Taylor Swift - 1989

Honestly I've never been able to like Taylor Swift a whole lot. I'm not exactly sure why that was, but it might just be the tunes. So often she'd take off with tunes that hit me in the most flat way possible. I couldn't hate her, but nothing ever justified the hype (well, I get that her down-to-earth likeability is part of that, but it doesn't go far for the music).

To add to that, I never really relished the idea of listening to any of her mega-selling albums, which felt more like a potential chore than anything, just as someone who's not really into that sort of thing. This isn't particularly fair to her though, as I think some of her finest tracks are among the deep cuts, but it's just all the stuff around it that's the problem.

Understanding "1989" to be something different for her, I still didn't see myself changing my views (I don't really have an issue with country Taylor vs. pop Taylor, I'm just after the good tunes. Whether or not it's legitimate or not, I never find myself feeling as though she's lying to everyone when she makes more upbeat tunes, it just feels like another extension of her personality to me).

But something does seem to be different this time. It's not that she's written a whole bunch of pop songs, it's that she's written a whole bunch of GOOD pop songs. I mean, I detract Shellback at every given opportunity, but the guy can write a hit. I guess it's a matter of whether he's working with someone who can bring their own flavour to the table, as opposed to him sucking it out of them. It seems to be a team up that can work, but then it's not 100% reliable. I mean, I don't really enjoy the singles from "Red" that they made, and I don't think that suddenly everything's perfect here, because it's not. "Bad Blood" is a misfire, but otherwise, it's much more in the way of hits, with the first half of the album having few complaints from me. Enough so that I can say I've bought a Taylor Swift album, your move Katy & Rihanna. 4.2