The excruciating wait is finally over — Taylor Swift’s fifth studio album hit the shelves (and iTunes, of course) at the beginning of this week. 1989 is a thirteen-track ode to technopop, drawing inspiration from the musical stylings of its titular year while also defining a spectacular new sound for the previously country-based Swift. In short, it’s a masterpiece.
Swift’s secret messages (as encoded on the album’s digital booklet), impressive lyrics, and the ideal circumstances for listening to each track have been compiled here for your convenience. Hopefully this brief overview is enough to convey that 1989 is an extraordinary album—and that if you haven’t heard it yet, it’s definitely worth your while.
Track 1: Welcome to New York
Message: We begin our story in New York.
Best lyric: “The lights are so bright but they never blind me”
Perfect for: Traveling someplace new and feeling like anything could happen
Track 2: Blank Space
Message: There once was a girl known by everyone and no one.
Best lyric: “Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”
Perfect for: Plotting to bring down a man (think Gone Girl)
Track 3: Style
Message: Her heart belonged to someone who couldn’t stay.
Best lyric: “I’ve got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt”
Perfect for: Getting all up on someone, no shame whatsoever
Track 4: Out of the Woods
Message: They loved each other recklessly.
Best lyric: “We were built to fall apart and fall back together”
Perfect for: Reevaluating your relationship—how reckless is too reckless?
Track 5: All You Had to Do Was Stay
Message: They paid the price.
Best lyric: “Why’d you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?”
Perfect for: That tricky stage of a breakup where you’re still sad but want to listen to something catchy (Taylor Swift is the master of this)
Track 6: Shake It Off
Message: She danced to forget him.
Best lyric: “To the fella over there with the hella good hair, won’t you come on over, baby?”
Perfect for: Psyching yourself up/tuning out the haters/singing in the shower/basically anything
Track 7: I Wish You Would
Message: He drove past her street each night.
Best lyric: “We’re a crooked line in a straight line down”
Perfect for: Wishful thinking about someone you can’t have
Track 8: Bad Blood
Message: She made friends and enemies.
Best lyric: “Band-aids don’t fix bullet holes”
Perfect for: Blowing off steam at everyone who’s ever betrayed you
Track 9: Wildest Dreams
Message: He only saw her in his dreams.
Best lyric: “He’s so bad but he does it so well”
Perfect for: Emulating Lana del Rey (this song sounds exactly like one of hers)
Track 10: How You Get the Girl
Message: Then one day he came back.
Best lyric: “Broke your heart, I’ll put it back together”
Perfect for: Holding onto hope, because you never know
Track 11: This Love
Message: Timing is a funny thing.
Best lyric: “These hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me”
Perfect for: Falling asleep thinking about the one you love (or loved)
Track 12: I Know Places
Message: And everyone was watching.
Best lyric: “Loose lips sink ships all the damn time”
Perfect for: Driving, driving, driving to get away from everything else
Track 13: Clean
Message: She lost him but she found herself and somehow that was everything.
Best lyric: “When I was drowning, that’s when I could finally breathe”
Perfect for: Helping you feel totally, completely over someone
1989 is available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and at Target.