The haters gonna hate, but Taylor Swift’s newest album “1989” may be the best music she’s put out yet. Swift has left her country days behind and ventured out into the land of pop music. The sounds in “1989” are supposed to resemble the pop synth era that Swift was born at the tail end of.
When I bought “1989” I knew I was going to love every single song on the album, but I had to show Orono what my top five favorite songs were.
Overall, my very favorite song on the entire album is “Wildest Dreams.” I absolutely love how it starts out with a muffled beat and the delicacy of sweet violins. It almost has a Lana del Rey twist to it, yet it’s not quite the usual Taylor Swift ballad. It reminds me of Taylor’s personality in music, yet somehow it comes off as completely different. The tone is very lavish, yet it’s simple. I don’t know how she does it, but altogether it’s a gorgeous song and I adore how it’s done.
My second favorite song is “I know Places.” Each day Taylor is hounded by countless paparazzi. I believe this song describes exactly how it is for her to deal with them each and everyday. I admire how she wrote it to make it sound as if she were being hunted down by gruesome huntsmen. The song begins with the click of a tape recorder playing, then a simple piano ballad playing in the background of Taylor’s voice singing what I think is supposed to be the synthesizer. I think it’s neat how it starts out soft, then crescendos into a loud and powerful mood. Although her lyrics were very well put together, I now realize she sounds very autotuned, especially in the chorus.
The third song was “Style.” This one was easily one of my favorites because, to me, it sounded less autotuned and more like her own voice. Although it was about another past boyfriend, rumored to be Harry Styles hence the title of the song, it was extremely catchy. I really like how it was a little slower than the rest of her songs, yet it still had a happy, upbeat feel.
Coming in at number four was “Blank Space.” I really enjoyed listening to this song. At first I thought it was about her ex-boyfriends, which I was a little tired of hearing, but then I realized it was about how society portrays her as a crazy, jealous ex-girlfriend with a little feminist flare. This was her way of showing the world that she’s not like that at all.
You’re going to be lightening on your feet once you start listening to “Shake It Off.” Being number five, this song is probably the most popular on the album. The song starts out with an upbeat drum and the crashing of hit hat cymbals. Then, Taylor starts singing with what seems to be a muffled saxophone-like horn playing in the background. I love this song because I feel like many can relate to it. Personally, whenever it comes on the radio, I dance every time whether it be with friends or sitting in my car.
Purchasing her album includes receiving 13 polaroids, like the cover of the album, of Swift and friends captioned with lyrics from the songs in the album. Why? Swift wanted to produce an album that held memories, but she wanted to share her memories with her fans by making them tangible objects. In this case, polaroids.
Overall it’s a great album. Non-swifties have converted into swifties over this album. People interested can purchase it for $9.99 or $15.99 for the bonus tracks.
