1989 – Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s latest album 1989 is breaking records left, right and centre. Not only is it the fastest selling album of the decade, (usurping the title from Eminem) but it also cements the 24-year-old as the first artist to achieve three albums selling over a million copies in the first seven days of release. Taylor’s controversial decision to remove all of her music from spotify means that if you want to listen to this album, you’re going to have spend the cash, although in my opinion this is a worthwhile investment.
1989 sees Taylor take a big step away from her country music roots, and a step towards pure unadulterated pop. In reality, Taylor was always a pop artist, hidden under the pretence of country music and this bold record plays to all of her strengths. Although it still has tracks like Out of the Woods, allegedly written about ex-flame Harry Styles, her latest album is almost a testimony of her maturity from writing about boy crushes to embracing life as a single woman living in New York. The simplistic anthem Bad Blood is not as expected written about a lover, but instead an almost imperceptible nod to her feud with Katy Perry. Style is likely to be the next single from the album and a worthy track, its popularity coming from her catchy yet emotive lyrics in this unashamedly pop reinvention.
There are motivational power songs such as All You Had To Do Was Stay and songs like Wildest Dreams echoing the retro-noir style of Lana Del Rey. Perhaps what catapults 1989 up the charts is that even the most uninteresting tracks on the album have the potential to be hits. My love for T-Swizzle is unrivalled; she is a real artist who writes all her own songs and somehow manages to get it right every single time. With lyrics like ‘you’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore’ this album is still unmistakably Swift, and potentially her best work yet.