When the album came out, it was confusing to me. I thought Shake It Off was extremely generic, robotic and stupid but eventually started accepting its stupidity and just bopped. Blank Space and Style were the same, except not as stupid as Shake It Off. Blank Space I came to realize was an intelligent song given its satire. It's satire gives it a soul of its own, allowing it to be perfectly polished pop without losing its liveliness or credibility. It deserved its reign as the biggest hit of 1989.
This Love I am still able to appreciate for it's level of genuineness and Clean is still fantastic to me because I'm a huge Imogen Heap fan. Wildest Dreams used to be extremely annoying to me. I could not stand the fakeness in her voice the whole chorus of that song and thought the robotic feminine oohs were cringeworthy. Hearing it more I've been able to like it more as a pop song and can bop if I try, but I still feel it is just a watered down more shamelessly pop version of Without You.
The rest of the album was and still is very robotic/ingenuine to me, which makes it unlistenable. I feels void of a soul without the bopness of the singles. Since the first time I listened to it I could immediately sense the calculating in most of the album track songs, which seem shamelessly designed to appeal to the basic every day teenage girl demographic.
Most of ATRL stanning for it made me feel more so that ATRL can easily fall into hype. But I guess I just am not a fan of pop music that doesn't seem like it came from a genuine place, which is also the main reason why I find ARTPOP difficult to listen to. Perfectly polished pop needs the right vocal emotion, and if not, it needs talented satire, like in Blank Space.
I DISLIKE Taylor Swift. However, I bought 1989 to see what the hype was and hated it apart from Blank Space, Bad Blood, I Know Places and Wonderland. It's mostly due to my bias and not liking her but only recently decided to sit down and listening to it, throwing my bias aside and I actually fell in love with it. "Clean" is the best song on the album along with Blank Space. I really love the album now and I'm tempted to look into her discography but maybe not yet.I hate New Romantics though. It's unlistenable to me.
Haven't listened to it since like March. It's a decent pop record but nothing to write home about. Some really great bops (Blank Space, How You Get The Girl), some devastatingly awful lows (All You Had To Do Was Stay, You Are In Love, This Love) and some terribly-written bops (Shake It Off, Bad Blood). I'd give it a 6.5/10.
i will never not be obsessed with Blank Space and Clean
i still like (a lot) and use: Style, Shake It Off, All You Had to Do Was Stay, Wildest Dreams, This Love, New Romantics, You Are in Love, and Wonderland
meh: Out of the Woods, I Wish You Would, How You Get the Girl
