1989

I can’t lie this was better than expected

No album has thrown a better pity party than this one, though it has taken me a decade of occasional listening to recognise it as such, a minor but very real subcategory of human comedy. I returned to this expecting the hits and some filler, but found little of the latter; it all has stick. I still don’t understand what her trick is. She seems to downplay the choruses a notch, but make all the others parts a lot catchier.

My kids played this to death, with no objections from me. At least as good as the treasured Madonna albums from my youth. WIldest Dreams in particular is a banger.

need to give yourself permission to like it, then it's quite catchy and enjoyable. it's definitely well done. it's also extremely bland at the same time. marty robbins is probably what this sounds like to her core fans.

my name is grimble grumble

I’ve tried giving this a go a few times, the first right when it was released and I was only a mild Taylor skeptic. Now I’m a full-blown hater, but I like to think I can put my bullshit aside and extend some grace or at least patience to appreciating something that millions of others love. I’m still a fan of a range of pop music, a lot from the 80s, some (although not many) of the Swedes’ other productions but there’s a basic quality to Swift’s compositions and melodies that even they can’t improve. For millions, that is probably the secret sauce that makes them fans. For me, it’s a glaring, here we go again formula that is pretty much everything I hate about a certain kind of music.

Not my thing

Oh to be a white girl at the Eras tour The final boss of the 2010s charts, polished to a total sheen, decade-enduring anthems. Obviously not the pinnacle of pop, and Taylor Swift is very uninteresting as an artist, but it was all steadily uphill for her (popularity wise anyway) from here after this, and she hardly shows any sign of slowing. Can’t rate this any lower given the catchiness and longevity of these songs. I've not heard any of her albums in full before this aside from maybe Folklore, but I feel like most of them after 1989 had like 2 big hits max? This has like at least 4, and I'm sure there's some Swiftie growers I'm disregarding

Some of the best written pop songs, with some serious slop also I think that wildest dreams may actually be one of her best (if not best) songs The other editions outside of the base album are way way too bloated though 3.5

Decent enough, but it's pop. So that's not a huge achievement.

Plenty of highly polished 4-chord songs. As entertaining as necessary for your daily commute and backyard party but not my favourite. The moment I hear evidence Swift was not an exception to the rule that all billionares end up that way through openly screwing people over, this rating gets revised.

Taylor Swift is, quite possibly, the worst thing to happen to modern music, and the fact that so many (SO MANY) people love her so blindly, and champion her brainless music, baffles me. What the fuck is so interesting about this album? Half of the music sounds like it was recorded with a drum machine and a Casio keyboard, and the lyrics are so banal I can only assume Taylor Swift thinks we all got lobotomized. What Taylor Swift did when she became so monstrously popular is reset the bar -- only, she set it down. On the floor. What we're left with is a whole world of music and artists, desperately aspiring to clone her sound and success, pissing on the zeitgeist with minimally thought-out, appearance-focused, radio-hit-desperate recycled garbage-crap. And by the way, how much money does Taylor Swift make? How much does she have? Shouldn't we be hearing about her generosity and philanthropy way fucking more? Shouldn't she be one of the biggest donors in the history of planet fucking Earth? But no. Her claim to fame is riding in a private jet more than anyone, ever. Fucking great. Not to mention, when will she EVER use her vast, sprawling, unthinkable influence to make a political statement? Even just once? Maybe just to try gently steering us in a better direction? But who gives a fuck, right? Because that would mean fewer fans, and fewer fans are fewer sales. So let it all burn. Now listen. I have been informed that hating Taylor Swift can only be perceived as hating all women. That it is not an opinion I should have, nonetheless be insistent on. To that I say: I do not, cannot, will not, ever give a fuck. Give me Dolly Parton. Give me PJ Harvey. Give me Amy Winehouse, or Lauryn Hill, or fucking Adele. I was glad to see this album for one reason only: that I am officially done with seeing her show up on this list for the rest of my time.

-this is really well made, candy-coated, Max Martin produced pop music that somehow pulls off the trick of convincing the listener that Taylor is maturing, and that this is a post-hipster early-Instagram work of poptimist art. But that is ridiculous. This album is basically children’s music; it is so sugary and easy to consume. Every song has a title like “Bad Blood” and then it ends up being about having bad blood with someone and there’s a big screamy sing-along chorus you could imagine a child repeating all day after they saw it placed in a movie on the Disney Channel. -my favorite track is probably the first, “Welcome to New York,” which has a kind of millennial rumspringa single ladies doin it for themselves in the big city Girls (HBO) vibe to it. I tend to enjoy this kind of story, so it sits well with me. It's exactly the kind of thing people are preoccupied with when they’re 17-27. But it also has a bit of an “urban playground” feel to the lyrics, where the protagonist is so thrilled to see (shock!) gay people, because the big city is a place of whimsy and has no history and is not a space where people live. -I also like Wildest Dreams; the way it builds contrast and transitions between verse and chorus is just insanely satisfying. This is Britney/NSYNC levels of maximalist pop perfection. -ok, Style is probably a cutesy wink to Harry Styles, but it's also a pretty weird, unsettling, and unsuccessful bit of gender norm revanchism. -I’m not even sure if I like this or not anymore; at one point of my life I would have described this as my “favorite Taylor Swift album.” But now TS has ascended to a level of fame, wealth, and power so overwhelming it feels impossible to have a real human connection with this music.

Fun to listen to Taylor chart her path to being a superstar. The difference between her work then and now is remarkable.

Taylor Swift is certainly a phenomenon. She makes solid pop music. The attention and popularity she receives are self-perpetuating. Her music is so watered-down and streamlined that it slips effortlessly through your ears into your brain and leaves again without any resistance. The aftertaste is like a bad perfume: sweet, cloying, and slightly repulsive. I don’t like Taylor Swift. I don’t like her music. As I played through the album, I was startled to realize how many of her songs I know. However, I also noticed that I don’t miss any of them. I’m not going to make a conscious effort to listen to her music anymore. Still, I’d be giving her too much attention if I didn’t acknowledge the quality of her music. 3/5

Much better then expected, some great songs on here. Bad Blood, on the other hand, is terrible.

Well produced pop, but I don’t get it, I just think it’s really dull

boring. so very boring. and over produced. is she using a drum machine?

There really are tons of songs on this album that you will have heard before if you've been alive the past ten years and listened to the radio at least once. Most of these songs are quite catchy, and some even feel like modern classics already ('Shake It Off', 'Blank Space'). She really has a good sense for coming up with catchy lyrics. Still, listening to this I have a real hard time associating this with anything else than the absolutely most played thing on the radio, seeing as she's probably the biggest music phenomena of this past decade. Her songs almost feels like the definition of "currently most played on the radio", so it's all so extremely worn out by now. I saw a pretty intimate acoustic concert she did with some of these songs online, and it really stunned me how good her singing paired with the guitar was. She really is extremely talented and a good performer, no doubt. Which is attested by her many many albums she's released since she started. But when I listen to the album, I kind of just want to turn it off because I've heard it so much already. I just can't rate this album in an unbiased way. I wonder how it would've felt if I had heard it the first time just now. Was going for a 3 yesterday, but then again this feels way better and more impactful than some other 3s we've had on the list. Weak 4 it is!

I had a hard time getting excited about this one. The first track really felt like a Max Martin production and, ironically, it’s one of the few songs that doesn’t actually feature Max Martin. I also couldn’t shake the feeling that the album sounds quite dated. Maybe it’s stuck in that awkward valley between new and retro, where the style just ends up feeling a bit tired rather than nostalgic. I tried to put it in context with other albums from the time. Lorde released Pure Heroine the year before, and its aftereffects can definitely be heard here, though they aren’t yet in full swing. This album still has one foot firmly planted in the past. In general, it’s just a very 2014-sounding pop album. I really enjoyed “Shake It Off” and “Bad Blood”; both songs are just so much fun. 3 stars.

Standouts Blank Space Style

It's hard to rate this given how many of the songs were singles that I've heard a million times. It's just simple, hooky synth pop with a real focus on the vocals. I don't love how bare some of the backing tracks are and the lyrics are very repetitive, but songs like Blank Space, Shake It Off and Style are undeniably catchy.

Good voice. Pop

Back when I reviewed evermore, I mentioned that I used to be a Taylor Swift hater, especially with her transition into pop. Those feelings were largely due to the singles I heard in passing. For 1989, the full-on rebirth of her sound into this genre, it was "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" from what I recall. Since then, I formally got into Taylor’s music through her folk ventures with folklore and evermore, came to appreciate her as a pop star with Midnights, and along the way listened to the “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings of her earlier output, including 1989. Then, at some point, I got a hold of the original album through my oldest sister, cause she’s more of a Swiftie than I’ll ever be. So, after originally dismissing Taylor’s first foray into straight-up pop music over a decade ago, I can now come around and say that I like it, for the most part. It’s probably a double-edged sword that I can recognize the influences Taylor had for 1989 from purveying indie and pop artists of the early 2010s that were bringing back synth-pop and other retro pastiches. Opening track “Welcome to New York” has a prominent synth line and strident vocal cadence that reminded me of CHVRCHES. Cuts like “Style” and “Wildest Dreams” brought more energy to the appropriation of 60s pop stars than Lana Del Rey did, with the former having the added boon of that rollicking disco-esque guitar line. “Bad Blood” felt eerily reminiscent of Avril Lavigne’s brand of pop rock juxtaposed with Lorde’s sparse instrumentation. In fact, "I Know Places" with its snappy snare beats would've fit onto Lorde's curated soundtrack for one of the Hunger Games films at the time. Then you check the liner notes, and find that Jack Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced “Out of the Woods” and “I Wish You Would”, which sound straight out of the Bleachers playbook. A similar case can be made for “Clean” with Imogen Heap’s backing vocals and more intimate production that melds organic instrumentation with the electronics. In a sense, Taylor, with the assistance of Max Martin, Shellback, and other outside songwriters and producers, acted like a chameleon, masquerading in other artists’ styles while providing a lot of the charisma and presence with her voice. That’s not to say she’s perfect at doing it; I’ve never been bought into “Shake It Off” in its attempted kiss-off to the “haters”, complete with her trying to emulate Kesha’s talk-sing cadence, and it’s utterly baffling. But more often than not, I dug her style dabbling through most of this record. But therein lies the issue - for as much as I do enjoy Taylor’s emulation of other artists in places, it’s hard to discern much of her personality or unique instrumental quirks on her own album. The closest I get to fitting that description are the more guitar-driven “All You Had to Do Was Stay” (with the admittedly shrill utterances of “Stay” in the chorus), the bubblegum pop sheen of "How You Get the Girl", and the atmospheric soft rock ballad “This Love”. Though those songs also happen to be the only ones on the album with any real instrumental warmth. This will happen when most of the sound is defined by drum machine usage, to the point where melodies are often carried by the vocal line. The closest Taylor gets to making that style work wonders is with the closing track "Clean", but that's due to the masterful production work of Imogen Heap compared to Max Martin, Shellback, and Ryan Tedder. But, as always with a Taylor Swift album, the main selling point is the lyrical content. Aside from the aforementioned "Shake It Off" and some underdeveloped symbolism like with the chorus of "This Love", there is an implied narrative of her moving to New York and the dissolution of an ill-fated relationship. Now, going for a more straightforward autobiography isn't a bad choice, as it allowed her to be more nuanced in the framing and highlight how said relationship's failings fall on both sides. The guy may be a cheater and unreliable, but Taylor herself admitted to also being just as bad. It's very telling from the get-go on the bridge of "Welcome to New York", where we have the lines, "Like any great love, it keeps you guessing/Like any real love, it's ever-changing/Like any true love, it drives you crazy"; she embraced the drama that came with the relationships and her role in contributing to it. This approach does sacrifice relatability, as Taylor was moving on from the "girl next door" image she cultivated from her early work, and maybe also glamorizes drama-overloaded relationships, but the songwriting does shine in showcasing enough self-awareness on her part; how much of this is her failure to get over this guy and instead keep taking him back. More importantly, this is Taylor taking a more assertive role, admitting to the culpability and how she made the bad decisions for the wrong decisions, and then at the end, she does move on from that relationship. At the end of the day, I have grown to appreciate 1989 as Taylor's first full-on foray into pop music. I personally feel she would come into her own as a pop artist with Midnights, but there are still some merits to be had with this record.

I'm a 56 year old man, who likes metal, rock, jazz and prog. This...? Isn't for me. Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ half the album Revisit ❌️ ★★☆☆☆(3/10) Total reviewed : 419 Already owned : 93 Purchased : 21 To buy : 5 Nope : 300

So many hits

Fully expected to dislike this but actually enjoyed it a decent bit. Didn't realize so many radio hits came from this one album. She definitely has a talent at making popular songs. Definitely few cringe-worthy songs but overall a fun album

I can now say that I've heard this. Enjoyed "How You Get the Girl," "Bad Blood," and "Clean."

i can’t i’m sorry, i just feel nostalgia to shake it off

Big 3

Every now and again I'm exposed to mainstream American pop music and for the past, I reckon, 20 years it's all just sounded exactly the same to me. I have no idea about which artist is which and oftentimes it feels that for majority of people it doesnt even matter; they just need some easy, instantly gratifying background music while they're at home doing whatever. It's the case here too: well-produced (as in absolutely harmless and as non-offensive as possible) pop music that I might've heard playing at a grocery shop or something but would have no recollection of, since, like said, all American pop music has sounded the same to me for at least 20 years. So in short, it's well-made music, but have I personally any reason or desire to listen to this ever again? Well, no. I don't hate it the way some of the albums here have made me actually upset; I just feel completely indifferent about this.

This is more of a 1.5. It literally sounds like badly made AI music. The other album from her on this list was better, which says a lot about how bad this one is.

Muy lindo, pero de repente aburre. Las estructuras armónicas se repiten mucho :(

MADRE TAYLOR TE RECONTRA AMO

She's a pop queen

Serviceable pop music

I don’t understand why this is the TS album that seems to make it onto these lists. I get that it probably has the highest concentration of her pop bangers but imo is not her best album. Didn’t realise quite how reverb soaked some of it is though, I do appreciate the dreamlike qualities and some of the songs (the less radio played ones) I do have a soft spot for

as vezes é sobre se conectar com a mulher branca dentro de nós… style pop perfection mas algumas músicas meio enjoadas aí no meio

Destaque pra Blank space Style Wildest dreams

No creo ser el público objetivo de este tipo de música, me gusta el pop, me refiero más a ese tipo de música que parece ser creada con el unico propósito de ser escuchada en un auto junto con otras personas y tener un momento tipo película gringa sobre estudiantes populares... demasiado específico pero es lo que se me ocurre, "buuhhh no me gusta la diversión y los mensajes de positividad buhhhh!!!", puede interpretarse así y estoy de acuerdo, la verdad no soy alguien a quien le fascinen los encuentros sociales, supongo que ese es uno de los factores por los que no me gusta. No juzgo negativamente canciones/artistas por sus letras, mi inglés no es perfecto, entiendo a un nivel decente de lo que hablan algunos temas y no me forma ningun otro pensamiento que no sea "esto suena a la canción anterior", claro, con otro sombrero, así que por ese lado no opino nada, está vacío y no me llegó ningun mensaje. Por otro lado, no, musicalmente tampoco me llama la atención ni un poco, el climax de cada canción no me transmite nada, no siento nada, no me dan ganas de tararear porque simplemente no le encuentro el hilo, son canciones planas y secas, bastante rudo decir esto sabiendo que se trata de un género pop, pero dioooooos mio, ni siquiera pienso decir que son repetitivas porque es un patrón que siento que es algo positivo dentro de una compocisión musical, por este punto es comprensible. Supongo que se lleva 1 estrella unica y exclusivamente por Shake It Off ya que es la única que logro ubicar gracias a la película de Sing, muy buena película, amo el personaje de Rosita! Sinceramente antes de ver que canciones incluía no sabía que esta canción le perteneciera a Taylor aún despues de tantas veces de escucharla cuando estuvo de moda, es un buen hit, pero no algo tan grandioso como para obsesionarme. Tampoco voy a mencionar que el álbum sea malo por sonar comercial, aunque si, lo pienso, suena y es bastante comercial pero no sería justo basar todo en eso, es malo por x y bueno por y, yo que se, su voz es normal, no la distinguiría como "oh, es taylor swift", la verdad no. Ni siquiera es que odie a Taylor, soy indiferente a ella como artista y a su trabajo, no pienso incluir demasiado de lo que he leído o escuchado sobre sus opiniones y sus vuelos privados a la tienda de la esquina por un galón de leche. No encuentro el mensaje que hace que tanta gente caiga a sus pies para pasar a defenderla a capa y espada. Me siento un poco tonto por no lograr verlo, siento que me pierdo de algo y no me siento precisamente mal por estar fuera, no quiero ser parte de eso. Es un "no, gracias" ajaja. No me subo al tren de fans de Taylor, pero tampoco me subo al otro de hater. Prefiero quedarme en la estación y ver como ambos trenes se estrellan y explotan a lo lejos. No me interesa discutir y solo escribo esto para entender bien que es lo que no me gusta de su música, es buena forma de ordenar pensamientos y opiniones. Conclusión: 1 estrella porque Shake It Off sale en Sing :) No hay otra cosa positiva que pueda resaltar.

Surprisingly one dimensional, which isn’t unusual for out-and-out pop, but I thought given Swift’s immense fan base there must be *something* good or different about her music. Nope. The only track I enjoyed was “New Romantics”, which on reading about the album I discover wasn’t even included in the original release FFS. Gets a token 2/5 because I didn’t actually dislike it… there’s just nothing on here of any merit to justify the adulation she seems to get.

It’s processed, synthesised, synthetic pop. But it’s rammed with bangers and I had a great time, would go again

Lots of hits, high quality all the way through. Not entirely my style though. 8/10

🐐 talk. Hit after hit after hit. This album had the radio in a chokehold for a long time. Might be time for me to listen to all of her albums and become a full blown member of the movement, bracelets and everything. They don’t all land, but there are some gigantic song on here. Sometimes the surrounding poppy music can distract from how incredible her songwriting and lyricism is. I like her early country stuff a lot, and of course her hits are in the lexicon but I haven’t gotten all into her…like I said, maybe it’s time.

Many of the songs that aren't singles are BAD, and some of the singles are, but it has a couple alltime fantastic songs in Style and Blank Space. Some of the lesser known ones have decent parts like Clean, but overall the good just barely edges out the dredge on this album.

If your dad bought a stake in a record company in exchange for signing you, then hired Jack Antinov and Max Martin to write and produce for you, you'd hope to end up with a couple of solid earworms

70

not a Swiftie. Solid work - therefore 3

Pop - meh. Shake it off is catchy but the rest are pretty forgettable.

#413 It’s a well crafted pop album, she is good at what she does but I’m not sure it’s essential listening unless you are her target audience, and I’m not sure that’s me. Heard before? ❌ Would I revisit? ❌ Listen before you die? ❌ Fave track(s): Shake it Off Rating: 5/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YO RE SWIFTY MALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL TE AMO TAYLORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR palo sos increíble y me alegra mucho saber que aunque estuvo todo tan mal, gracias a esta página que recomienda música, seguimos en contacto. no sabes cuanto esperaba tus reviews, me hizo reír mucho la del álbum en vivo. te quiero con todo mi corazón paloma te lo juro por mi vida

Setting aside what I feel about Ms swift as an institution, there's no doubt that she is in a league of her own. There were a couple of songs I adored, notably Style and Wildest Dreams. Some I disliked intensely, Shake it off chief among them. The production is sometimes a bit much, I generally like her folkier stuff.

I am not Taylor's target market, but I am well known as a synthpop obsessive. That makes 1989 strangely appealing to me, even though I've never really followed mainstream pop trends. The hooks here are saccharine sweet but undeniable and infectious all the same. There's not a single stinker in the bunch and I have zero shame saying that 1989 is a good album (I would call it great but the second half just can't compete with a juggernaut Side A). Taylor chose her production team well for the transition from pop country into a more conventional pop presence, though I do wish she'd dabbled longer in synthpop. It suits her, but hey, what do I know? I'm writing this from my couch and she's amassed over 128 billion streams on Spotify alone without my advice 🤷‍♂️😂

Taylor hits her stride on this album with a tight collection of pop cuts that deliver over and over.

Well ......no

I'm not as big a fan of the poppiest of T. Swift's stuff, which is what she's got going on this album, but the girl can surely write a song.

Taylor Swift blocked off the streets of MSG for thousands of New Yorkers and requested the cameras inside be turned off and not track attendees for her wedding, but doesn't do anything to help the regular attendees.

I am shocked anyone over 12 enjoys this. Total bubblegum garbage.

I don't care what you "I'm only into UK punk form 1983" fools think. Taylor Swift is amazing. And this album is just chock full of incredible bangers. I know most of the songs were primarily written by someone else and she just took writing credit. I don't care. I don't care that she's overexposed. Good music is good music, man.

Good, not the absolute best of her, elix is still RED

Welcome to New York - 3/5 Blank Space - 3.5/5 Style - 4/5 Out of the Woods - 3.5/5 All You Had to Do Was Stay - 3/5 Shake It Off - 3/5 I Wish You Would - 3/5 Bad Blood - 2.5/5 Wildest Dreams - 3.5/5 How You Get the Girl - 3/5 This Love - 3/5 I Know Places - 3/5 Clean - 3/5 I forgot how everywhere this album was when it came out: 3 top 100 singles and pretty much every single off of here charted in same way or another. And then I realized when listening to it that Taylor Swift is writing these lyrics and immediately realize why I would rather listen to other, more interesting pop acts. I don't really hate any of the songs off of here (except for Bad Blood, which definitely led into the even worse "Look What You Made Me Do" an album or two later) but most of them are pretty vanilla. Style is a good retro-ish throwback that this album was trying to go for while there are a couple that feel like they should have some staying power. The others can be forgotten. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Style, Wildest Dreams

Kinda know what you're getting with this one....but it is kind of the ultimate TSwift experience. Some decent (by 2014 standards) pop earworms, some cringe metaphors/lyrics (imo), well-produced, etc. Probably not one I'll come back to a lot, but heads and tails above a lot of the obscure British electronic and left field albums on the list. "Wildest Dreams" is a cool song...whatever

cuando decidió entra al mundo del pop copiándose de lana del rey, nada más que decir

Je pensais chier sur Taylor Swift le premier son était vraiment très mauvais. Mais entre les classiques et l’instru de Style un peu synthwave c’était pas si mal, en fait je me suis vraiment régalé même si ça me fait mal de l’admettre…

I am by no means a Swiftie and in fact I don't really like her in general. However this album just has so many bangers. Hearing nostalgic music from my childhood is what I imagine the rest of this 1001 experience is like for old people. 5/5

Soulless overproduced pop slop made for mass appeal and not artistic expression. It does what it’s trying to do very well, but I’m just not interested at all in listening to music that was made purely for profit and not as art

Pop en los 2000; inofensivo y olvidable.

Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner are close musical partners. Dessner, a member of the rock band The National, helped write and produce Swift's albums Folklore, Evermore, Midnights, and The Tortured Poets Department. They have recorded over 60 songs together since 2020. I don’t like any of her other records. The songs on here are not bad as the cover album by Ryan Adams has proofed however not really my thing. I like the disco moroder style of “Style” however.

I lost my hate it, but I gotta respect it. Also my two girls (6 and 3) wanted me to share THEY would give it 5/5. Shake it Off rocked when it came out. Generally though I just feel it’s so very lame. Taylor going on and on (for decades!) about her stupid love life. Marry him, dump him, who cares! It all feels so self-absorbed. Can’t argue with the hits though. Lotta those.

My 6year old daughter’s favorite album. Looked in the car mirror to see her rapping along to the cheesy breakdown in shake it off this morning and it made my heart hurt. Taylor might be everything that depresses me about our culture, but she still gave me that moment, which is more than most artists I like ever have. Also there is just an undeniable amount of hits

I aint too proud Tried to imagine myself as an alien that hasnt heard any of the BS associated with Taylor before putting it on. The thought came to me half way through this that I think I would’ve liked this a lot, but theres just been too much pain… of having heard some of these tunes at EVERY college party in 2014 😂 So here we go. I found a few newbies that were fun enough. Style and Clean were enjoyable. How You Get The Girl is the weakest link. I also think theres a universe where Jack writes Shake It Off for a different artist… the tune sounds like Macklemore couldve rapped over this

New to me. Difficult to score when the artist has become such a pop behemoth that listening to her music is almost secondary. I can hear hits galore . I imagine every song has hit #1.

Сара није слушала Марко 4,5

Surcôté. Des tubes connus qu'on a entendu 1000 fois à la radio, j'imagine que ça doit être son album qui l'a fait percer jsp

M’oui Je capte pas Taylor Swift La première track était vraiment moisie à mon sens et n’était pas représentatif du reste… 2-3 sons cultes, elle chante bien mais ça ne me touche pas du tout dans l’ensemble Je suis sympa en mettant 3, car bon… elle fait partie des plus grosses artistes, donc c’est difficile de dire que c’est de la merde en boîte alors que ça nous touche jsute pas

Quelques morceaux iconiques mais c'est de la pop de base... J'ai du mal a comprendre l'engouement autour de Taylor Swift

I'm not proud of it, but it is what is is.

I liked this way more than I thought I would.

I liked this more than I thought I would. I am familiar with a couple of these songs because I exist in the world, but I don't really listen to pop music. However, a lot of this is fun and the lyrics are good (not insipid like Kacey Musgraves). It would be 4 stars if she didn't sound like a robot. Way, WAY too much autotune. I listen to a lot of the '80s synth music this was inspired by, and autotune didn't exist when those songs were made. You could actually hear the human vocals above the synths. Maybe this is just "old man yells at clouds" but the robot sound strips out a lot of enjoyment in listening to music for me.

After almost a year here this is that first album I've actually already listened to, I distinctly remember seeing this on a CD in a thrift store & thinking "ah what the hell". It's Taylor at her peak, the absolute best from the biggest pop star to exist yet. Easy 5 star

7.5/10

not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue

Great, catchy tunes

Such a fun summery album. Not my favourite from Taylor, but it does what it does really well - it is a damn good pop album.

One of her best.

Never listened to Taylor swift before. What is this. How is she a cultural phenomenon? The terrible cheesy lyrics and terrible overuse of synths are so poorly done. Man that was a tough listen

Finally got the TS album from here and despite never wishing to listen to this again, its a pretty well made pop album from the 2010s.

I'm astonishingly indifferent to Taylor Swift's music. I'm not a hater, there's different kinds of music for different people's taste. There are hundreds of artists like her vying for listenership. The thing that stands out to me is the runaway success of Taylor Swift. Her catalog is worth approximately the same as Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen. It's worth about half of The Beatles catalog. This provides some art-to-numbers basis for comparison. Am I to believe that Taylor Swifts musical output to date is something to compare to Badlands, Nebraska, Darkness on The Edge of Town? Probably not it's just a completely different demographic with a different set of ears. It got me thinking about what is the equivalent album that has Taylor Swift fans complaining about the same things as me: - Why do people want to hear some variation of this song over and over, she has a well identified formula I could just predict the next part - Why should I care about what she is singing about? - I guess it is her knack for pop sensibility, otherwise I just dont understand it My current stab at analogy is Guided By Voices. I'm aware enough of the formula. I just don't care, I love it. My wife loves Taylor Swift and can't get through a single 90 second GBV song.

I don't like her recent albums nor her persona. I also think her fans overhype her lyrics, specially for her latest albums. however, I gotta be honest, this albums has some pop bangers that I do like for what they are. She may not be the musical genius nor the poet they claim she is, but she does have some good oldies which are still fun. Some lyrics do sound corny, so I guess it's always been like that

Music for people obsessed with drinking enough water.

Yayyyy

“you could've been gettin' down to this sick beat” <insert white girls clapping> i do actually think this is a pretty solid pop album. but that part is hilarious. i’ve heard all of these songs before but not these versions (ryan adam’s cover album).

The beginning of it all, the anthems still stand out, the B-sides... not so much. Good album overall.

My second time listening to a Taylor Swift album.(Thought it was the first but looked in my history of this project and there was a forgettable one 600 albums ago). Interesting, as a woman far too old to be in Taylor’s demographic, but who has younger family members who are big fans… It’s really all about the lyrics, isn’t it? Her voice is thin and some of the melodies are actually irritating. But she really is a genius at tapping into adolescent romanticism. And her voice not sounding trained may actually work in her favor, as she sounds like she could be your friend from next door singing her heart out. In fact, I think the combination of lyrical genius and bang-average musicianship is precisely the secret to her incredible success. Any young girl who has had her first heartbreak is going to feel seen by these lyrics. That’s a big market. Good for her I suppose. I’m going to go back to grownup music now.

I’m not much on pop radio but the woman can craft great pop songs. I prefer Taylor Swift’s voice when she’s not reaching for the higher notes, but it’s a strong album.

Trying to put my bias of dumping on Taylor’s insanely generic music aside, this album gives me insane PTSD from high school. The record opens with a song the genuinely feels like it could be AI. In fact, that’s a common theme i feel throughout the entire record. This record is such a product of its time. It’s a common theme with a lot of the pop stuff in the 2010’s. But Jesus I hate how synthetic and non human most of the popular shit from this era is. I don’t know dude the more I try and follow along with this album, I try and put myself in the perspective of a swiftie. I want to hear what they hear, because I can get why this sound is appealing to kids, but for any normal functioning adult all I’ve learned is they have shit music taste and should probably be confined to a padded cell. Like how can you listen to a record like this and genuinely take anything away from it? How do the build a relationship with such a lifeless personality as this? Idk man. Cult vibes have been confirmed. I find this very cringe to listen to as an adult man.

Taylor swift is 10 years older than me at all time yet why does this feel so current. She created the sound of the 2010’s that all the pop stars emulated yet it feels so fresh. It’s boom clap music but it actually plays itself so sincerely and honestly does some interesting things sonically with Taylor’s voice. A lot of glitch vocals which I like. Taylor swift is one of the most influential voices in music ever, she has sold more guitars than any other artists and gotten more people to listen and appreciate music even in the modern era. In the age where everyone listens to singles Taylor swift has made the album experience just that an experience and this was a window looking in. A story of healing and becoming a new person, a new love. The music is great it’s catchy and it’s so well written. I like this it’s not my typical style but I respect her so much now. A modern album that is a must listen to understand the mania of her music this is her thriller her purple rain her it’s so unusual and it works.My day is finished and I keep thinking about it I listened to clean on the way to the train and saw an old friend who didn’t recognize me so funny. Songs are weird when you listen in the best ways

Taylor Swift is a pop star I know exists, that she is popular, but I had never listened to an album of hers until now. It's not entirely my thing, but it doesn't disappoint.

Pleasant pop, even if it's formulaic. I find her voice too saccharine sweet.

This is the aural equivalent of the uncanny valley.

Taylor Swift is simultaneously the most overrated yet overhated artist ever. She's just fine. She's got her moments. I think people go overboard with disliking her in response to those annoying people who glaze her too much.

A solid album for sure. Not really my genre of music but hard to deny that these are well crafted, well performed and produced songs.

This music isn't made for me, but I can tell that it's good

This album is full of pop bangers as T-Swift fully transitioned away from her early sound into a more polished pop sound. My wife loves this album and actually owns it on CD.

Wasn’t my thing when it first came out, still feel the same way. I don’t understand why everyone thought it was so era defining. Its just the same Pop that everyone else did and still does

Liked this more than I anticipated. Some of the lyrics are beyond cringe, but some bangers to be found.

Album 1080 and it's a banger. I'm not into power pop or dance pop but this is pretty excellent for what it is. Tons of hits and there's no drop off from the non-single tracks. I'm never putting something like this on and probably would have never listened to it without this project, but this album totally deserves a place on the list.

É inegável que se trata de um álbum bem produzido e pensado, isso não quer dizer que me agrada. Achei uma experiência muito genérica e que não me causou impacto algum. Me parece uma tentativa de ser algo para agradar a todos (e os números da artista mostram que alcançaram o objetivo), mas ao tentar agradar a todos sempre restam alguns que ficam indiferentes. E esse é o meu caso. QoA Vesper.

I like Welcome to new york. First year me would have loved that. Blank space is iconic. I like style as well. Out of my woods is one of my favorites as well. All you had to do was stay hits a bit too close to home. Same with I Wish You Would I like shake it off as much as the next person. Bad love is really great! Shoutout to that music video. I also love wildest dreams. Its a really great album. I think its a 4 star album. I don't really like I Know Places. Clean is also really good. Also close to home.

Great album 4/5

Some of the least inspired pop music I’ve ever heard.

I feel like purely based off of the fact that I know a good amount of songs in this album it needs to be rated above the average. This album made a lot of waves when it released, it was everywhere. Absolutely a defining album and paved the way forward. I'd say 3.5 because it's personally not my thing, but I can appreciate how massive it is/was.

Sounds like your average highly processed pop music. Don't get the hype that has lead to her farting around the planet on her private plane.

I knew some of the songs already and the remainder were ok. Not my cup of tea but I can appreciate why it's so well regarded.

Insipid

Imagine how joyless you’d need to be to write a dozen paragraphs here about how superficial you find 1989? Well done, guys, you’ve won, no joy shall ever puncture your forcefield of real music. Seriously, though, Style and Blank Space are unalloyed Great American Songbook entries at this point, and there’s plenty more to love besides. (A point off only really because, next to her writing elsewhere, some of the lyrics are a little boilerplate. Is Folklore on here…?)

I think I was expecting this to be better then it was, not that it was that bad... Taylor Swift is one of those artists I have gone back and forth on over the years. She obviously has massive appeal and huge staying power, which makes me fairly skeptical, but I know she also has won the respect of lots of music critic and musicians who I like. All that said, its almost hard to try and create an honest, uninfluenced opinion about this, which leaves me feeling a bit underwhelmed by the whole listening experience. There were the songs I knew and had heard a million times, and then a few others that sounded largely the same. I don't hate on this being here, it's obviously very deserving but mostly I think I don't get what the fuss is about?

In general I'm not a fan of modern pop, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for Taylor Swift's newer, pop oriented albums for two main reasons. The first is my wife who is a huge fan of her music, so I have heard all of these songs countless times. The second is her collabs with the National's Bryce Dessner on Folklore and Evermore, which are easily her best albums in my book. I was a massive National fan in the past, so Folklore dropping in 2020 was a surprising melding of my music with my wife's and it worked really, really well. I don't like 1989 nearly as much as I do Folklore, but it's still a very well produced, well written, and catchy pop album.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled when Taylor Swift showed up in my random album queue today, but I’ll give credit where it’s due: she knows how to write an earworm. 1989 is an incredibly catchy synth-pop album, packed with polished hooks and immaculate production. As a 50-year-old guy who paid virtually no attention to Swift during either her country years or her transition into pop, listening to this felt a little strange. I’m clearly not the target audience, and yet I completely understand why this album became the phenomenon that it did. Will I ever intentionally put it on again? Probably not. Then again, stranger things have happened.

It's unbelievable that this album is 12yrs old now. While there are always haters for any music, this album crossed boundaries like nothing had in a long time. Think Michael Jackson's Thriller, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, etc... It's an album that was culturally ubiquitous. EVERYONE was exposed to it and even if you WERE a hater, you recognized how undeniably catchy and well crafted the songs were. This is a pop masterclass and a really enjoyable listen.

Ohne Vorurteile gehört und für gut befunden. Taylor macht ihr Ding seit vielen Jahren und das ist zu respektieren!

Most songs sound like they were made for an animated film about a plucky giraffe. It’s just … meh, with the exception of Shake It Off. 2.5

I'm still a sucker for a good pop album. And this is a good pop album. It's easy to see why she is so huge in 2026 that even her wedding gets massive news coverage, but her songs now sound very much like her songs then so I'd have expected a bit more development (conversely why kill the goose!).

Well, the swiftness have a point

Bue.... Es Taylor Swift, no me gusta, si es de este tipo de música, prefiero a Britney Spears

Even here in Finland, you couldn’t escape the news about Taylor Swift’s wedding for days. Surprisingly, escaping her music has been pretty easy. I hadn’t actually heard any of these tracks before. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I thought at least one of these songs would be catchy or make me feel something. "1989" is just harmless, recycled 80s pop. It’s not terrible, but I have absolutely no need to listen to it ever again.

Oh boy...It's not bad but I'm not the target audience. Shake it off was the only song i had heard before and I can't say I was missing something.

Whatever you think of Taylor personally, this album slaps harder than Will Smith

Please. Music for 5-year old parties. If you're older than 15 and vibing with this you need to broaden your horizons

Went in with an open mind on this one, as we all know who Taylor Swift is. Her music isn’t for me at all, have heard of the hits through general life. My thoughts are the entire album singing about one thing, there isn’t any variety in the songs whatsoever, I suspect the other albums are like that too. God forbid this wedding doesn’t work out or that bloke will find himself another three albums written about him

Могу дать балл за её талант писать попсовые треки

no soy mejor q una swiftie pero es q este es un tremendo álbum pop. 4.5 pero acá queda en 5/5.

Hard to make it through the whole LP

Un álbum de ingeniería pop impecable donde muchas de las pistas ya las había escuchado debido a su enorme impacto cultural. En el plano formal, la producción destaca por una claridad absoluta; los sintetizadores y los ritmos pegajosos se entretejen muy bien con una precisión matemática que sostiene la energía de principio a fin. La verdadera grandeza del disco radica en su equilibrio conceptual: aunque girly tienen mucho sentido sus letras para reflexionar y también para tomar con humor las situaciones difíciles de la vida. Su destreza narrativa refleja autenticidad y madurez, convirtiendo éxitos como "Blank Space", "Style" y "Clean" en piezas de gran lucidez. El viaje sónico opera en un balance perfecto, funcionando simultáneamente como un agudo llamado a la conciencia y un reconfortante refugio lúdico-nostálgico. Un documento conmovedor, crudo y real respaldado por una fuerza y autoridad superior en la composición, cuya contagiosa sensación de paz y fluidez rítmica lo vuelve óptimo para múltiples usos diarios, destacando para el ejercicio o para activar el trabajo creativo.

I'm not a Taylor missionary. Oh great another pop crossover genre mashup. Evermore and Folklore are my favorite TS albums. Okay fine this album is a banger and I hate saying that as I jam out in my living room by myself.

My lord and savior Taylor Swift has graced us with her presence and genius with this album. While I may be biased and definitely a fan of her work. I was interested to see what a full listen through of this album would do. Especially since I've listened to it so many times before. This is a no skip album for me. Even when the beats are a little bit more poppy and "girly", the lyrics hit you like a ton of bricks. This is the reason why she was inducted into the Song writer's hall of fame this past month. This album made me feel so many things while I was on my hike. I've heard it said many times that "If you don't like Taylor Swift, it's because you haven't needed her yet". So maybe with my past couple of years and relationships, and really understanding what she and so many others are going through just made this hit so much more. And being someone that's been in the public eye and so many rumors that this album is about Harry Styles, you can really see her yearning for someone that will stay and love her. My favorites are Out of the Woods, Style (That opening guitar rift always makes me ascend.), and honestly shake it off.

Putting aside she married Travis Kelce and has never really scratched my itch… album is a banger. 4.4.

Taylor’s music isn't always to my taste. But damn, this album is filled with bangers. There’s some filler that doesn’t get playtime and I was less familiar with, but the singles are good enough to carry the album. She’s extremely talented, and I’m glad she made it on the list in subsequent editions. 8/10 Most Excellent

Perfectly mid pop. Nothing exceptional and even the bits that get close just miss. Lord knows how this is the most famous pop star in the world. And methinks she doth protest way too much about “haters”. The more you try to convince us you don’t care, the more you clearly do.

Yes, this is insipid pop crap in my estimation, but it is so much better than the first TS album I endured (Ever...something). Were I into pop, I'm sure this would hit differently. But it still holds no appeal for me.

I’ve always been a defender of T Swift because she does damn good pop storytelling. Turns out that doesn’t mean she makes great albums. This is the only one I’ve fully listened to, but just a lot of love songs that aren’t as good as her hits. There’s a couple interesting songs, but as an album it’s pretty redundant and makes me glad I’m no longer 25 years old.

You think she’s offer him yet? Funny - I am listening on her so-called wedding day…7/3/26___923/26

A couple of fun tunes. She has a talent for writing catchy melodies, and I like her occasionally staccato vocal delivery. But the production is bland and repetitive, and her lyrics are pretty cringe-inducing.

Taylor Swift is a master of big hooks and earworms and her songs connect with her audience.

I’m probably biased (Eras tour attendee), but this is an almost perfect pop album. Aside from a few corny lines (Shake it Off and Bad Blood being the main offenders of this), this album has held up extremely well overall. Then again, this album came out my freshman year of college so that may be my bias showing. Either way, I enjoyed this back then and I love/appreciate it even more now. Especially bc Taylor’s newer stuff is ass.

no me gusta taylor swift

I appreciate Taylor Swift but it’s just not my kind of music. 2

We all know it. It's a perfect pop album. I listened to it critically this time and it's still a great pop album. Slightly tales of in the mid so it doesn't get 5. But still a classic

Her best by far.

I am pretty sure that this is the best TS can do. The singles are good pop even though Shake It Off is a rip-off of Hey Ya.

This is one of the very few Taylor Swift albums I've already heard. The hits are good, but they don't do all that much for me. The rest is okay, but also doesn't do anything for me. Not one of the 1001 greatest albums ever made to be sure 2.5 rounded up

She pisses off the right people, is going to be Jason’s sister in law, but mostly she brings joy to my daughter.

No

For me, the definition of lowest common denominator pop. Also something something private jet something something billionaire whatever. I think generally the songs can be catchy but her posturing as a true songwriter/poet does not sit well based on the content of her lyrics.

Debated between a 3 and 4 because it is quite good, even if it’s not something I typically go to or will give many re-listens. It really is a solid album in just about every way, and probably Taylor’s best work.

Good

I’m not a Swifty, but I get it. This is world class pop and Swift’s billionaire status proves it. I’ve heard these songs in dance parties, grocery stores, poolside…, any occasion suits them.

*listened before the project* Stop playing with me, ok? It’s the worst even in synth-pop. When I first heard “Shake It Off” in high school, I almost threw up. What’s that burp-like beat? Pretty gross. And the lyrics? Better not to mention. Cut: Blank Space

There is too much of what feels like filler to me, and the brighter spots aren't bright enough to make me want to listen again. 2.5/5: Coin flip between a 2 and a 3.

Taylor Swift describes a world I have never lived in. It's female sexual empowerment veiled through a monogamous lens which is honestly my biggest issue with the album. Taylor seems to want to celebrate women's sexual autonomy (great!) but still frame it in a way implying you're supposed to be in a relationship to enjoy it (why?). This album will either age extremely well or bad, but I'm not sure which way it will. There is a little bit too much of disdain for the men Swift pines for on the album, which comes out as a bit narcissistic, though I see it more as a defense mechanism than a genuine hatred. Either way, it's a time capsule into that cultural time a smidge before the Me Too movement. Shake It Off is a banger.

I admit I wasn't expecting this even if 1989's inclusion makes all the sense in the world since I've never been a serious Swiftie, but I enjoyed her singles. I don't have anything against her personally either, from what I've seen she always gives kudos to artists that deserve it and to her fans, ravenous as they are. The biggest gripe I have with her is bringing Paramore with her on the Eras tour and effectively pricing me out of seeing them live. Anyway, 1989 is a fine album, even a good album. I definitely enjoyed the singles I already knew (Blank Space, Shake it Off), and even found some new songs I enjoyed (All You Had To Do Was Stay, How You Get the Girl). The lyrics are broad and generic sappy love tales and Taylor really won't go down as one of the best singers ever as I'm sorry to say, but this album has energy and charisma the whole way through, which is something I really have to give props for.

not for me but undoubtedly a classic

I feel the furious ghost of Steve Albini glaring down (or up?) at me for even giving this a middling rating, as it is very much gross, overproduced corporate pop, but the problem is the songs are excellent. Still, melody / songwriting is only half of the puzzle, and this sounds grotesque, oppressive, fascistic even, the sound of Microsoft and Amazon and so forth grinding your soul into dust. Still, it’s catchy. Comparing this to Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time is instructive in helping you to understand a slaved-over evil pop record versus a half-assed one. Poptimism was a cancer on society, yes, but I suppose it’s harmless to have some fun with the best iterations of it before all the interesting music we love is steamrolled by AI and we are all ground into red paste to help make more billions of dollars for our corporate masters and alleged social betters. Best track: “Wildest Dreams”

No regrets, this was enjoyable. Not my favourite Taylor Swift album and kind of signifies a fall into more poppy stuff.

A good, not great, pop album.

I’ve tried, Lord how I've tried. I just don't hear anything here, and I know that makes me a grumpy old man but whatever. Not a single strong vocal, not a single song that isn't a weak hook surrounded by “boy troubles”, not anything resembling anything unique or original. Just bang ordinary pop churned out by the Pop Factory, in this case Swedish mega hit maker Max Martin (look up his wiki if you don't know the name). I listen to this drivel and wonder how this can be so beloved while folks like Santigold and Caroline Rose are making actually great pop music in obscurity. This one avoids the dreaded One because I have to admit Shake It Off is a minor bop.

Chicken sauté with white rice on a plastic plate.

3/5, clearly im not the target audience

Some great melodies, let down by mediocre vocals and amateur lyrics

Absolutely brilliant album. So many hits, so many good songs that weren't hits. This is TS at her best. Found myself singing Shake it Off all day.

I feel like Taylor Swift is an artist either hated or adored. Those who don't like this album are likely to label it "formulaic", "boring" and for "mass-consumption"; those who do like it will appreciate its generally catchy melodies, its nod to the 80s, and the fact it doesn't really have any fillers. I'm a bit in the middle; its simplicity and polished production is the source of its greatest strength and greatest weakness. I don't hate listening to it but I'm not challenged in any great way or encouraged to listen to this regularly.

When I went to pull this album up on Qobuz, I got 1989 (Taylor's Version) instead. I figured one version of TS was as good as another. The album itself is fine. Plenty of hits. The lyrics make me cringe in spots, but it's a decent pop album. Did get me curious, though -- so I pulled up the original version and had a listen to at least a few of the tracks. Chat, the production on the original is *so* much better. Everything on the Taylor's Version sounds flat -- there aren't any of the marks of craftsmanship you see on the original. Anyway, listen to the album as it was meant to be if you want to get the full effect.

Noen kjempehits, noen ordentlig dørgende, noen som føles veldig... disney?

I’m very familiar with Ryan Adam’s cover of this album.. but man, I was not expecting to like Taylor’s version this much. This album SLAPS cover to cover

I am a believer? Never thought I would take to Taylor's music but it's charming. She's a talented vocalist, set up perfectly against smart arrangements, great backing band. I wouldn't be in the car I'd be in the audience with my screaming daughters!

Honestly these are perfectly crafted pop songs. The mega hits still sound mostly fresh, even after hearing them too many times. And the non-hits were just as good. I especially enjoyed Out Of The Woods I can see why she is the icon that she is

Look, she’s not my bag.

01) Welcome to New York - 9,5 02) Blank Space - 10,0 03) Style - 10,0 04) Out of the Woods - 9,5 05) All You Had to Do Was Stay - 9,5 06) Shake It Off - 10,0 07) I Wish You Would - 8,5 08) Bad Blood - 10,0 09) Wildest Dreams - 10,0 10) How You Get the Girl - 8,5 11) This Love - 9,0 12) I Know Places - 8,5 13) Clean - 8,5 TOTAL: 9,35 (94/100) Current ranking: 30/936 After all the folk, psychedelic and jazz shit I've endured, this is like a ray of sunshine on my face. I know this doesn't deserve to be so high on my list, but who cares. After all, it is my list, not yours! Haters gonna hate, and I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake...

Poppy, too poppy

The wiki entry for album mentions that this record is supposed to channel the pop synth sounds of the 80s. I don't hear any of that, this is all 2010s pop. This is the quintessential pop sound of the 2010s, built from the Swedish masterminds of the maximum pop sound. Taylor Swift is one of the biggest names in music in the last decade and a half, and this album shows why. The music is bright, loud, and easily accessible.

Ein Album Taylor Swift und ich habe erstmal für ein halbes Jahr genug von den ewig gleichen 4-Chord-Songs. Shake it ist wirklich gut, der Rest wie gesagt immer gleich.

Fair to say that as a fifty-something bloke, I'm probably not really in Taylor Swift's key demographic and if I didn't have two young daughters, she'd probably have passed me by completely. It's easy to be sniffy about what appears on the surface to be just chart-friendly pop music but the Taylor Swift story is pretty inspirational. If the kids are going to look up to a pop star, they can do far worse than looking up to this one. This really is an album brimming with perfectly formed pop toons - it isn't something I would normally listen to myself, but I get it and I'm glad I listened.

If you ever needed proof that popular does not necessarily equal quality, I present T Swift

This album is terrific. The hits are outstanding, fun dance music, and heavy well utilized beats and lyrics. This is just a really good album.

This album made me do a self-inflicted challenge: listen to Taylor Swift's entire discography. Had never listened to her before properly, beyond the radio hits. Was interested to see what was going on. Her first few albums were pop country, nothing too interesting although I guess a teenage girl singing about teenage girl stuff in country was somewhat unique at the time. Then came Red: I mean, Swift's pop sensibilities were already well established before this album (Love Story, for example, is hardly country), but apparently this made the press and her fans go a bit wild. Red was fine. Then came this, her full move to pop. Many of the songs I was very familiar with already, due to them being played to death on the radio over the years. A quintessential pop album, not anything special for me. Then came reputation, apparently her attempt to address the fact that her reputation was not very good at this point in time (a certain story that came out that, despite her saying she didn't give Kanye permission for *those* lyrics in Life of Pablo, a video showed she had in fact done so, with full knowledge of context?). Anyway, Reputation did not go hard and fell short of expectations. Then came Lover, barely worth mentioning for me here. The two standouts came from her work with your man from the National and Fun, folklore and evermore. Decent "folk"/singer songwriter albums with some absolute highlights, surely her pinnacle - but would like to see her do better. They'd probably get 3.5 and 4* respectively for me. Then back to the pop - Midnights was forgettable, Tortured Poets was fine, Death of a Showgirl was fine too, not sure why Swifties don't like it. Anyway, I spent way too much time on this challenge but now I feel at least I understand/know this much spoken about artist quite well at this point. Also finally was able to speak to women about Taylor Swift, although I'm not sure that's a great thing for a straight man.

I’m not usually a big Taylor Swift fan but this thing is an absolute hit parade. Beyond its 4 or 5 massive hits, most songs are still hugely recognisable, likely from this record’s complete dominance of the charts and for good reason. Probably Swift’s most consistent album with no real misses and one most could easily enjoy.

My daughter rated the last T Swift album a 5. She said this is is awesome but not quite as awesome, so it’s a 4.

bruh

Это было сложно, но я смогла.. Всё слишком одинаковое, но Bad Blood у меня лайкнута, поэтому 3

This is a tough one for me to review * All the songs sound the same (but I don't listen to a lot of synth-pop) * There are moments of clever lyricism * TS is a formidable business person defending herself in a notoriously predatory industry * It's obvious from this why she is so popular * I didn't really like this album 2 + 1 for meeting notability guidelines

Dear lord, its so boring, that was rough and im glad its over.

Goddamn it. I liked this.

Hey yall, Taylor swift here. Due to a packaging error we cant sell 3000 Le Creuset cookware sets so I'm giving them away to my loyal fans for free.

Guys I liked it…

T swift can drop some heat (or at least she used to be able to before she started dating that FREAK from kansas city) But I do like this album a bit and it has so many of the t swift songs I would choose to listen to (blank space, style, shake it off, bad blood, wildest dreams, how you get the girl)

I loveeee this album. It really is a perfect pop album

I fucking love this album I'm so sorry. It's really good. Without all the deluxe songs it's just a really tight well-crafted pop album with a lot of bangers, a lot of cringe of course, but an overall amazing vibe. I can't bring myself to give it a 5 so this will do.

Synth-pop.

I don’t hate it, but it’s not for me. I liked some songs, Blank Space for example, but many I had forgotten by the time the next song started.

An album of complete filler with the odd bop thrown in.

Trying to have an open mind, welcome to New York not a good start, I had to stop listening this music just is not for me. Nostalgic though

I was surprised by Evermore and enjoyed it very much - this brand of pop pablum with its electro synth and drum machine driven dance rhythms is more what I was expecting. Mot at all my jam, but not entirely annoyong either.

I admit it... I'm something of a cave dweller. This was the first time I'd ever heard anything by Taylor Swift (even the singles (half the album???) were new to me). So, that is to say, I'm reviewing this from a place of true, non-nostalgic neutrality. The verdict: Eh. Right off, I thought the opening synth on 'Welcome to New York' had potential, but it never got off the runway. And that's how I would describe my general feeling with this. Like I was indefinitely taxiing. Waiting in vain for some transcendental experience that never materialized. Nice guitar riff to open 'Style'... never takes off. Nice opening synth on 'Wildest Dreams'... never takes off. Etc. Etc. Etc. And the lyrics? "Vapid" would be putting it mildly. But that's not to say, however, that this hasn't any value. Far from it. I live with a gay bear who, when he's doing yardwork, can draw enormous amounts of energy from this music (or music like this, at any rate... most ultra-produced modern music sounds the same to me, honestly). At any rate, it definitely exudes plenty of catchy, clubby vibes that get the blood pumping. Plus, it's a fairly easy listen if you don't listen too closely or set your expectations too high.

I am not a swiftie, never listened one of her album. But i still got to give her credit for this. Every song is a hit. This is definitely an album that shapes an entire age group.

p938. 2014. 2 stars Shiny and plastic millennium pop with zero passion. Just because something sells well doesn't mean it is good.

Good production.

to me, this album is functionally identical to melodrama. idk if it's bad or if it's just not for me, but either way i really just don't fuck w/ it. although having said that, melodrama did at least have a few interesting instrumentals? this one is playing it woefully safe throughout. for what it's worth, "shake it off" and "blank space" are pretty good. but i did think the latter was by lorde until now, which i guess really isn't helping me separate the two albums in my mind. oh well....

Everything sounds the same

Remember when Taylor Swift was making fun pop music and wasn't just phoning it in?

Probably the highest variance of any album I’ve ever listened to. An incredible amount of amazing singles … and basically everything else is terrible. Enjoyed the one non-single of I Know Places which was a preview of Reputation. Find it really hard to grade … overall a 3 but do I give more credit to the incredible highs and absolute bangers. Lean more towards a 3 given just how bad most of the songs are (welcome to New York may be her worst song?). But an incredible pivot / achievement that led to much higher highs down the road. 3+

Better than Coldplay

I thought one Taylor Swift album was pushing it but now 2?! Wtf?! Is this just the albums teenagers should listen to before they turn 20? Even that's pushing it.

definitely not as bad as i was expecting it to be

Listen have I listed to half of these song a bajillion times against my will. Yes. Did that hamper my enjoyment of the album? Without the aid of alcohol, also yes. I actually did not mind the songs I didn’t know. Unfortunately I am unable to separate my feelings on the matter.

Welcome to New York is a top 5 pop song of all time.

Y'all, it's good. Four flat.

The album was fine and I liked it fine. Taylor Swift's early pop work is likable and his a good turn of phrase. The difficulty I had with this was when it came out. 2014 was supposed to be my time and I feel like I wasted it, and I don't know what to do with or about that. It's heavy and sometimes I feel so numb about it.

Say what you want about Taylor but this is a perfect pop album. The second half is slept on. This Love has an all-timer bridge.

2.5/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/taylor-swift/1989/ Can’t even say I really hate this, as it has its moments (always had a soft spot for Blank Space). But every song just goes on for about one chorus too long, and many of the lyrics are just poor (or, more nicely put, not for me). Also crazy how some songs are just outright copying Robyn, Lana or Haim.

The GOATed industry plant, this album is so shallow and boring. Overly produced and mechanical sounding, lacks any depth or soul. Maybe if I was a teenager this would resonate with me but I am far from the target for this slop. It is just inoffensive over produced radio pop, I know she is a mega star but this is pretty boring

So many bangers… who knew I was a swifty

Probably my favorite Taylor Swift album? I like Style and Out of the Woods

A stone cold classic. Taylor is importantly enough to have more than one album. Not all of them. But this certainly fits the bill. And shake it off is one of the greatest singles of all time.

I look forward to reading reviews by people who've never heard this. Perhaps they were in prison or exiled in nature. Its pop music mastery - propulsive tracks, romance, longing, anger, intrigue, and confessionals, and all so danceable and well sung and that all American smooth twang to a rich full timbre (thanks Taylor for dropping country and perms). Its pure happy pop, memories and energy. Reminds me of the best times and parties and the best childhood moments of our daughters in Erlenbach and it played heavily on our Ischgl holiday to pump the sleepy kinds up in the boot room. Always uplifting. Even when heard through a bluetooth speaker. Everyone knows all the words. the moves. the mood. Side note: there's an edge. I remember her twisted romance stories are slightly concerning - her apparent satisfaction of psychologically torturing her lovers and creating drama revealing the darker side of female jealousy, aggression, attachment and malevolent control. All this makes for great storytelling.

She's pretty impressive Taylor, a shape shifting career, songwriter and what seems to be an extraordinary live performer. Like the other 10 billion homo sapiens walking the planet I know and love Shake it Off, a great ear worm pop song. Listening to a whole album a couple of times, nothing else really stands out, so outside of the pop cultural phenomenon that she is, its just another album of pop songs. Nothing to listen to before you cark it.

Younger work colleagues have teasingly asked me what my favourite Taylor Era is, expecting the middle-aged male to fumble for a relevant answer. But I do have a favourite Taylor Era which is her Pop Era. I was aware of her earlier work but did not relate to her country ingenue records -- they just didn't speak to me, not that they needed to, nothing wrong with that -- but 'We Are Never Getting Together' and 'I Knew You Were Trouble' really caught my ear. I love pop music, and this was really great pop music. Cleverly crafted, upbeat and catchy as hell. I was really pleased when her next record, 1989, leaned fully and explicitly into pop. And wow, what a pop album it is! Ironically, the pop genre allows Swift to be more authentic. She can be a young woman (as opposed to her previous slightly naive ingenue persona, which was starting to wear thin); sexier (without going full Britney or Christina) and more urbane (welcome to New York, indeed) and also more ambitious and no longer willing to be underestimated: “I never miss a beat/ I’m lightning on my feet/ and that’s what they don’t see.” Pop music is by nature artificial, but to be really great it needs to _feel_ real. You have to _believe_ the singer. I would argue that this is the genius paradox of Madonna; I believe every word she sings (her credibility makes her a surprisingly great ballad singer), but almost nothing she says in interviews. Similarly, I believe Taylor Swift on this record. Not necessarily the literal autobiographical truth of every word -- this is a (melo)dramatic narrative containing fragments harvested from her life, but hardly a roman a clef -- but the sentiment is real. She presents here as an ambitious young woman hitting the town, and it rings true. And sounds like enormous fun. She has moved on to explore other directions since this album, which is her artistic right. I'm just glad she made this one complete, genuine, unapologetic, outstanding pop album that I could listen to any day of the week.

Max Martin at it again.

This is Tay Sway's peak. "Shake It Off" is a millennial anthem. "Style" is my favorite from the album. There's some songs I don't like very much but you can easily understand the album's popularity. I could be wrong in my perception of it but this seems to me to be the last time she actually put herself out there as a /singer/. Her singing is a lot softer, a lot less bold, a lot less specific, and she very rarely belts on her later albums the way she used to. Stylistically there's nothing wrong with this. But her artistry seems to me to have become more about "I'm a huge star" than it is about "I'm an impressive singer," to the point where it would be almost startling to hear her do a vocal run today like she does in the lead in to the chorus after the bridge in "Shake It Off." (I have not listened to The Life of a Showgirl so I could be startled!) I'll end with my thoughts on "Wildest Dreams." "Say you'll remember me" is absolutely crushing. The sentiment that she hopes she's remembered by a former love is devastating and relatable. And immediately undermined by the next line and the rest of the chorus, where you realize that she wants him to remember her as hot and perfect and wants to be the star of his wildest dreams. It's so much more profound to admit and exclaim a fear of lost love, a fear you won't be remembered, than it is to dare an ex to realize they messed up by letting you go. And there's a good set of lyrics that can come out of the woman scorned story! Many great songs have come from that. Here, she disguises that desire within a line that evokes the more powerful, vulnerable sentiment of fear and love. For a moment, I hear that pain in the way she sings "Say you'll remember me." And for a moment, I could cry about it. And then it's gone. And that's the real tragedy.

If nobody got me I know the drum machine got me

Wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one, I’ve dipped into a bunch of the 2010s pop girlies before but never really gave Swift a good solid go. It’s really hitting on (and arguably key in popularising) that synthpop sound that was absolutely everywhere in the 2010s, but the version of it here feels kind of sloppy and amateurish in a lot of ways. There’s this really unpleasant, tinny sounding drum machine backing almost every song in this album, and most of the tracks outside of the big singles kind of blended together for me. Ultimately inoffensive, but not something that I’m really tempted to revisit.

Listening to this album makes me turn it over in my head a lot. I can hear the lyrics crisply, which is a distinct experience from most albums. I can hear several strains of familiar types of music in this album. I find traces of CCM in most of the tracks here, and my knee jerk reaction to label and dismiss this style is worth interrogating. Because this album challenges and engages me and also because it has familiar elements that are familiar to me from listening to popular music albums (as opposed to jazz and funk elements that are familiar to me from other genres) I am rating this album positively. It is Important to me in that way, yet by the end of the project I hope it’s no longer so conspicuous a bridge into the realm of popular music for me.

Ah, the album that changed pop music (semi-joking). I think it’s notable that it sits at this sound intersection of Taylor shifting to pop fully, with the experienced Max Martin and the fresh Jack Antonoff, which allows it to take in a whole bunch of other contemporary pop sounds (you would be hard pressed to not hear at least Robyn and Lana Del Rey merged in here, at minimum) and compress them into a new strain of hooky but writerly synth-pop sound that feels so distinctly Taylor in its own right (and is so big that many artists still owe something to being in its wake). But the key thing is that on this album at least, that strain works pretty much song after song, beat for beat and self-reflection bar for bar. The singles obviously stand as highlights (five singles certainly helps it highlight a lot) but also most of these could have been singles still for how bankably good they are. It’s not making it into my pop pantheon because I think it lacks that extra unique Thing and the lyrical sentiments and the written character of Taylor Swift don’t click for me like that, but revisiting has been a nice reminder that, yes, there was a good reason why I paid to listen to this and didn’t complain about it.

Svært at sætte en finger på den Max Martin produktion. Bad Blood er et lortenummer I will die on this hill, men udover den er det her album proppet med hooks

God men temmelig frontloaded! Kan bedre lide Red. (Undskyld Claus).

Banger parade! One of her best albums!

Incredible talent, catchy hooks x100

Shallow, overproduced and plain. Only reason this does not get a one is because it is too inoffensive to be that hated.

It's bad!

Not too inoffensive to be hated

Gud

The world would be 10% better if everyone (snob-sogynists and swifties alike) agreed that Taylor’s music is immaculate pop (and nothing deeper)

My relationship with Taylor is complicated. This album makes me feel like I have been transported into some alternate Sartrian hell where instead of being unable to escape your family you are unable to escape a perpetual Disney film. And if I am stuck in a Disney production, I would rather be there with Cristina Aguilera or Olivia Rodrigo. Even Shake it Off is done better, well, as karaoke if it has some actual bass behind it. This just… um….But then I remember that Taylor, the mover is AMAZING. My god. Who remembers she was a leading COUNTRY star before this? And where she goes from here, maybe not musically, entirely imo, but as an industry mover, well… damn. She’s unstoppable. So how do I rate that? She gets 3 for this project just for being able to do it, to completely change her entire genre mid career for most artists. And she’s just getting started here. Boolean: yes, yeah I suppose it’s important to actually hear it. Now I can say I did, you know by choice and not in pieces at a shopping center.

Not bad, but Taylor Swift isn’t really my thing.

Just the epitome of pop perfection right here. Faultless. Hit after hit. Blank Space in to Style??? I'm sorry just every track in to the next one.. it's just so so GOOD. Taylor has a vision and successfully delivers with this one and it sounds like the album was created so naturally which shows the true talent and artistry; I feel like every single song is just on the same level making it just so consistently fantastic the whole way through. I remember the 1989 era so vividly and this album/era just took over the world in the best way possible. Pop masterpiece that is 1989

Non volevo cadere nello stereotipo della persona che dice che taylor swift fa cacare, anche perché probabilmente non è vero (?) e comunque ha avuto un successo incredibile. Però questo album è letteralmente white girl music ma nemmeno delle migliori. Sono convinta che altri album possano essere più interessanti

Capisco l’inserimento dell’album in classifica solo perché è stato un successo commerciale, altrimenti no

Of course I’ve heard this before. I have been on the planet at some point in the last 12 years. It’s an impressive feat to make an album where a majority of the songs were hits. I just think the over saturation has dampened my enjoyment for this album. I think the hits here are better, but the deeper cuts are weaker when comparing this to Red. Probably by fourth or fifth favorite album by her. I could go back and forth debating between this and Evermore, but Speak Now, Folklore, and Red are a pretty buttoned up top three. Anyway, this album is good, the songs are well written and produced, the Taylor’s Version is worse than the original, and the “sick beat” promised on Shake It Off is laughable.

They really put this in the Library of Congress for preservation huh

I listened to this with as open a mind as possible. My response: meh. This would get a 1 if Blank Space and Clean weren’t on this album. The rest is either pleasantly produced but forgettable or so cheesy it made me nauseous (Bad Blood). Maybe I’ve just heard these songs too much but I’m not sure I will be listening to this again out of choice.

Shake it off ist ja mal wirklich unerträglich. Blank Space ist ganz nett. Ansonsten vollkommen belanglos.

Overall Rating - 2.12/5 (4.23/10). This is the definition of Bubblegum Pop. Partially because it makes me want to stuff bubblegum into my ears to block it out. It's undeniably catchy, and undeniably devoid of anything I can recognize as thought or memorability. So much Autotune.

Some records are deserving of critical re-assessment when the pop culture zeitgeist dies down. I am not so sure this is one of them. I don't need to hear "Shake it Off" or "Bad Blood" ever again. I gave it a chance- I can admit that "Style" is a pretty great track, with a lot going on in the mix. Very Carly Rae Jepsen. It's not a bad album- it's a standard pop record with filler making up a good portion of the tracklist. Thanks for spoiling the run of 4 and 5s, Taylor.

With all due respect, skipping today’s album

Yawn.

Yikes. I need a palate-cleanser after that. 0.5/5.0: Unlistenable

for what this trying to be it is very good. i dont find taylor to be a particularly adept singer or instrumentalist but the songs are well written and well produced. the problem for me is im not a fan of this type of production. i think if you took these same songs and put them in another genre i think they could be infinitely more interesting.

The vocal layering on this makes it the sonic equivalent of a mirror maze, but it’s well crafted pop with catchy hooks and suitably inane lyrics.

my personal opinion of taylor swift has absolutely tanked over the years but i’d be lying to myself and others if i denied how perfect of a pop album this is

I already know I like blank space. Blank space should be a class on arranging. How an arrangement makes or breaks the song. Opening track is great so far. These songs are made by a melody that singable and great arrangements. She sings in a range that almost anyone can achieve. And the songs are catchy. Welcome to New York was great. Blank space is amazing. On track three and I like it already. I think I’m going to love this whole album. I took my daughter to see the Eras tour concert movie in theaters. It’s the best concert movie I’ve ever seen. I think track three might have been in there. But I’m not sure. I love this groove. There is a swing to it. On track 5. So far every track on this is great. I could put this album on regularly. I like shake it off, but it’s probably my least favorite song on this album. This album is five stars. I’ve only got three tracks left and I really love this. On the last track. This album is a masterpiece.

It was okay. Taylor Swift is a talented songwriter. I just that the album was way too overproduced and that overproduction takes away from the lyrics. Also, Taylor Swift’s voice got annoying after a while. If I could hear a stripped down version of this album like Ryan Adams’ version of this material, that would be great.

Very catchy but not meant for me

First time actually listening to a Taylor Swift album. Not a bad album, a lot of very catchy songs, but the theme gets repetitive quite quick… I don’t have to much to say other than Fuck Trump

FUCK TAYLOR ZUUIFT

I'm sorry, liberals, but Shake It Off is a banger. The rest of the album was kind of boring and felt like it would NQ at Eurovision.

Swift quickly made the transition from country to pop star, it took one album. 89 does a good job capturing the synthpop sound of the eighties, and is a commendable effort from a 25 year old. She can write songs and perform, and she surrounds herself with a capable team. Shake It Off is actually listenable, Bad Blood is just lame. And 10+ years later she just continues to get more popular (and richer.) (3.4*s) Stop it, Taylor!

Here's where Swifty gets going. Even though it sounds cheap and overproduced, 1989 is catchy. Sometimes you can't help but sing and dance to a bad pop track, and Taylor nailed a few hits on this one..."Blank Space," "Shake It Off," "Bad Blood." These songs were huge and everyone was in and for that I will give her credit, especially for writing them herself (not typically the case). She does wrap it up nice with the finisher track "Clean," like washing away the BS. T-Swizz really proved she has staying power as a pop icon after the release of the record and is now the highest paid woman artist of all time. It's a must listen purely for the impact this innocent little country girl gone pop starlet has had. I do prefer a sleezier pop star who really embraces the terribleness though...give me Ke$ha all day. 2.6 stars for the rebirth.

I have to admit that 1989 is chock full of catchy pop tunes. I was aware of Taylor Swift when this released in 2014 and didn't mind when I was hearing various singles through radio play or elsewhere. The tunes are catchy and harmless breakup ballads for the most part which didn't bother me post-college in my late 20's (still don't really). Even nowadays a handful of of these songs hold up and are still worth the occasional listen in the right place. Following 1989 it felt like TS was everywhere all of a sudden but I figured she was just the next up and coming pop star who was able to capture the generation of girls younger than me with a couple hit singles. Little did I know that she was about to take the world by storm and how big the Swifty movement would become over the next handful of years. The Taylor Swift wagon wasn't running nearly as strongly back in 2014 compared to nowadays. On the heels of her rise through country music and transition to this pop-oriented release I can see why she picked up a ton of support in such a small period. 1989 deservedly made a splash which is evident as it is still somewhat engaging more than 10 years later and not just an out of date pop album. Credit where it's due because Taylor Swift is clearly talented, and immensely driven as anyone would have to be to cultivate the fanbase and following she has. Despite the overexposure I've never really been on the Taylor Swift hate-wagon. She's a cultural sensation which certainly gets tiresome (NFL/Kelce exposure certainly hit critical mass) but I'm not hugely affected by it as I'm not really in the core demographic. I suspect the majority of criticism she receives is deserved, as is praise that she simultaneously receives. Such is the nature of being in the center of the spotlight on a global stage. For what it's worth she has a handful of songs that I enjoy from this earlier pop part of her career. Without any other knowledge of her catalog I suspect 1989 is likely the best version of Taylor Swift for my money and admittedly the album is pretty solid. I can't speak to much of her work beyond this album though as I don't really pay attention to her music otherwise. Evermore which was previously on the list and I found it pretty marginal. 1989 was a significantly better listen and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. 3.22 stars

Listening to 1989 by taylor swift cause of the 1001 albums thing, im not complaining about its inclusion cause this album was incredibly popular and an important time capsule for the mid-2010s but hoooooooly crap this album blows Her lyricism is poo, the production is poo, her vocals are indistinguishable from song to song and it just sounds like music Disney adults would like Tbf i was never the target audience for this but i feel like the more recent pop stars have been so much more interesting musically and lyrically and vocally and various other terms that end in -lly than taylor

Highlights: Blank Space, Style, Shake It Off, Bad Blood 3.9

# Playlist Track - Shake it off # Notes - Pretty bland, boring pop. - It's well produced, and have a few fun moments here in there, but not recommended for anyone that's over 14 years old.

I recognized more of these songs than I expected to.

Some of these songs hold up beautifully, some don’t.

As a 50-something father of teenage girls, I tried mightily to hate this album, but I just can't. It's perfect pop, with lyrics designed to be screamed by said teenagers at the top of their lungs at concerts, overanalysed in bedrooms and used as inspo for Insta posts. Yes, if you listen closely, some of the pseudo-80s production is not that great, and the lyrics don't always hold up to close inspection, but you can't deny the singability and catchiness of the major hits - 'Shake It Off', 'Bad Blood', 'Wildest Dreams', 'Style', hell, even 'Welcome To New York'. If I'm being super critical, the last 3 or 4 songs are not quite up to the same standard as the rest of the album, but by that stage, you have surrendered to Swiftiness, resigned to carrying those tunes in your head for the next few days.

Now I want to be a hater, but I'd be lying if I said billionaire TaySway was bad. There's obviously something there, the album does belong on this list, but it's the kind of bubblegum pop that only someone from privilege can make. The song progression is kinda samey, which means the album lacks variety in favour of being catchy. There are song songs that kinda suck on here too but not as many as I expected.

mas alla de que no soy muy fan de Taylor swift me gustó bastante el album

I don't seek Taylor out yet I knew a good chunk of this album. I think that speaks volumes. The only thing keeping it from a 5 for me is the lack of variety in the lyrics.

Listened to with my Apple EarPods. This is an album I'm semi-familiar with, as I'm sure many are if they existed during the early 10s--this album has radio hit after hit on it. At one point, this was an album that I could point to as one I liked, the "I don't listen to Taylor Swift really, but 1989 was great." I no longer hold that opinion. This album really feels like the musical equivalent of the blazing lights and rapid fire sound effects declaring "You are a special winner" from a slot machine or a rotten mobile game, designed to manipulate the brain. I listen to it, and I don't really connect with it closely, but it sounds quite nice. I want to automatically shuffle to something to distract my mind while listening, as the music seems to get better the more it centers in the subconscious rather than focused intent, in which it seems to be worse. I sound harsh, and there are some tracks ("Welcome to New York", "Blank Space") that I enjoy and a lot of moments throughout that sound nice to my ears, usually from a way Taylor Swift sings a certain melody. But really sitting and focusing with this, I felt so bored at the choruses that had the same feel throughout, the lower volume shout overdubbed into climax moments over and over, the plasticity of the instrumentation ("I Know Places" can only aspire to the bounce of the 90s/00s RnB it pulls from), and the kitschy, vague lyricism that feels devoid of real personality, only hinting at earnest expression (the first verse of "Shake it Off" feels like one of the only real peeks at this, but it too becomes this nothingness as it continues). It's an album that isn't especially grating, or irritating, and is in fact mostly pleasant sounding throughout. But it feels so manufactured, glossy, and fake to me that I can't really connect to it at all. I couldn't claim I would roll my eyes in disgust if it came on in the background somewhere, in fact, I'd probably enjoy it. But the deeper I actually just sat there with the album listening, the less I liked was I was hearing.

Blank Space Shake it Off Bad Blood Wildest Dreams I Know Places

Style Shake It Off Bad Blood Wildest Dreams

No nyt tiedän kuka tämäkin on 😅 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s a good, solid pop album. 4/5

Inte min grej. Gillar Shake it off och Blank Space är helt ok men måste erkänna att det mesta låter samma. Väldigt oförargligt och lite menlöst. Jag tror i och för sig att hennes hardcore fans pekar mot låttexterna och de lyssnade jag inte mycket på. Jag tycker bara att det är tråkigt. Det finns roligare och bättre kvinnliga artister att lyssna på!

i have such a hard time with how much her lyrics refer to what she's wearing and what her makeup looks like, but obviously this album is filled with hits. just never going to be for me. 2.5

So much pop perfection on here but 1) the deluxe edition is so much more full feeling and 2) "This Love" is on here too? Why. 4.5

good

Should she have albums on this list? Yes seeing as she is a cultural behemoth. Do I like her albums or music? Not particularly, but again, it's not really made for me. I think because of all I've heard about her I was expecting to have my mind blown. But it isn't. For the life of me I can't really see what makes her stand out from others. Oh well. Fair play to her. I'll never listen to this again. Best Tracks: Blank Space; Style; Shake It Off;

Very earwormy and synthetic. I know thats what they were going for and they nailed it. Not my taste but the producers did exactly what the marketing engine told them

During the pandemic, to fill time me and a friend would listen to an album we’d never heard before either we chose ourselves or the other recommended. One of this was Folklore, which really threw me at how interesting it was. Evermore was another one when it came out. And I started to give her stuff a chance as I came across it and did enjoy it (New Romantics and Wildest Dreams from this one) But whether it’s fatigue or just following the crowd who seem to have got tired of her, I’m listening to this like I always expected to and not really enjoying (like I thought I’d find it in the first place). 2 stars - with one being for the memories.

No thank you

This may be Taylor Swift's goose of the golden eggs. And I'll give her the recognition for making such an album full of hits, with fun and enjoyable songs –well, some of them, at least. But this album doesn't tell me anything. Some (most of the) songs are pretty repetitive, and that repetition makes them overwhelming and boring (I mean... Out of the Woods is a pretty annoying song, just to name one of the many). And it's a very popish and bland album. So, what's good here? Maybe that it's a very mainstream constructed record, paradoxically. The songs are good for what they are made for. They are very radio-friendly and sometimes shaky. So, it's been nice listening to it (I doubt if enjoyable, but nice anyway), and I had previously listened to this record, so it's been good even for a second or third listen (I can't actually remember). The thing is I can't take this album seriously, and sometimes it's a nice thing, but it is so repetitive all the time with Taylor shouting the same thing over and over that it becomes very uninteresting. And there is no soul neither. So, even not taking it seriously, it's not even an album I find appealing. I don't need something deep to enjoy it, but I need some more personality, and this album is so polished pop production perfection that it doesn't sound real or genuine. It lacks of something more personal, another kind of connection with the music. I can't find Taylor (if there is any), I can only find the work of many people in a very perfect construction. Again, the goose of the golden eggs. So many bops but no originality or a more genuine connection with the music.

I’m not going to wade into the quagmire of the rating section on this one. Listen, pop isn’t for everyone. It’s not really even for me. But, if you take your own bias and particular taste out of it, you really have to admit this is an excellent pop album. It’s one of those cases where the album is better than my enjoyment of it. I’m not going to pretend there isn’t a small army of people writing and producing this album to make it completely optimized to slowly erode any edge this album might have had, but that’s what the genre is. It’s like saying I don’t like Dr Dre’s the Chronic on principle because all the beats came off a computer. Sorry that’s the genre.

Not a really Taylor fan but I cannot deny that this album has a ton of hits.

Gotta admit it, some of these songs are straight up bangers

Sophie - This is an album I am very familiar with. I don’t listen to Taylor Swift much these days but I had my time with her. This album is just fun, maybe every song isn’t a lyrical masterpiece or deeply profound, but who cares? It’s fun to listen to, especially when you haven’t heard it for a while. 3/5

Another pop-y Taylor Swift album. Some really good hits and overall kept me interested.

Aside from the terrible shake it off I didn’t hate this. I didn’t pay attention much tk the lyrics but apparently she tends ti write about old boyfriends. Anyway she is surely talented - it shake it off is terrible.

welcome to new york hassi. check nöd ganz. blank space biiitz en banger. de beat findi etz au nöd soo cool aber d melodie isch funny. und ok nai wenn d gitarre inecjunt checkis nüme wnl. die trap snare ohgott. harmonies a schluss vode brigde sind cool. aber ich hass d four chord struktur etz scho. fuck. this sick beat bi shake it off und denn de rap. scho chli cringe. mit i wish i would chani musikalisch bitz meh afange aber s isch halt au afoch genau so wie lowest common denominator pop tönt sit 15 johr. ok definierends album aber ohgott isches nöd muetig.

welcome to new york no en bop wnl blank space riese banger, au wenns für mich chli z wenig oomph het sit ichd metalcore-variante ghört han hahaha uuh de refrain isch so böö aber d strophe vo style findi reecht cool! out of the woods hani reecht langeilig gfunde das höche STAY, ich lieebs hahaha ich han easy e gueti ziit shake it off hani churz müsse d auge verdreihe und denn hani gmerkt, dass ich im chopf am mitsinge gsi bin NEIII WAS FÜRE BRIDGE UI weiss nöd, iwie s Prinzip vo bad blood findi cool aber das lied nervt mich eifach wildest dreams sochli d ballade wo na "muss" debii sii aber jooaaa aso sit bad blood ischs album für mich merklich langwiliger worde find aber im rahme vo "pop" isches musikalisch vilsitiger als ichs erwartet het? vlt bin ich da auchli mit asi erwartige anne hahaha natürlich immerno sehr gradlinig leider ok HALLO LANGWILIG ganz ehrlich erst hälfti reecht cool aber de schluss isch 4 mal s gliche lied gsi für mich

The difference in quality between the biggest hits and the deep cuts here is almost impressive. "Blank Space" is a lot of fun, but both "Shake it Off" and "Bad Blood" border on obnoxious, focusing too much on the public's perception of Swift, which is not an interesting topic. Outside of those two songs though this has an argument as some of the freshest pop of the decade. Songs like "Style" and "Wildest Dreams" bubble and flow beautifully, while "Out of the Woods" and the aforementioned "Blank Space" are great upbeat numbers. My main complaint with the deep cuts is that things get a bit too similar after a while; there are times when I think "I Know Places" is going to melt into "Wildest Dreams." With a little trimming this would be an easy 4, but as it is it's too patchy despite some very high highs.