Taylor Swift - 1989*

Have to correct myself, I misread an online commenter's statement — the review is not on the front page of today's New York Times, the commenter must have meant the front page of the Arts section, which is not such a big deal, obviously.

 

Full Time review:

http://time.com/3533569/taylor-swift-1989-review/

 

The plaudits keep rolling in, this time from across the pond:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/24/taylor-swift-1989-review

 

Funny thing about Welcome To New York. For some reason - Country Music, obviously - Taylor Swift seems like she's from Hicktown, right down the holler from Nowheresville. Packin' up her dreams and moving to the Big Apple.

She grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, right? That's about 100 miles from NYC, give or take.

Albany is farther away from NYC than Wyomissing.

 

Still slightly less ridiculous than young Bobby Dylan pretending that he grew up as hobo hopping the rails before heading off to Hard Times in New York Town.

 

I'm not putting her down, it's just funny.

 

Agreed, but she joins a long tradition of pop musicians who've felt compelled to write their ode to the Big Apple:

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's an artist, she's compelled, she's whatever.

Listen, I'm going to be at Target Monday morning. TARGET! Me and maybe a few hot moms who don't know how to use I-Tunes. And it's for my kid, but I've come around on Swifty, so we're on the same team now.

Team Somewhat Less Creepy Than Five Years Ago.

 

ah hot moms! you are lucky man.

 

It's out there. "Clean" is astonishing: the best song she's ever written. How "Style" wasn't the first single boggles the mind.

 

i CANT find it!

http://hasitleaked.com/2014/taylor-swift-1989/

 

A 76 on Metacritic so far. Impressive.

 

As many here predicted on Day One, "Shake It Off" is like a bad joke compared to the rest of the album.

 

im downloading at 1Kb noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I'm not the lucky one.

 

"Clean" is f**king adult songwriting. It's going to take me a few more listens to get a handle on it. But wow. Whether sobriety is a metaphor for getting away from a toxic relationship, phase of life, friendship, public image, place, or actual substance run-in—whoa.

 

That song is her "Norwegian Wood" moment: a quantum leap beyond what was already an amazing body of work by the biggest pop act in the world.

 

Among the many ways it's massive growth: "wine on a dress I can't wear any more" ties in with the idea of being "clean" and the sobriety language in the last verse. It's also positively Dylanesque—or Lennon circa '65/'66, when in real time, the public knew very little of what was going on in his private life—in the way it's enigmatic about the details of her life even as it delves so deeply. The writing here is such a massive step forward. Up till now, I still rated "Last Kiss" her best song, even after all of the Red album. Not anymore.

 

Also, "How You Get The Girl" is my absolute favorite song of 2014. Man, if I were a 20 year old John Lennon, I would add this to the Cavern Club repertoire with Paul and George doing the backing vocals.

 

Yes, it looks like her "sell-out 80s pop album" may well be her best album. Another analogy that comes to mind is U2's Achtung Baby, which was hyped as a massive change in their sound, even if, in hindsight, underneath all of the new sonic window dressing, they remained recognizably U2. But what made that album great was the song-writing, and that is the case here, as well.

 

To me, it sounds more like a missing track from Kate Bush's Hounds of Love or something like that.

 

Her first single made it to number one and is still hanging around a couple months later. Sounds like she made the right choice.

 

"New Romantics" is the best song Lorde never wrote. How did this not make the album?

"Style" is a masterclass in how to write a pop anthem.

 

"Style" would have gone higher than number one. It's also a better song.

 

The songwriting memos are fascinating. She still writes on acoustic guitar.