Let’s be real here, we’ve all come to some sort of conclusion about Taylor Swift. There’s a full range of emotions from love to hate when it comes to her sweet public image or her music. So at the break of dawn right before I left for school, I bought 1989 on iTunes. The album, named after her birth year, is Taylor’s 5th. She describes it as her “first documented official pop album.” We’ve all seen this coming. Were songs like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” her sly way of guiding her adoring fans to something brand new?
The first track, “Welcome to New York,” takes me by surprise. To be honest, it’s horrifying. The lyrics are unauthentic, cheap, and seemingly soulless. They sound like the mass produced lyrics of the music industry. Taylor isn’t even from New York. She has no ties with the identity of hardworking New Yorkers who are not the young and wealthy. Where is my curly haired country lovin’ Taylor? Two minutes in, I’m having a panic attack. However, that devastating first track was maybe there on purpose to lower my standards because I was not prepared for the glory that was “Blank Space.” Yes. Yes. More. Taylor, guide me to the otic paradise because you seem to know the way there.
The next 20 minutes of the album cruise by, 20 minutes of beautiful 80’s pop. The songs are surprisingly concise and complement one another. I have a newfound obsession for her song “Wildest Dreams.” The album is bold, and every song has the potential to become a hit. That’s the thing about Taylor’s music for me. I always seem to hate it the first three times I hear it, and then it grows on me. Ask me in a month, I’ll be professing my undying love for “Welcome To New York.”
13 tracks, like Taylor’s lucky number. Will this be her lucky album? Cheers to a new era and to Swift for giving something big and bold. And to all the haters: people change, get over it.