Taylor Swift
1989

Release Date: 2014 | Tracklist

Creative. Fantastic. Transcending. Completely unexpected. Worth the hype. That's just some of the few things you can certainly describe from country-turned-pop artist Taylor Swift's latest endeavour in her fifth studio album 1989. After her fourth LP in 2012 which wasn't Taylor's finest piece of work, you wondered if Swift wasn't pushing herself to the maximum potential that she is capable of with her passionate, heartfelt vocals and songwriting capabilities. Her first official "pop" album, Swift completely moves on from the country roots that helped boost her into one of music's biggest stars and embraces her pop side which has mostly been where Swift has hit her best strides with previous hits like "22” and “We're Never Getting Back Together”. The result of that decision is a 16-track LP that is undeniably enjoyable, even for non-pop fans or Taylor Swift fans for that perspective. One that deserves some ATOY conversation almost certainly, and one that deserves a standing ovation.

This isn't just any typical pop album you would normally see like from a Selena Gomez or from a Demi Lovato. This doesn't sound like a normal pop album targeted towards the massive tween and teenage audience. It helps transcend pop music to a level that hasn't been seen in years due to the influctuation of generic boy bands or female vocalists who aren't any different from the rest of the industry. What 1989 is rather is a pop LP that is bombarded by what is easily Swift's best material in her stacked music career that all sounds refreshing and filled with dynamic, explosive energy. It's pretty prominent as soon as you hear the first track “Welcome To New York”, with a melody that sounds undeniably like an '80s pop song yet playful and entertaining. This LP is immersed mostly in '80s synth-pop: it's clearly visible in tracks such as the first track and others like “All You Had To Do Was Stay” and “Wildest Dreams”. While those examples do showcase Swift's route in her music, it isn't put together any more better than it did for “Out Of The Woods”. This track is easily one of the best overall tracks on this record, with an hook that is unbelievably catchy and not annoying with the immense amount of repetition with the sole lyrics of “Are we out of the woods?/Are we in the clear yet?” sung from Swift. What magnifies this track to such a great magnitude is the blend of vocals with Swift and her backup vocalists in the hook: combining as one to create a chilling atmosphere that sends chills literally down your spine as the hook is chanted each time. The production and songwriting overall in this album come down as Swift's biggest accomplishment here: with the help of veterans such as Ryan Tedder, Shellshock, fun./Bleachers' Jack Antonoff, and the one and only Max Martin of Backstreet Boys' fame collaborating to create enjoyable pop music, while also staying true and personal to Taylor herself. This LP doesn't have even have a single song that should be avoided, not even the deluxe bonus tracks, which is obviously rare especially on the pop side of things. It's definitely hard to find one specific track that you can say is easily the best in the album because all of them are so good.

It will be a very long time before the music industry sees a pop album that is so polished and well-done the way Taylor Swift did it with 1989. Her fifth LP was superb, with an exquisite conjuring of both vocal talent and production that displays pop music being blown to its highest degree of both capability and appeal. The 16-track pop studio album is a showcase of Swift's best material to date, one that's certainly gonna see plenty of songs off this record garnering massive radio airplay. It's near perfect. In the deluxe edition, Swift includes three “voice memos” of her explaining to the listener about her songwriting process with three of the songs in the record in an acoustic, almost “unplugged”-like scenario. It makes it feel very personal to the listener, as if Taylor herself is talking to you about her song and singing it to you. It creates an connection between you and Taylor, while not literally but you get the point. It's also very educational as well for those who are unfamiliar with how artists such as Swift create their music with the assistance of big-shot producers such as Max Martin in the studio. 1989 is able to accomplish what most pop albums fail to achieve: distinction, maturity, and overall appeal. Even if you aren't too fond of pop music or even Taylor herself, you're gonna end up enjoying this because it's able to appeal to you. Swift's fifth LP is definitely the best pop album to be released this year, and undoubtedly the best mainstream release by an artist this year. It is definitely all worth that hype that helped build the excitement for it, a factor that is very difficult to accomplish especially as a mainstream artist, and its reaping the massive rewards because of that.

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3.4 great

Rank: #0 for 2014