An “official pop album” “inspired by the late ’80s”. Eeehhhhhhhhhh, we’ll see.
An “official pop album” “inspired by the late ’80s”. Eeehhhhhhhhhh, we’ll see.
yeah, I don’t know why I even doubted her
Eeh, on second thought, I just listened to Red straight through again and I was like “holy shit I forgot how much better an album this is”.
1989 was the first Taylor Swift album to really be conscious that This Is An Album By Taylor Swift, Biggest Star In America. And it didn’t really bear that weight well.
The “1989” theme… I mean, the fact that there even was a theme. Red had the switch from Nashville to LA but that was more subtext than theme. The “let’s go back to the ‘80s” thing isn’t even new, nouveau-electropop has been the thing for a while, so not really any points for that. But that’s always been the Taylor Swift thing, she’s not a trailblazer, she just does whatever other people have been doing, improved and polished perfectly for the mass market. And the 100% hooks pop thing really plays against her strengths - she’s a songwriter first and foremost and even there more lyricist than arranger, but with the pop feel the lyrics don’t bear as much weight and she dumps more of the arrangement off on her producers.
There aren’t many great singles - Shake It Off was a decent way to introduce the new sound, and Blank Space really is the standout on this album. But beyond that you have what? Style. She could get away with I Wish You Would and/or How You Get The Girl, but that’s pushing it. Maaaybe This Love as something the country stations who supported her all this time could feasibly play, or else a twangier soundtrack song.
(It was a good idea to release “Out of the Woods” and “Welcome to New York” as teasers but not radio singles - they’re on the bubble of good enough, pushed over with the bonus from OHMIGAWD NEW TAYSWIFT, but don’t really hold up to replay.)
Wildest Dreams is too transparently “look, a Lana Del Rey song”, Out Of The Woods is “look, a fun. song”, Shake it Off is a Max Martin song.
I mean, I’ve said that The Lucky One was really a Jenny Lewis song, okay, but that wasn’t a single, deeper on the album. And circa Red the kids weren’t exactly listening to Jenny Lewis, but the 1989 sources are more direct competitors. WANEGBT was with Max Martin and Shellback and a dubstep drop, but no one was going to confuse that for Skrillex. It was built around a fucking ska guitar riff, for one.
(I’m pretty sure I Wish You Would is invoking Jesus Jones’ “Right Here, Right Now”, though, which at this point is respectably left-field)
Eh. I prefer it to the self-titled debut, for what that’s worth. At this point I appreciate her more as a celebrity than a musician anyway. Which I think is kind of a conscious shift. And another post.