Member Since: 6/25/2012
Posts: 41,860
|
"1989: the closest thing to Thriller in Years"
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/en...ing-it-all-up/
Quote:
The key to 1989's success is that, despite the presence of Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin and other production bigwigs, Swift remains front and centre. The album bursts with hairbrush anthems featuring strong vocals and gossip-spawning lyrics that are basically a diary of the star's past two years.
Love-struck ballad Wildest Dreams and the Miami Vice soundtrack sound-alike, Style, refer to her recent beau, One Direction's Harry Styles. Surging second single Out of the Woods, written with Fun's Jack Antonoff, mentions a snowmobile crash the couple had - and somehow kept out of the media.
Then there's Bad Blood, a barely disguised bitch-slap apparently aimed at rival Katy Perry. This spoonful of bilious bombast is a rare weak moment.
Besides Antonoff - the BF of Swift's BFF, Girls creator Lena Dunham - 1989 features songs penned with English folktronica artist Imogen Heap (closing abstinence ballad Clean) and star songwriter Ryan Tedder, who co-writes the relatively dark I Know Places, which explores the superstar's lack of privacy, and euphoric opening track Welcome to New York.
The polished synth stabs of the latter lets fans know they're not in Nashville anymore, let alone Kansas. Swift declares this is "the new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat forever" as she pays tribute to New York, where so many people have reinvented themselves and her home since March.
At its best, 1989 is a treat fizzing with hallmarks of its titular decade. All You Had to Do Was Stay recalls (or maybe even samples) Annie Lennox, while I Wish You Would blends early Madonna with light guitar motifs based on INXS and U2.
Cynics might suggest the seven-time Grammy Award winner has always gunned for top of the pops but previous outings always had something for country radio to play. There's nothing for them here, but every track on 1989 could be a single, which perhaps isn't saying that much given eight seconds of static her label accidently uploaded to iTunes topped the Canadian chart last week.
This once-in-a-generation star has taken her fans with her, creating regular social media frenzies and making the release of an album - that poor, dumb dodo of today's popular culture - once again feel like an event.
|
 ]
|
|
|
|
feMJ has been REPLACED!?