspired by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell for capturing emotional honesty: "You don't want to get the perfect tune.

[9] After all of her friends have gone home, Swift tells her lover, "Don't read the last page, but I stay / When it's hard and it's wrong and we're making mistakes," and confesses that she "wants [your] midnights".

[13] Prior to the album's release, Swift premiered a recorded live performance of the song on the ABC network during an ad break during the series Scandal, broadcast on November 9, 2017.

[14] The performance had taken place at Swift's Holiday House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island in October 2017, as part of a fan-exclusive Reputation album-listening session.

[18] On April 23, 2019, she sang the track at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts during the Time 100 Gala, where she was honored as one of the "100 most influential people" of the year.

[23] In a review for Clash, Shahzaib Hussain commended Swift's ability to connect to her audience by expressing "the intimate, diary-like invocation of her past work", a welcoming change from the "high-octane melodrama" of Reputation.

[24] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic lauded the song as a high mark against the "monochromatic production" of Reputation for combining "vulnerability, melody, and confidence, but they are deeply felt and complex", which signified Swift's maturity as a singer-songwriter.

"[9] Gacca also complimented the song's placement as the final track on Reputation for breaking free from the album's themes fueled by the tabloid scrutiny that Swift had experienced.

[9] In another review of Reputation for Spin, Jordan Sargent similarly lauded the song for reasserting Swift's authenticity as a songwriter, calling it the album's "most placid, calming note".

[25] BBC Music's Will Gompertz praised the song's production for highlighting Swift's vocals, unburdened by heavy electronics: "you hear a singer who can communicate feeling and thought with touching depth and sincerity.

"[29] Alex Hopper from American Songwriter viewed the song as a fan-favorite and thought it had a "deeply anthemic melody and searing lyrics".