... thoughts on Taylor Swift's REPUTATION CD...

It is my understanding that compression is often used for voices in order to reduce sibilance (harsh 'esse' sounds). If the engineers get the DR compression so wrong, maybe they're mucking that up as well.

But to my ears harshness and stridence are the effect that most bothers me in recordings with really narrow DR. 

It is also my understanding that all music played on the radio goes through various digital algorithms to keep loudness levels flat throughout the broadcast. That's why the whole loudness war deal is so stupid. It does not accomplish anything.

On albums I like with high loudness which causes shrillness in female voices (Neko Case) comes to mind, I'll use software EQ to turn the dB down and other minor tweaks to reduce harshness and ear fatigue. All I'm probably doing is a poor version of Apple's Sound Check.

The harshness in her voice (and other artists today) is mostly due to the use of effects specifically Autotune. These pop and rap recordings are not using a sine wave to organically correct pitch, a square wave is created and the gain is pushed high into the vocals. Next add the loudness part with the use of limiting and compression and you have buzzing, electronic sounding vocals.
It's the style of pop music today.

And then each radio station adds a fair amount of compression. And for streaming (iTunes) the original files have the data compressed into a low-res version of the song.
 

For sibilant voices engineers use filters and a mild amount of compression. This is standard practice. 
There may be sibilance thru your speakers due to tipped-up highs from the mix and/or mastering. 

gosta: NOT ON TOPIC - but give a listen to The Eagles 2-disc THE VERY BEST OF, on your 15" woofer Westlakes and APCs

disc 2: track #3 - Victim of Love
             track #13 - Those Shoes

Listen to the beginnings of both; I used to blast these 2 tunes with my mid-50s University S6 (3-way with 15" woofer) - and THEY ROCK !!!
I still use them when testing others' speakers and systems...

Regarding the vocal mushing on 'REPUTATION': it has to be an engineering thing. I am trying to recall clean vocals - I remember some nice stuff on The Dixie Chicks CDs...

... according to what lowrider57 has stated: WITH RECORDED MUSIC - we are never going to truly hear what an/any artist really sounds like...

I know that the days of hearing Harry Chapin with 57 other people in a college cafeteria are gone - real sound is harder and harder to find - but it is a depressing thought that we really don't know what an artist sounds like. Reminds me: My son and I got a reality check when we heard HOOBISTANK live- so so disappointing - AND NOTHING LIKE THE MUSIC WE LISTEN TO ON CD!