Member Since: 1/1/2014
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1989 Official Review Thread
United States Release Date: October 27
Worldwide Release Date: October 28
http://smarturl.it/TS1989
POSITIVE
Entertainment Weekly - B
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20865424,00.html
Quote:
With 1989, she should earn at least a silver. Executive-produced by Swift and Max Martin, the album is preloaded with potential hits, from the chant-along fight song ''Bad Blood'' to the lovers-on-the-run hymn ''I Know Places.'' ''Shake It Off,'' the kinetic first single, is already a No. 1. (Less likely to top the charts: the underripe Big Apple ode ''Welcome to New York'' and the blatant CoverGirl-commercial bait ''Style.'') The title, 1989, is both a wink to Swift's birth year and a nod to that era's music, which she evokes on the Jack Antonoff-co-written ''I Wish You Would'' and ''Out of the Woods,'' ballads with driving beats that complement her cinematic verses, such as ''You took a Polaroid of us/Then discovered/The rest of the world was black and white/But we were in screaming color.''
Lyrics like that — aching and pinpoint-specific — used to be Swift's specialty. At her best (2010's ''Dear John,'' 2012's ''All Too Well''), she's the most vivid songwriter of her generation, able to summon the storm clouds of every heartbreak you've ever had with one couplet and then sweep them away with another. But too often on 1989 she's trying to win at somebody else's game, whittling her words down to generic love stuff over flowy synthesizers. That's because pop, as a musical genre, is most precisely defined by what it isn't: not country, not rock, and not rap. Swift isn't any of those, but she isn't 100 percent pop, either — she's still too unique, too identifiably herself.
That's a good thing, by the way. So if she makes another pop album next? Great. If she wants to write R&B, or show tunes, or a nü-metal concept LP? Mazel tov. But if she ditches what makes her special to get there, then she's doing a huge disservice to her fans — and an even bigger one to herself. B
Best Tracks:
''I Wish You Would''
''Bad Blood''
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