FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV
Taylor Swift has already accomplished so much; she is one of the most celebrated and influential artists in the world right now! She turns thirty-one on Sunday (13th), and this feature is timely as she just (11th December) put out her second surprise release of the year with evermore! Her other 2020 album, folklore, is one of her best release to date, and it is quite a shift from her previous work - evermore has also picked up stunning reviews so far. Both albums have sort of came out of the blue, and it is always great seeing people react to surprise album releases! As Sunday is her birthday, this A Buyer’s Guide is dedicated to a terrific young artist who seems to go from strength to strength! As usual, I have recommended the four big albums to check out; one that I feel has not quite received as much praise as it should; her latest album, and a book that might provide you with some useful details. Here is a guide to Pennsylvania-born Taylor Swift and her fantastic work. If you are a fan already or need some direction, I hope the suggestions below…
Release Date: 27th October, 2014
Label: Big Machine
Producers: Max Martin/Taylor Swift/Jack Antonoff/Nathan Chapman/Imogen Heap/Mattman & Robin/Ali Payami/Shellback/Ryan Tedder/Noel Zancanella
Standout Tracks: Blank Space/Out of the Woods/Bad Blood
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Taylor-Swift-1989/master/750386
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5fy0X0JmZRZnVa2UEicIOl?si=V1IcmeaZR8WTzh0I23D29g
Review:
“Given the cast list, you would expect 1989 to be an extremely polished product, which it undoubtedly is. Even its least interesting tracks sound like hits, which is what one pays Max Martin for: at its best, 1989 deals in undeniable melodies and huge, perfectly turned choruses and nagging hooks. Its sound is a lovingly done reboot of the kind of late 80s MTV pop-rock exemplified by Jane Wiedlin’s Rush Hour. It’s bold enough in its homage to take on one vintage sound thus far avoided by 80s revivalists – the booming, stadium-filling snare sound that all artists were legally obliged to use for the latter half of the decade makes a reappearance on I Wish You Would – but not so slavish as to preclude everything else: I Know Places is powered by drum’n’bass-influenced breakbeats; single Shake It Off pitches a My Sharona-ish beat against blaring hip-hop synths; the alternately pulsing and drifting electronics of Style and Clean mark 1989 out as an album made in the wake of Random Access Memories and Cliff Martinez’s 2011 soundtrack to Drive.
But the really striking thing about 1989 is how completely Taylor Swift dominates the album: Martin, Kurstin et al make umpteen highly polished pop records every year, but they’re seldom as clever or as sharp or as perfectly attuned as this, which suggests those qualities were brought to the project by the woman whose name is on the cover. As a songwriter, Swift has a keen grasp both of her audience and of pop history. She avoids the usual hollow platitudes about self-empowerment and meaningless aspirational guff about the VIP area in the club in favour of Springsteenesque narratives of escape and the kind of doomed romantic fatalism in which 60s girl groups dealt: the protagonists of I Know Places don’t end the song being pulled lifeless from a mangled car wreck, as they would have done had the Shangri-Las been in charge of proceedings, but they sound like they might, quite soon” – The Guardian
Choice Cut: Shake It Off
reputation
Release Date: 10th November, 2017
Label: Big Machine
Producers: Taylor Swift/Jack Antonoff/Max Martin/Shellback
Standout Tracks: …Ready for It?/Delicate/New Year’s Day
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Taylor-Swift-Reputation/master/1265121
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6DEjYFkNZh67HP7R9PSZvv?si=vKWT2XUpRF2jeHlQfxEzhQ
Review:
“While ‘Reputation’ packs heavy artillery that was almost entirely absent from ‘1989’, it’s actually a helluva ride. Take the exhilarating and enjoyably self-aware ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’, a delirious waltz that depicts Tay slaying a snaky former friend. After she delivers a massive chorus custom-made for stadiums, there’s a laugh-out-loud spoken-word gag where she begins to express forgiveness but then catches herself and guffaws: ”HA! I can’t even say it with a straight face”. ‘Don’t Blame Me’ crashes like a cyborg in revolt and ‘Dancing With Our Hands Tied’ courses coolly with synth and tightly coiled beats.
The reputation-obsessed ‘End Game’ boasts a killer feature from Future and, erm, a less killer rap from Ed Sheeran (someone please withhold the mic from the lad from Suffolk), while defensive lyrics and a warped vocal sample on ‘I Did Something Bad’ epitomise the album. Is this a relatable record? If you’ve ever wanted to exact revenge on someone, the answer is yes” – NME
Choice Cut: Look What You Made Me Do
Lover
Release Date: 23rd August, 2019
Label: Republic
Producers: Jack Antonoff/Louis Bell/Frank Dukes/Joel Little/Taylor Swift
Standout Tracks: Cruel Summer/The Man/Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Taylor-Swift-Lover/master/1594805
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1NAmidJlEaVgA3MpcPFYGq?si=bJf4M4AUTH2MlBP-VglJ_w
Review:
“Swift adjusts her frame of reference as needed. She claims to be “In my feelings more than Drake” in “I Forgot That You Existed,” a pro forma, post-trop-house declaration of her “indifference” to the haters. Thankfully, that’s mainly it for the sassy, winking Swift. Instead, she mostly goes for the big moods. “False God” is as minor-key and seductive as anything by the Weeknd, with a chorus, well — I’ll just leave this here: “Religion’s on your lips / Even if it’s a false god / We’d still worship / We must just get away with it / The altar is my hips.” She zags into oblique political commentary with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” a high school parable where she sees “high fives between bad guys” and delivers “O! K!” interjections in her best cheerleader voice. Like Euphoria, the HBO teensploitation extravaganza, it’s dark, melodramatic and, against all odds, perfect.
There’s plenty more fodder for the Swifties, haters, and bloggers here. Leo takes a proverbial volleyball to the face on “The Man,” a usefully blunt indictment of double standards, and the dub-inflected “London Boy” counts all the ways she “fancies” her boyfriend Joe Alwyn. “Soon You’ll Get Better” was recorded with Dixie Chicks, but giving the country-radio exiles a feature isn’t the point — the song is note-perfect ballad for Swift’s mother, whose cancer returned earlier this year. Whatever there is to be read into these songs, they are for one person and one person alone: Taylor Swift. Finally” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: Archer
folklore
Release Date: 24th July, 2020
Label: Republic
Producers: Aaron Dessner/Jack Antonoff/Taylor Swift
Standout Tracks: the 1/the last great american dynasty/betty
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Taylor-Swift-Folklore/master/1777815
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0xS0iOtxQRoJvfcFcJA5Gv?si=ayA9zPlpQJuvL2uFKMSXmQ
Review:
“But fans of '1989', 'Reputation', and 'The Archer' on Lover, will be thrilled to hear that the synthy, sugarcoated drama and breathy vocals of yore ('Wildest Dreams', 'Getaway Car', 'Dress') have once again returned to Taylor Swift’s tracklist in earnest, albeit buried under a layer of bright, folksy guitars and ringing pianos. folklore indeed lives up to its title by being completely devoid of any beats faster than that of “invisible string”, and presents Swift almost like a children’s storybook: melodically fresh-faced, lyrically bare.
Swift’s penchant for blending the last remnants of her country roots with a more modern edge shines through the most on synth powerhouses 'this is me trying' and 'mirrorball', the ethereal children of the album. 'my tears ricochet' is a similarly gentle track with hints of synth pop that are a little more on the subtle side, and according to Swift is about “an embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of affection”. And 'hoax', almost entirely piano, takes the album out with a whisper, Swift’s voice dovetailing over soft piano notes that sound almost like her tip-toeing away as she plays those closing notes, wisping away forever.
And 'cardigan[', which begs for a seat at its own table, is a tranquil love song of hope. Part of “the collection of three songs [she] refers to as The Teenage Love Triangle,” that “explore a love triangle from all three people’s perspectives at different times in their lives,” cardigan was “inspired by the feeling of isolation and how it is freeing and terrifying and causes you to reminisce.”
The visuals, a dark and stormy cross between 'Out Of The Woods' and 'Safe And Sound', sees Swift grasping onto her piano, about to be swept away by a storm surge in the middle of the sea. But the video, instead, has a happy ending: Swift escapes troubled waters by climbing into the magical realm of her piano, which opens to a quiet room lit only by candlelight. She puts on her weathered cardigan, and sits delicately at her piano.
For an isolated moment, she finds peace” – CLASH
Choice Cut: cardigan
The Underrated Gem
Red
Release Date: 22nd October, 2012
Label: Big Machine
Producers: Taylor Swift/Nathan Chapman/Jeff Bhasker/Dann Huff/Jacknife Lee/Max Martin/Shellback/Butch Walker/Dan Wilson
Standout Tracks: I Knew You Were Trouble/22/The Last Time (ft. Gary Lightbody)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Taylor-Swift-Red/master/488435
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1KVKqWeRuXsJDLTW0VuD29?si=NNMRBqLaTKaVIdaLQvLgvw
Review:
“Like Kanye West, Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama. So it’s no surprise she manages to make her fourth album both her Joni Mitchell-influenced maturity binge and her Max Martin-abetted pop move – and have it seem not just inevitable but natural.
Red is a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism that’s only tangentially related to Nashville (much like Swift herself at this point). The album pinballs from the U2-tinged liftoff of “State of Grace” to the dubstep-y teen pop of “I Knew You Were Trouble” to “The Last Time,” a sad piano duet with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol. Swift’s bedrock is driving, diaristic post-country rock – see the breakup flashback “All Too Well,” where she drops the great image of “dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light” with her ex.
Part of the fun is watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping: “Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you’re already flying through the free fall,” she sings on the simile-monsoon title track, where banjos and vocoders make out like third cousins. But whether she’s real-talking Jake Gyllenhaal (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”) or fantasizing about crashing “a yacht-club party” that sounds uncannily like the Kennedy bash she attended with her current future-ex-boyfriend Conor (“Starlight”), her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop. When she’s really on, her songs are like tattoos” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: Red
The Latest Album
evermore
Release Date: 11th December, 2020
Label: Republic
Producers: Aaron Dessner/BJ Burton/Bryce Dessner/James McAlister/Jack Antonoff/Taylor Swift
Standout Tracks: gold rush/no body, no crime (ft. Haim)/evermore (ft. Bon Iver)
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5jmVg7rwRcgd6ARPAeYNSm?si=bqbd3JYXS56kO_J4L4f-Cw
Review:
“Elsewhere, ‘Closure’ is filled with weird time signatures, taking Dessner’s distinctive production in a more experimental direction (as heard on The National’s 2017 album ‘Sleep Well Beast’). Then there’s ‘Cowboy like Me’, a rootsy blues-laced number that features backing vocals from Mumford & Sons‘ Marcus Mumford and wouldn’t feel out of place on Lana Del Rey’s ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’.
On ‘Dorothea’, dancing piano lines accompany the story of a lovelorn boy whose high-school sweetheart left to try and make it in Hollywood; the song boasts vocal melodies that could have appeared on her self-titled 2006 debut. The twinkling ‘Champagne Problems’, with its lyrics about a rejected marriage proposal’, comes off as a sibling to Swift’s 2008 mega-hit ‘Love Story’.
The most striking difference between ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, though, is that, occasionally, the new album sees her reaching for fizzing pop heights again. Both ‘Gold Rush’ (co-written with Antonoff) and ‘Long Story Short’ add a layer of ‘1989’-style gloss to the proceedings, imbuing Swift’s ‘folklorian’ sound with a dash of the ‘80s-inspired synth-pop that coursed through that 2014 album. Both tracks feel like they could explode into a banging, stadium-ready chorus if placed into the hands of pop master-producer Max Martin chorus, but instead pull it back at the last minute and favour subtlety” - NME
Choice Cut: willow
The Taylor Swift Book
Tay: The Taylor Swift Story
Author: Jill Parker
Publication Date: 1st April, 2019
Publisher: Sole Books
Synopsis:
“Taylor marched up to the woman behind the front desk and went into gear. "Hi! I'm Taylor Swift! I'm eleven and I want a record deal!" She handed the woman her CD. "Call me!" she said and flashed her a cheery smile. "She thought I was cute," Taylor said when she was back in the car. "The usual Go away and come back when you're eighteen."Taylor stared out the side window as her mother drove slowly down Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. As they passed by the famous Bluebird Cafe, she said, "Someday I'm going to sing here” – Amazon.co.uk