Taylor Swift - 1989

A 10th anniversary review

Following a recent post on Twitter extolling it's virtues I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift’s 1989 on a continuous loop. I'm a 59 year old man. It probably wasn't written with me in mind. Certainly as a young Taylor started to chart her course from country star to pop star I doubt it was the white middle class, middle aged dad market she was aiming at. I've since discovered that the tenth anniversary of it's release is today, 27th October 2024. What follows is a review of the original 13 song album with a bit of a twist as I found some connections to one of my favourite albums of all time.

I began by listening to Taylor's version. The one Taylor released after taking back control of her early back catalogue. It's a brilliant pop record leaning heavily on an early 80s synth sound. Modern, almost too perfect, some may say souless production as is the way with 21st century music but Taylor's vocal cuts through to make it a very enjoyable album. I've also listened to the original, not immediately very different but a little rougher which I like. Then I started to really listen to the lyrics. It's fairly common knowledge that she writes about relationships from a female perspective with razor sharp observations that hit the listener hard. It's powerful stuff. It's a huge part of her enormous appeal. She talks directly to her fan base about the sort of things they experience on a daily basis. As a 59 year old man it can be a little uncomfortable when Taylor taps into male behaviours and their impact.

Bad Blood

Did you think we'd be fine?

Still got scars on my back from your knife

So don't think it's in the past

These kind of wounds they last and they last

Now did you think it all through?

All these things will catch up to you

And time can heal, but this won't

So if you come in my way, just don't

Bottom line both are great pop albums with a strong message and difficult themes. I love it. The title and those themes got me thinking further.

1989 was a life defining year for me, the year I met my first wife. It was also the year I first encountered Del Amitri and the song writing of Justin Currie. Nothing Ever Happens and it's bleak look a the day to day life most of us recognised instantly mixed with biting social comment appeared on Top Of The Pops and I was hooked. There's much more about my relationship with the band here. 1989 also saw Del Amitri release Waking Hours in which Justin writes about relationships from a male perspective with razor sharp observations that hit the listener hard. It's powerful stuff. Sound familiar?

Opposite View

We could be away from here By ten o'clock tonight

Pennies won't get us to heaven, I know

But a borrowed car just might

Look through my wallet

There's enough for a hotel room

But no, no, no, you say "I wanna stay in and get wet with you

"Why do you take the opposite view?

It started to sound like the two albums were two sides of the same story. So I started looking deeper. When 1989 was first released in 2014 Taylor Swift was 24, born December 13th. When Waking Hours was released in 1989 Justin Currie was 24, born December 11th. I don't do star signs but if I did… 1989 was Taylor's attempt to move away from her country roots whereas Waking Hours was Del Amitri's move towards a more country sound following a tour of America. All connections of a sort. When I heard these lyrics from Style my over active imagination pictured the two of them together, as 24 year olds obviously, I'm playing my DeLorean time machine joker here.

Style

You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

And I got that red lip classic thing that you like

And when we go crashing down, we come back every time

'Cause we never go out of style, we never go out of style

You got that long hair, slicked back, white T-shirt

And I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt

And when we go crashing down, we come back every time

'Cause we never go out of style, we never go out of style

Look at them, made for each other.

Anyway back to the album.

Taylor opens 1989 with Welcome To New York. Heavy repetitive hypnotic electronica with Taylor telling a tale of a town she knows well and what hides beneath.

Walkin' through a crowd, the village is aglow

Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats

Everybody here wanted somethin' more

Searchin' for a sound we hadn't heard before

And it said

Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you

If you know Nothing Ever Happens you'll already know where this is going. Over a repetitive acoustic rhythm with Justin telling a tale of a town he knows well and what hides underneath.

Gentlemen time please, you know we can't serve anymore"

Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there's nothing to go

And by five o'clock everything's dead and every third car is a cab

And ignorant people sleep in their beds like the doped white mice in the college lab

And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all

Tenuous perhaps and of course it suits my narrative but it's close enough for me. There's a feeling to the two songs that speaks of two 24 year olds beginning to realise how things really are in adulthood.

Next up is the brilliant Blank Space. This is Taylor at her best. This is a woman in control. A woman who knows what she wants and has left demure in the last century.

Nice to meet you, where you been?

I could show you incredible things

Magic, madness, heaven, sin

Saw you there and I thought

Oh my God, look at that face

You look like my next mistake

Love's a game, wanna play? Ayy

New money, suit and tie

I can read you like a magazine

Ain't it funny, rumours fly

And I know you heard about me

So hey, let's be friends

I'm dyin' to see how this one ends

Grab your passport and my hand

I can make the bad guys good for a weekend

The whole song is gut punch after gut punch of relatability. How much do you recognise in this verse? Not for the last time she finishes the verse on a killer line

Cherry lips, crystal skies

I could show you incredible things

Stolen kisses, pretty lies

You're the king, baby, I'm your queen

Find out what you want

Be that girl for a month

Wait, the worst is yet to come, oh no

Screaming, crying, perfect storms

I can make all the tables turn

Rose garden filled with thorns

Keep you second guessin' like

"Oh my God, who is she?"

I get drunk on jealousy

But you'll come back each time you leave

'Cause darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream

That last line again. To write like this, to be so open. More men should be listening. Look out kids for when a whole generation of Swifties come at new relationships prepared with this stuff and with this validation. It's a startling, phenomenal song. She leaves us with.

Boys only want love if it's torture
Don't say I didn't, say I didn't warn ya

Back to Opposite View and Justin is up for the challenge

We could be different people tonight
Who do you want to choose?
I'll book a table in a suit and tie
And you can wear your sister's shoes

Style next from which I've already shared a passage is another modern look at a female in a relationship saying ok, we're not together any more but you’re hot, you're fun, fuck it.

It's been a while since I have even heard from you (heard from you)

And I should just tell you to leave 'cause I

Know exactly where it leads, but I

Watch us go 'round and 'round each time

In When I Want You Justin is happy to comply

It's a kind of loneliness

It's a kind of emptiness

But I'm not trying I'm just rehearsing

For the perfect day

When I want you, I'll come looking for you

Out Of The Woods feels like a tale of two lovers not ready to face the world yet. Maybe it’s falling apart again? Are others involved? Is this autobiographical? This girl can write a song.

Looking at it now

Last December (Last December)

We were built to fall apart

Then fall back together (Back together)

Oh, your necklace hanging from my neck, the night we couldn't quite forget when we decided, we decided

To move the furniture so we could dance

Baby, like we stood a chance

Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying

And I remember thinking

Are we out of the woods yet?

From Taylor’s angst at the back and forth of another tempestuous relationship to just a shrug of Justin’s shoulders From This Side Of the Morning

So here I sit, rolling back to bed
Knowing love's a hazard that I'd never guessed
But from this side of the morning I couldn't care less
I couldn't care less

Taylor returns to the theme of the lover who comes back after they've ended it for All You Had To Do Was Stay. It's a different approach to the “fuck it” of Style, here it hurts. Do men do this? I guess so, looking for post break up action.

Here you are now, calling me up, but I don't know what to say
I've been picking up the pieces of the mess you made
People like you always want back the love they pushed aside
But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye

Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then why'd you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?

Justin as the protagonist here may just have to accept his lot. She's gone. From Waking Hours - You're Gone he seems resigned to his fate. Not just in this relationship but he doesn’t seem to have much faith that it will ever be ok.

They say that it's better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all

But if you sit down and count the cost of all those losses

There's no profit at all

Shake It Off is such a defining tune for Taylor Swift. Even if you don’t know her you know Shake It Off. It did seem to always be on a radio station somewhere during 2015. It’s the poppiest of 21st century pop tunes. Just a bit of radio friendly fluff right? Well no. It’s much like Del Amitri's Roll To Me. (not from Waking Hours but it works so I’m having it). As Justin has said it's a song that's paid for his house and more being a huge hit in America such is it's jingle jangle catchiness and quirky video (Justin being pushed round in a pram?) A song that contains the line “I don't think I have ever seen a soul so in despair” probably deserves more kudos. So it is with Shake It Off. Behind the relentless hyperactivity it's the story of a girl who's had enough. Tired of judgement from those who don't know her. As Currie says in Roll To Me “you've been down so long you can hardly see” Taylor drags herself of the floor.

I go on too many dates

But I can't make 'em stay

At least that's what people say, mm-mm

That's what people say, mm-mm

Before that ridiculously catchy chorus

But I keep cruisin'

Can't stop, won't stop movin'

It's like I got this music in my mind

Sayin' it's gonna be alright

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off

What an anthem for the era of social media. Imagine being a young woman, finding your way, being judged, questioned, unsure then hearing your hero tell you over and over it's gonna be alright, shake it off. In years to come I wonder how many women will look back on this fluffy pop song as a pivotal moment.

I think the genius and I don't use that word lightly, the genius of 1989 is that in one moment Taylor Swift is a strong independent “fuck you” woman and in the next she becomes the young girl who goes home, cries and regrets when she's on her own. I Wish You Would is the other side again surely recognisable and relatable to her legion of fans.

I wish you would come back

Wish I'd never hung up the phone like I did

I wish you knew that

I'd never forget you as long as I'd live

And I wish you were right here, right now

It's all good

I wish you would

It's also got a funk guitar sound through it like something Nick Heyward would use. Guess what? Another brilliant song.

I’m afraid Justin’s response is less than sympathetic from the brilliantly melancholy Hatful of Rain.

Love hearts on an old stone building
Have no relevance now
Sherry bottles in a bus-stop litter bin
Remind me of you somehow
You look so young it's frightening
Life's been good to you
But strike me down with bolts of lightning
If I wasn't good to you too

Throw me away, throw me away again
'Cos I don't mind, I'm still satisfied
With just a hatful of rain

Well done if you're still with me. I'm not done yet. Nor is Taylor as we've got Bad Blood next. Lyrics spat out though gritted teeth over another electronic drum beat. As the lyric I use at the start of this piece (remember that?) alludes to, it's all gone to shit again.

Now we got problems

And I don't think we can solve 'em

You made a really deep cut

And baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes

You say sorry just for show

If you live like that, you live with ghosts

Time to move on which Taylor does. The woman getting pissed off on Bad Blood has now probably had the Kiss This Thing Goodbye moment.

I sometimes feel when we're together baby, everything has turned out wrong

And I know you feel exactly the same way but still we carry on

I've been waiting up by the window watching these cars go by

And I tell myself that I'll go through the motions for the last time tonight

So come on babe, let's kiss this thing goodbye

Another relationship over and Taylor takes that situation and gives her audience more comfort. Shit happens. This is how you'll feel sometimes. It's ok. Wildest Dreams is one of my favourites on the album. Absolutely heart wrenching. It’s also brilliantly made and performed. You can definitely feel how this would affect her audience. Sometimes you know what’s coming, you know how it ends but…

He said, "Let's get out of this town

Drive out of the city, away from the crowds "I thought,

"Heaven can't help me now "Nothing lasts forever

But this is gonna take me down

He's so tall and handsome as hell

He's so bad, but he does it so well I can see the end as it begins

My one condition is say you'll remember me

Standin' in a nice dress

Starin' at the sunset, babe

Red lips and rosy cheeks

Say you'll see me again

Even if it's just in Your wildest dreams, ah, ha

I don’t have daughters but if I did and I thought this could be them….. Blimey it’s good and just not the sort of song or angle I’d usually hear. Or if I did I wouldn't give it a second thought. It’s a song for the ages.

Not sure anything could have followed Wildest Dreams. How You Get The Girl returns to themes of reconciliation while being a decent pop tune is the weakest song on the album. The exception that proves the rule perhaps.

Stand there like a ghost

Shaking come the rain, rain

She'll open up the door

And say, are you insane?

Say it's been a long six months

And you were too afraid to tell her what you want,

On we go to This Love and it's an acoustic love song beautifully sung. Taylor's country roots coming through. There's enough of a hint of Del Amitri's Move Away Jimmy Blue for my analogy to continue. I can imagine the two songs combining to become one. I'd certainly love to hear Taylor sing Move Away…

Clear blue water

High tide came and brought you in

And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will

Skies grew darker

Currents swept you out again

And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone

In silent screams

In wildest dreams

I never dreamed of this…

….So move away Jimmy Blue

Before your small, small town turns around

And swallows you and swallows you

Wet feet visit the same old places

Yeah finding nothing new

It's a bin full of tissues from made-up faces

In a town full of nothing to do

It's almost a segue into I Know Places a dramatic tale of lovers running from danger. Looking for a place to hide. Probably how it feel’s to be 24 year old Taylor Swift hunted by the paparazzi with her latest beau. Another fabulous song.

Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes
And guns
They are the hunters, we are the foxes
And we run

I imagine if Justin, were he that beau, might view it from the lyrics to Stone Cold Sober

Everybody in the fun house

Says they want out

But we're taking our time

'cos we're in love with time

Whole generations thinking of themselves

As infidels and pop stars

While the bomb loses patience

We line up and just lean against the bar

Stone cold sober, looking for bottles of love.

What is it they say about leaving the best until last? From the moment I heard the magnificent Clean I knew where I was going with it. Several opinions exist about it's meaning, clean from addiction, clean from a toxic relationship. Taylor has said.

The hidden message to Clean is “She lost him, but she found herself, and somehow that was everything.” This song is not just about losing someone you love – it’s also about losing yourself. Being clean is about moving on as a person and really taking care of yourself mentally.

It's that thing she does so well that goes such a long way to explaining her extraordinary appeal especially among young women and girls. This isn't a boy band telling you how to be to get the man you want or what makes you beautiful. This isn't Olivia Newton John asking if a a little more love will make it right. This is your hero saying you'll feel shit when it all falls apart. It's fine. You'll be ok without him.

The rain came pouring down

When I was drownin', that's when I could finally breathe
And by mornin'
Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean

Del Amitri's Empty uses the line “at least a house when it's empty stays clean”. It's the same message. But Justin is saying don't get involved, if you're in a relationship it's going to get dirty. His analogy is an empty house stays clean, as does an empty heart. The song includes my favourite Currie line warning of the fear of being where Taylor is in Clean

Oh, don't get so distressed

If the good life won't arrive

You've been receiving SOS

When it's just your clock reading 505

Yes it goes on to be a message to an ex of the girl he's with. Telling him at least now she's gone you won't get hurt anymore. Get over it mate.

We do not lie side by side

And mock the thought of you

And I don't take her hand and ask

Is this what he used to do?

'Cause I just want to free her from

Your jails of jealous dreams

'Cause at least, a house when it's empty stays clean

It's reminded me that Empty is probably my favourite Del Amitri song.

Back to Taylor and Clean and she sums it up in a brutal sign off

Ten months sober, I must admit

Just because you're clean, don't mean you don't miss it

Ten months older, I won't give in

Now that I'm clean, I'm never gonna risk it

The drought was the very worst, ah-ah, ah-ah

When the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst (Oh)

So there we have it two insightful, thoughtful, sometimes brutal albums made 25 years apart. One by a girl from Pennsylvania another by a lad from Glasgow both wary and scarred already by relationships but not beaten. I drew a lot of strength from Justin’s writing over the years. As I’ve alluded to already Taylor’s worldwide legion of fans male, female and everything in between will no doubt look back at 1989 as not just a date when their parents were kids but an album by their hero that got them through some stuff. The world changed massively between 1989 and 2014, possibly more again in the last ten years. Taylor Swift gives young women a voice, a belief and some power over how life and let's be honest, men treats them. Like it or not, she's really important. Let’s not forget amongst all the great lyrics and messaging it’s a cracking pop album superbly made and full of hooks and highs.

I will be listening to more of Taylor’s albums to see what else I can find. I leave the last line to Justin from the magnificent Empty. It’s a message to those who dismiss the music of Taylor Swift, sneer at her fans, deride 59 year old men who can appreciate a truly special song writer and those who don’t give themselves the opportunity to discover some wonderful music.

'Cause I just want to free her from
Your jails of jealous dreams
'Cause at least, a house when it's empty stays clean.

A Spotify playlist of the two albums….