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Taylor Swift: Shake It Off (Album: 1989, Releasing 28th October)

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M

Mononoke

Banned
Bladenic said:
Pre-ordered on iTunes, but I want the bonus tracks. Ugh. Didn't listen to the leak though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I hate when there is exclusive versions. I had it paid for on iTunes already and was thinking of canceling since I have the deluxe version leak already in my iTunes. But I'm just going to keep my order of the standard and just buy the physcial versions to get the Polaroids.

I wish they made a vinyl version that includes all the pics in one spot. I would pay for that.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
I never win anything but I would be so ecstatic to win a concert ticket. Or meet and greet. The chances are gonna be non-existent consisering how much she's gonna sell.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Oozer3993 said:
It's not gonna be on any streaming services for awhile. Neither she nor her label are big on streaming.
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That being said, I did find a site to stream it :p Probably not a legal stream then.

Five songs in and not exactly wowed. It feels...a little generic. But I have like 12 god damn songs to go.

When I heard she was goin' full pop, I was hoping for more songs like "22"
 
K

kitchenmotors

Banned
Just got home from the hospital today and discovered this as soon as I logged onto the internet.

https://soundcloud.com/david_rees/sets/aphex-swift

Taylor Swift/Aphex Twin album. Iconic.
p0QHO.gif
 
M

MightGoThere

Member
Out of the Woods is great. What are you guys talking about. New York on the other hand, what a mess.

Awesome album other than that though, I love Red but I'm pretty sure 1989 is even better.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Gave it a listen and hate it. I feel like there's nothing I can dance to, and "Shake it off" is the only song I'd describe as catchy.

Pretty bummed.

Glad ya'll are enjoying it though. This one just aint for me.
 
R

rtcn63

Member
Conkersbadfurday said:
Gave it a listen and hate it. I feel like there's nothing I can dance to, and "Shake it off" is the only song I'd describe as catchy.

Pretty bummed.

Glad ya'll are enjoying it though. This one just aint for me.
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Blank Space, Style, and Clean are worth a few replays, they might grow on you. But yeah, Shake it Off is the most danceable, and actually seems out of place with the rest of the album.
 
R

RevoDS

Junior Member
Just listened to the whole thing, and yeah, this one definitely isn't for me.

I like Blank Slate and Clean, most of the others are more than forgettable. Even a few I ended up skipping in the middle because I was tired of them. Still hate (hate,hate,hate,hate,hate...) Shake it Off after many listens; I genuinely tried to like it.

I understand and respect what she tried to do with this album. It's great that she's doing the music she wants to do without limiting herself to the genre she started with, but I'm not digging this new musical style (then again I'm not much of a pop guy, I find most of it inane and repetitive; I don't know what I expected).

I'll give it another try in a few days, hope it's a grower, but the first time wasn't convincing.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Kirosia said:
Blank Space, Style, and Clean are worth a few replays, they might grow on you. But yeah, Shake it Off is the most danceable, and actually seems out of place with the rest of the album.
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I don't even remember any of those. All the songs sounded the same to me, mostly because of the pop-instrumentals. Feel bad for the actual band. No real guitar here. At least the backup dancers still got a job :V
 
V

Van Owen

Banned
Conkersbadfurday said:
I don't even remember any of those. All the songs sounded the same to me, mostly because of the pop-instrumentals. Feel bad for the actual band. No real guitar here. At least the backup dancers still got a job :V
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A lot of her band was laid off, including her fiddle player friend. Looks like she hired a bunch more backup singers though.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Blank Space
Style
All You Had To Do Was Stay
I WISH YOU WOULD
Wildest Dreams
Clean

Are all great. Still adore Shake It Off (definitely the most danceable) and like Out Of The Woods and W2NY. The rest are okay.
 
T

Thug Waffle

Member
that line about getting down to some sick beat or whatever is one of the most cringeworthy lines i've heard in a song

sweezy's still my bae tho
 
P

PhantomZone

Member
Have not heard the album for myself as yet but I kinda had the death knell feeling not long after Shake It Off's release... yes it's catchy and not a bad song but argh I wish she didn't go down that road. I dislike out of the woods a lot more.
 
N

Never Forever

Member
having an album listening party tomorrow evening so I can't listen now, but I got permission to listen to Blank Space

h e l p

why didn't she release this as one of the pre-release tracks? It would've dispelled any of the chorus-related criticisms from SIO, OOTW and WTNY. It would've dispelled any of the criticisms from previous tracks, really (aside from the whole "it's pop music" thing, which isn't a criticism and just dumb snobbery). It's stellar.

The writing is as on-point as ever, the only problem is that I guess when it's not sad/gloomy/miserable/"thoughtful" it's less likely to be seen so amazingly, because happiness isn't seen as being particularly "artful".

It's incredibly her too. So amazingly tongue-in-cheek and it really couldn't have been done by anyone else. It's difficult to understand criticisms about artists not having an identity until you hear songs like this, where it's just so perfectly Taylor Swift.

This is just after one song, mess. Imagine after I've heard the whole album. I'll probably write 2000 words on it and try to submit it instead of my history essay.

/popmusicnerding
 
K

King Cobra

Banned
I ordered the DLX edition from target, should be getting it tomorrow though :( I have got to say I am a little concerned. I found shake it off catchy and out of the woods was good. But I am hoping there will be a song that I liked like I liked "all too well" or "this is the last time" or "back to december".

Very glad to see that there are a few male gaffers that listen to swift, My SO get's pretty defensive when I listen to her a lot.
 
P

Peru

Member
RevoDS said:
Just listened to the whole thing, and yeah, this one definitely isn't for me.

I like Blank Slate and Clean, most of the others are more than forgettable. Even a few I ended up skipping in the middle because I was tired of them. Still hate (hate,hate,hate,hate,hate...) Shake it Off after many listens; I genuinely tried to like it.

I understand and respect what she tried to do with this album. It's great that she's doing the music she wants to do without limiting herself to the genre she started with, but I'm not digging this new musical style (then again I'm not much of a pop guy, I find most of it inane and repetitive; I don't know what I expected).

I'll give it another try in a few days, hope it's a grower, but the first time wasn't convincing.
Click to expand...

The songwriting is still there, lyrics, turns of melody, there's really no reason why you should dislike this if you've liked what she's done before - just because the production is different doesn't make this any more repetitive or 'inane' or whatever. Yeah Shake it Off is bad but has nothing in common with the rest of the songs here.
 
V

Van Owen

Banned
Really don't get the Blank Space love...

It's an over produced pop album that isn't all that different from other stuff Max Martin has touched except it has some Taylor Swift lyrics. Definitely bottom tier of TS albums, but there is a few catchy tracks.

Nothing that tops All Too Well, Everything Has Changed, and other songs from Red, let alone previous albums.
 
K

King Cobra

Banned
Van Owen said:
Really don't get the Blank Space love...

It's an over produced pop album that isn't all that different from other stuff Max Martin has touched except it has some Taylor Swift lyrics. Definitely bottom tier of TS albums, but there is a few catchy tracks.

Nothing that tops All Too Well, Everything Has Changed, and other songs from Red, let alone previous albums.
Click to expand...

This is what I was fearing :(
 
G

Grizzo

Member
Currently listening to the album. I used to not care at all about Taylor Swift (outside of a few good singles) but I think she won me over with this album. Many great tracks.

My favorite tracks so far : All You Hat to Do Was Stay, How You Get The Girl, Style, Bad Blood, I Know Places.
 
R

rtcn63

Member
Van Owen said:
Really don't get the Blank Space love...

It's an over produced pop album that isn't all that different from other stuff Max Martin has touched except it has some Taylor Swift lyrics. Definitely bottom tier of TS albums, but there is a few catchy tracks.
Click to expand...

I kind of agree. Though my nostalgia of '80s one hit wonders and lowered expectations due to this being her fifth or so album have basically put me in the "if it isn't total shit, I can live" camp. It's like watching modern Doctor Who, The Simpsons, or playing the sixtieth Borderlands DLC. At this point, I take what I can get.
 
P

Peru

Member
Van Owen said:
Really don't get the Blank Space love...

It's an over produced pop album that isn't all that different from other stuff Max Martin has touched except it has some Taylor Swift lyrics.
.
Click to expand...

This is just blatantly wrong, imo. It was what I feared. because some of it could be heard in WANEGBT and 22 last time, but there's nothing of it here. If you can't recognise that these are TS songs not MM songs I wonder if you've really listened to the same TS as me before. Max Martin adds some of his production, his crystallized way of underscoring the vocal line, but there's really none of his chord progressions or sense of melody - it's all in the school of TS songs. Listen to the acoustic demos - she brings the songs to the table, they bring the synths, that's about it.

Only exception is "Bad Blood" which does code KP a bit, which is funny considering the lyrics.

What has happened is that she's continued writing songs much in the same way as before, but made a decision that a sonic cohesion was needed and she landed on synth pop. Like that or don't -- personally I do prefer a more acoustic approach - but the foundation here is the same as it was: Her songs.

I don't think it's particularly overproduced either. What do you mean by overproduced? There are several sparse productions here. And vocally she's bettter than ever.
 
V

Van Owen

Banned
lol Martin has a co-writing credit on like EVERY track, so I think he did more than add in a bit of production. One of the demos is a Tedder track too.

There's just a ton of fluff around pretty much every track. There's a reason she laid off band members and hired half a dozen backup singers to stand behind her. She isn't doing any of the heavy lifting during her live performances of Out of the Woods or Shake It Off. I'm sure there's going to be heavy backing track during concert performances of All You Had To Do Was Stay as well.
 
V

Van Owen

Banned
Servbot24 said:
What does overproduced even mean? That sounds like "the only problem is it's TOO good" to me.
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A lot of computers. A lot of Pro Tools. A lot of fixes. Digital timing, pitch edits, etc.

I'd like to see a Taylor album where it's just her and some band members playing in a studio.
 
W

WhereAreMahDragonz

Banned
Van Owen said:
lol Martin has a co-writing credit on like EVERY track, so I think he did more than add in a bit of production. One of the demos is a Tedder track too.

There's just a ton of fluff around pretty much every track. There's a reason she laid off band members and hired half a dozen backup singers to stand behind her. She isn't doing any of the heavy lifting during her live performances of Out of the Woods or Shake It Off. I'm sure there's going to be heavy backing track during concert performances of All You Had To Do Was Stay as well.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the pop music industry.
 
JetBlackPanda

JetBlackPanda

Member
huh.. album is pretty damn good.

wow.

edit: I could go off about production etc etc but its Tswift and its pop trash and fucking love it.
 
R

RevoDS

Junior Member
Peru said:
The songwriting is still there, lyrics, turns of melody, there's really no reason why you should dislike this if you've liked what she's done before - just because the production is different doesn't make this any more repetitive or 'inane' or whatever. Yeah Shake it Off is bad but has nothing in common with the rest of the songs here.
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Thing is, Shake it off isn't the only culprit. Yeah, I agree that lyrically besides the more present repetition on many songs (sorry, but it's obvious she dumbed down some of them to try and fit better in between pop radio fare. Again, keyword is some here.) it's still good as ever and it still has her signature all over.

But besides that, I don't have many objective issues with it. As I said, I respect that she wanted to try something new and it's cool that she did; artists that remain the same all the time become stale and lose their appeal.

I, as an individual person, don't like the direction she took, however. For me, music is all about feeling; and I'm not feeling this one. I'm not a fan of electronic instrumentation in the first place and she definitely did get closer to that.

If you read my post again, you'll see that I'm not knocking on her or the album. I'm sure many will like it; I don't, and you should respect that instead of trying to win me over or something.
 
O

OtachiSlattern

Neo Member
Lord, this album is a true AOTY contender if not the AOTY already. Was kind of nervous because RED is amazing, but it's definitely holding its own. I think she transitioned really well between country/pop to pop. I also like the thought and design process when creating the album booklet/memos. It's cute.

Anyways faves are pretty much what everyone's been saying: Blank Spaces, Style, Wildest Dreams, AYHTDWS, New Romantics, and Clean.

Yeah, her bonus tracks are some of her best on the album, so I find that a little odd.
 
R

RoKKeR

Member
Top 5:

1. Clean
2. Wildest Dreams
3. Style
4. Shake It Off
5. How You Get the Girl

I am liking this way more than I thought I would. No State of Grace god-like material here but there is a lot of good stuff. Where would one find the bonus tracks?
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
you are in love...is that a sample of the springsteen/jeremy mcguire "theme" that gets played over and over?

style is my fav so far.
 
O

Oozer3993

Member
Some quick thoughts:

The chorus to Style is amazing.
One of the credits for Style is "Funkalicious Guitar." That is magnificent.
On a similar note, Bad Blood has a credit for "Knees."
Blank Space has a trap beat hiding in it.
Bad Blood is going to be amazing in concert. There's going to be 10,000 people loudly singing along to that chorus.

Some sales notes:

@treepaine said:
1989 by @taylorswift13 is currently #1 in 88 Markets Globally on iTunes! Best Fans Ever. #Swiftober
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7 of the top 10 songs on iTunes in the US are from 1989. It's even crazier in Canada: 9 of the top 10 spots and the top two album spots. Early predictions are 800k to 1 million copies first week in the US. If she hits 1 million, she will be the only artist ever to open with 1 million copies three different times. 1989 is also basically assured of being the first album released this year to go platinum.
 
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