This week, Taylor Swift fans everywhere are partying like it’s 1989.
At this point, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t (begrudgingly or otherwise) tapped his or her toes along to “Shake It Off,” the lead single from her latest album, “1989,” which was released Monday.
The album hits highs and lows, but at no point does Swift hold back anything she’s been dying to say to fans and haters alike.
“Welcome to New York,” one of her pre-released songs, sets the stage. Is it creative? Not particularly. Is it fun? Absolutely. Swift lets her hair down on this track, and it reiterates the “Shake It Off” message — she knows what you think about her, she’s read your crappy Twitter jokes, and guess what? She doesn’t care. She’s decided to put herself first — to do what she wants without caring, and this message rings loud and clear throughout the album, notably in the self-deprecating “Blank Space,” in which she pokes fun at her boy crazy reputation with lines like “You know I love the players” and “I’m dying to see how this one ends.”
“Wildest Dreams” is Swift doing her best Lana Del Rey impression, throwing to the wind whatever shred of innocence her fans thought may remain with lyrics like “You see me in hindsight/tangled up with you all night.”
For an artist who prides herself (and rightfully so) on her songwriting, otherwise great tracks like “All You Had To Do Was Stay” become tedious and exhausting because of their repetitive lyrics. This is where her conformity to pop misses the mark. Just because other pop artists are all about the hook and a catchy beat doesn’t mean Swift should sacrifice her unquestionable talent as a lyricist.
The lowest point on “1989” is probably “This Love,” which fizzles as her token soft, slow song with no real redeeming qualities. The highest high on the album is “Style,” which incorporates what Swift does best — storytelling — with her new experiments in her own brand of pop.
The fun for many fans and critics — and probably tight-lipped Swift herself — is figuring out who each song is about. Well, I’ll spoil one for you: It doesn’t take much digging to discover that “Bad Blood,” an angry song about someone wronging her without any hope of reconciliation is about fellow pop star Katy Perry, who allegedly recruited a number of Swift’s dancers in the middle of The Red Tour for Perry’s own Prismatic World Tour.
Overall, the album is everything pop should be under Swift’s decree: fun, carefree and timeless. While other artists may struggle keeping up with the latest sound, Swift has bucked the system, throwing it back to the 1980s just because she finally realized she can. Who’s going to stop her? This album is a refusal to be put in a box or to adhere to the status quo.
It’s the album Swift haters might actually love and Swift’s usual fans would hate…that is, if they were capable of hating anything she does.
