Finally. We can all breath a sigh of relief because Taylor Swift is back with a brand new, all pop album titled, 1989. This album, which was released on Sunday, October 21, is just as fabulous as her previous work—although certainly different. When I first heard that Taylor was coming out with an all pop album, I thought that it wouldn’t be that different at all from her previous work. After all, haters are constantly arguing that Taylor is not “true” country and they can’t stand the fact that she gets away with winning Country Music Awards and also Grammy’s in the pop category. Even though it made me angry because she’s amazing and I love her, her songs certainly weren’t comparable in sound to Reba or Jason Aldean. I was wrong. Max Martin, a hugely successful pop music producer, largely produces this new sound found on her fifth album. So is Taylor successful in her attempt at pop stardom? As Jem Aswad wrote in his review of the album for billboard.com, this is an “album that finds Swift meeting Katy and Miley and Pink on their home turf and staring them down.” Not only does Taylor do it, she does it better. Her music and lyrics are still inherently Swift, but the overall sound is more hyped up and electric. She executes to “danceability” factor to a T without having to feature a rapper on every track, let alone any track.
The best tracks include “Blank Space”, “How You Get The Girl”, “Style”, and “Clean”. She draws inspiration from the likes of Imogen Heap and Lana Del Rey; her song “Wildest Dreams”, another one of my favorites, so closely resembles “Young and Beautfiul” by Rey that it almost sounds like a copy or continuation of the song. However, while I do love her new pop sound, I will admit that my favorite tracks on the album, “Clean” and “This Love”, more closely resemble the old Taylor. So, I guess that while I do love 1989 and I plan on blasting it in my car and driving around when I go home for Thanksgiving, I will always have a special place in my heart for the melodious and wonderfully lyrical love songs of the old Taylor.
I applaud Taylor for trying something new and executing it in a way that most people couldn’t, but I hope that we don’t lose her old ways forever and she still feels a connection to her country roots. 1989 is great, but it will never replace the love I have for her last album, Red. But, let’s be honest, Taylor could sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ and I would still buy it on iTunes and listen to it endlessly.