Reviewing 1989

Its been a while since I wrote any sort of review. Today I am gonna put words to my thoughts on Taylor Swift's move from country to pop-country to all pop. Taylor's 5th album (not including her Christmas one) is titled 1989 - after the year of her birth I presume. If you have her other albums and you know anything about her songs - her writing, her words, her letters to you - than you will quickly see that aspect of her hasn't changed when you read her album insert and listen to the songs. What you will hear different is the sound of her music. There's no country here anymore. The girl from Reading, PA...the girl who sang of Tim McGraw and teardrops on guitars....is a woman of New York City now, but who still has a lot to say. If you pay attention and you buy the actual CD's and read the inserts you will also notice that there is only ONE song on the album that she is solely credited for writing; this is a departure from other albums. There is no doubt in my mind that Taylor is talented. If I didn't think so I wouldn't have bought every single one of her CD's. I did had reservations about purchasing this one as I knew the Taylor of old was now new. I won't post her letter to us, her fans, her listeners, but I will post this excerpt because it sums up the entire album and the change in style:

" I've told you my stories for years now. Some have been about coming of age, some have about coming undone. This is a story about coming into your own, and as a result....coming alive."  

That is the nature of Taylor's albums - they were her stories. She puts her writing, her stories, to music.

If you are a fan of Pop music, my guess is that you will enjoy this album. For me, I tend to not be a huge fan of MOST Pop music. I don't listen to country either...but Taylor's music was different for me because it what was she was saying that I liked. I have a harder time getting the WHAT she is saying when put to this poppy pop music. I purchased the deluxe version of the album which comes with 3 extra songs and 3 voice memos from Taylor which include music vocals. The album contains the words to all the songs, except the 3 bonus tracks. Inside there is also a pack of loose copied Polaroids of Taylor with words from the songs, (see left image), something fun, I am not sure if those are included in the non-deluxe album.

Even though I am not a huge fan of the poppy pop, dancey sound, there are many songs I do like and will probably enjoy even more as time passes. The third song on the album is the first one that strikes me as one of my new favorites. Titled, Style, it has words like, "...You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye, and I got that red lip classic thing that you like........'cause we never go out of style..."  My 7-year-old daughter's favorite is Shake it off which was the first single released and is played on the radio. If you haven't see the video yet....watch it now.

That is a long way from her debut album. (below)

The 11th song on the album, 1989, is titled, This Love, and is the only one solely credited to Taylor writing it, the others all appear to be collaborations. It's a beautiful sounding song and one of the least poppy-pop ones on the album (but it most definitely has a new sound). I suppose you would call this one a ballad and I have always enjoyed those more. I am not too sure about a few of the songs on the album - but hey - do you always love EVERY song on an artist's album? So you skip those. Out of a total of 16 songs on this album there are only a few I am not too sure I will ever fall in love with. 

Her second single from the album is Blank Space and you can also see her music video to that online. An enjoyable song for sure. 

Holly's scale-o-meter, for whatever it's worth....I give this a 7...higher if you really enjoy Pop music. 

Don't miss this little clip from Target featuring the song, Style, from the album. 

http://time.com/3531403/taylor-swift-style-clip-target/