Taylor Swift - 1989
Critic Score
Based on 31 reviews
2014 Ratings: #265 / 1042
Year End Rank: #16
User Score
2014 Rank: #212
Liked by 687 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
Pretty Much Amazing

1989 would have been just as impressive thirty years ago, against much fiercer competition. It’s also proof that an expert songwriter, one who happens to sing and dance (somewhat less expertly), can rule our dreary charts.

90
PopMatters

By twisting free of the final touches of genre constraint clinging onto Red’s moments of twang, Swift sends her nearly unparalleled gift for melody soaring into the stratosphere.

90
Sputnikmusic

Whether she’s poking fun at herself, touching on more risqué topics ..., or just going about her business singing about breakups because that’s what she wants to do, 1989 is an album that shows growth straight across the board.

85
The Line of Best Fit

There's evolution with purpose in every fibre of 1989, and far from jettisoning her integrity in this drastic lunge, she's proved in her bold, risky decision that she's got courage in her convictions to pull it off and faith in her fans to accept the new direction.

83
A.V. Club

Swift’s never going to be as bleak as Del Rey or as sexually frank as Madonna, but, on 1989, she’s figured out how to be an adult once and for all.

80
The Telegraph
It’s not quite blood on the tracks, perhaps, but it’s got a truth and power rare in commercialised pop.
80
The Guardian

On 1989 the reasons she’s afforded the kind of respect denied to her peers are abundantly obvious.

80
Billboard

It's Swift's best work -- a sophisticated pop tour de force that deserves to be as popular commercially as with Robyn-worshipping blog--gers; an album that finds Swift meeting Katy and Miley and Pink on their home turf and staring them down.

80
FasterLouder

1989 could have been a disaster – a premix pop album that was indistinct from anything else on radio. Instead, it’s still Swift at the centre, calling the shots, crafting the songs. It’s where she likes to be, and when she’s there, she’s the best.

80
Rolling Stone

Deeply weird, feverishly emotional, wildly enthusiastic, 1989 sounds exactly like Taylor Swift, even when it sounds like nothing she's ever tried before.

80
Time Out London

‘1989’ is less of a reinvention, more the sound of a winning formula being ruthlessly refined. 

80
The Observer

Swift’s fifth record is a bold, gossipy confection that plays to her strengths – strengths which pretty much define modern pop.

80
The Arts Desk
That Swift can use vivid images from her own life experiences to create songs so universal they are taken to heart across the generations is the sign of a skilled songwriter mature beyond her years.
80
musicOMH

While not completely successful in showcasing in her transition into pure pop, 1989 is a great listen for those refuse to believe both the hype and the haters.

77
Pitchfork

The big ol’ city was imaginary; but on 1989, Swift writes and inhabits a fully-realized fantasy of self-reliance, confidence, and ensuing pleasure. Her music was no longer just a diary entry. You can almost hear her winking on every track.

75
Consequence of Sound

Her metropolitan butterflies aside, Swift’s songwriting is as consistently razor-sharp as it’s ever been. 

75
Entertainment Weekly

Too often on 1989 she’s trying to win at somebody else’s game, whittling her words down to generic love stuff over flowy synthesizers.

70
Drowned in Sound

Swift’s self-empowerment is so irrepressible that you can actually hear her kiss off the haters with the help of a brass backing section.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald
Instead of carefully coaxing her vast fanbase into evolving, Taylor Swift has leapt ahead of expectations, making a strong case for why there's no choice but to try and keep pace with her.
70
Slant Magazine

1989’s standout tracks retain the narrative detail and clever metaphor-building that distinguished Swift’s early country songs, even amid the diversions wrought by the aggressive studio production on display throughout.

70
FACT Magazine

No longer writing love stories that naively set out to rival Romeo and Juliet, the Swift on 1989 is very aware of the transience and the fun of everything she’s writing about – but she’s also aware that that doesn’t mean it can’t sound larger than life.

70
NME

‘1989’ is Taylor Swift’s radical reinvention: one to finally alienate her country audience and plant her flag firmly in pop soil.

70
AllMusic

A cold, somewhat distant celebration of all the transient transparencies of modern pop, undercut by its own desperate desire to be nothing but a sparkling soundtrack to an aspirational lifestyle.

60
Clash

It has moments of magic, passages that gleam so perfectly. But then it stalls. And it splutters. And it parks itself, enticing first impressions undermined by an unreliable core, as Just Another Pop Record.

60
NOW Magazine

The little personal details she inserts into otherwise fluffy songs are what make tracks like Out Of The Woods so resonant. If anything, 1989 proves that those skills, and not the marketing campaign, are the source of her success.

60
The Independent
Whether it’s adolescent exaggeration or an attempt to bring more intriguing strategies into pop lyricism is debatable.
60
The 405

1989 is a testament to Swift's transition as a woman, and it's admirable to anyone embarking on the difficult journey of finding themselves.

60
Spectrum Culture
This new record has some of Swift’s strongest songs thus far (and more than a few terribly weak ones), but it’s not as though she has to push herself into the mainstream. She’s been there for a long time already.
60
Evening Standard
Though the melodies still soar and the dreaming and breaking up in her lyrics are familiar, it’s starting to feel like this unique talent is playing everyone else’s game.
50
Tiny Mix Tapes

1989 is a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.

Chode
70

This is literally just Thriller for white girls born after 2003

LepardRyan
95

Undoubtedly one of the best pop albums of the 2010's. There isn't an ounce of filler in the tracklist, every single song slaps.

I would understand, depending on where you live, being exhausted over a lot of these tracks, as about half of 1989 successfully charted for a year or so after it's release. Imo the songs that did chart deserved it. This is just and excellent and concise collection of pop songs.

exception
77

with her first strictly pop album, i was not disappointed by taylor swift. she had some really strong hooks and catchy instrumentals. her lyrics stayed within the same range she has always had, not exactly shallow but not deep either. she had some really nice songs(wildest dreams) and some stupid ones(shake it off). i've liked swifts older albums even though im not much of a country fan. i get why this made swift the monumental figure she is today
fav tracks: wildest dreams, blank space, ... read more

BritishIdiot
53

You have no idea the immense pleasure I'd have giving this an overwhelmingly low score, but the disappointing truth is, 1989 is a very well produced and decently likeable millennial pop album. Though it is far from a consistent listen, I do believe Taylor brings some great, and awful, additions to the popular music table here.

I'll start with what I liked, and in fairness there is a good deal of elements and songs I admire from 1989. Blank Space and Style are amazing pop songs, Blank Space ... read more

lucidreiji
77

Welcome to New York - 7
Blank Space - 8
Style - 10
Out of the Woods - 7
All You Had To Do Was Stay - 7
Shake It Off - 8
I Wish You Would - 8
Bad Blood - 4
Wildest Dreams - 9
How You Get the Girl - 8
This Love - 7
I Know Places - 8
Clean - 9
Wonderland - 7
You Are In Love - 7
New Romantics - 10

seanthesheeeeep
83

peak taylor swift pop

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Track List

1Welcome to New York
3:32
75
2Blank Space
3:51
85
3Style
3:51
90
4Out of the Woods
3:55
82
5All You Had To Do Was Stay
3:13
76
6Shake It Off
3:39
68
7I Wish You Would
3:27
75
8Bad Blood
3:31
61
9Wildest Dreams
3:40
89
10How You Get the Girl
4:07
73
11This Love
4:10
78
12I Know Places
3:15
77
13Clean
4:31
82
Total Length: 48 minutes
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Added on: August 18, 2014