Taylor Swift’s 4th album, “1989”, has finally arrived. Officially her first fully pop album, Taylor Swift’s songs feel completely new, yet sentimentally reminiscent of another age. Influenced by older legends such as Madonna, Annie Lenox and Phil Collins, while echoing the Lorde pioneered pop revolution, the sound of Taylor Swift’s album is one of initial surprise and, upon further listening, catchy innovation.
Welcome to New York
Personally, this is my least favorite song of the album. However, its techno backdrop seems like it would have been a perfect theme song for The Carrie Diaries. The significance of the song is truly in its title, as Taylor Swift is officially declaring the separation from the Nashville life that infiltrated her other albums. The song has one inspired verse that shows growth in the underlying message of her songs, while maintaining her traditional theme of her failed love life. However, the inspiration stops there, as the rest of the song is pretty much “Welcome to New York” repeated for 3 minutes straight.
Blank Space
“Blank Space”, on the other hand, is a definite favorite from the album. The lyrics show that Taylor Swift has finally given up on finding, or at the very least singing about, “the one” and moved onto the more relatable twenty-something mindset of shorter flings. She sings about her making “the bad guys good for a weekend”, being “young and reckless [… and] taking this way too far”, and finding “out what you want/[and being] that girl for a month”. She also makes fun of herself, saying that she has “got a long list of ex-lovers/they’ll tell you I’m insane”. Finally, Taylor Swift starts singing about the wonders and woes of dating in general, rather than the desperate search for a husband. The lyrics in this song are genuinely clever and original, and I really appreciate the song overall.
Style
Supposedly written about Harry Styles, the song’s name is witty in itself. The song talks about her and a guy, whoever he may be, and their indulgence in a non-committal fling that ended up being more like a roller coaster ride than a real relationship. The song is cleverly written in a way that shows the various stages of this acquaintance broadly while personalizing the participants, singing that “you got that James Dean day dream look in your eye/And I got that red lip classic thing that you like”. While still a little repetitive, this song gets better the more you listen.
Out of the Woods
Casually just released overnight a few days before her album, “Out of the Woods” is a favorite of mine because the beat of it just provides great strutting-down-the-street-with-swag music. The song is about a fragile relationship that lived day-to-day rather than lasted through adversity and the tune of the song really genuinely captures the emotions associated with this kind of exciting yet shallow relationship. The chorus is the same “Are we out of the woods yet?/Are we in the clear yet?” lines over and over again, but the verses tell a story, showing her country music roots.
All You Had to Do Was Stay
This song is a general break-up song that seems to be just a more upbeat version of most of her “Red” songs. The lyrics are repetitive throughout its entirety. And while the emotion is there, the originality in either the subject or the writing is lacking.
Shake it Off
If you haven’t heard this song yet, you’ve been living under a hole and need to dig yourself out and hit up Spotify. This song is one of those great motivational songs that get you up, dancing, and ready to take on the world. Taylor Swift makes fun of herself, while trying to rap; it is all around just a fantastic pump-up song. The music video is also worth checking out both for Taylor Swift’s all-too-familiar awkward dancing combined with some beautifully skilled dancers.
I Wish You Would
Evoking similar emotions, with a faster beat, as “Back to December” from “Speak Now”, “I Wish You Would” talks about Taylor Swift messing it up with a guy and just wanting to go back and fix it. The song repeats that all of her feelings are happening at 2am, which is so often the time when regret seeps in.
Bad Blood
I really like this song. It takes about someone back-stabbing Taylor Swift; supposedly, it was written about Katy Perry trying to poach some of Taylor Swift’s back-up dancers in the middle of her “Red” tour. And while the lyrics are not particularly innovative, the song makes the bitter emotion of betrayal act as empowerment rather than discouragement. You can make some great sassy faces in the mirror listening to this song… or so I’ve heard, from a friend.
Wildest Dreams
This song is good in that Taylor Swift is straight up singing about having sex. Go Taylor. The whole premise is Taylor Swift going far with a guy, but wanting him to remember her as pure and innocent when they do eventually go their own ways. The bridge, in particular, has some great sexual tension in it. Lana del Ray definitely, at least in part, inspired the song. Some of the lines are sung, mixing soprano vibrato with sudden alto, in the same way as Lana del Ray. This style follows suit with the pop revolution.
How You Get the Girl
“How You Get the Girl” seems to have been made for a slightly younger audience than the rest of the album. It has a much teenybopper pop rhythm that could have been influenced by Ashley Tisdale’s “Kiss the Girl” in both the tune and the lyrics. The lyrics go against the rest of the album, resembling someone’s wedding vows: “I want you for worse of for better/I would wait for ever and ever”. It’s the only song on the album that really mentions the possibility of a marriage or “the one” so it definitely is more reminiscent of older Taylor Swift songs than her new ones.
This Love
“This Love” is about a relationship that had bad timing throughout its course. The lyrics are much more poetic than the rest of the album, using metaphors like the ocean, the sky, ghosts, and lanterns to get her points across. The slow pace of the song is different than the rest of the upbeat techno songs and while the subject is one of continually renewed songs, it is eerily hopeless. It really fulfills Taylor Swift’s goal of getting her emotions across through her songs.
I Know Places
This song is very literal in that it is about Taylor Swift and her current bae hiding from the paparazzi, and her knowing places they can go to hide. The metaphor of her and whoever she is with being “the foxes” and the paparazzi being “the hunters” lead to a cute song with a slightly disturbing underlying message: she feels like she’s an animal being pursued by predators. I think the song is really clever.
Clean
Written with Imogen Heap, this song is much artsier than her others. Taylor Swift compares her toxic love to that of an alcohol addiction. The symbolism of the song is very dark and is definitely intended for her older audience. It shows Taylor Swift’s growth as not only a songwriter but as a person. The emotion really comes through in this song and Imogen Heap’s influence is evident.