1989-Deluxe Edition by Taylor Swift (2014-05-04)

This was a Christmas gift for my sister. She likes it a lot!

Despite hearing the name, I've only recently become fully aware of Swift's music. I'm a rock guitarist of 30+ years. As a kid in the 80s I used to love pop, before moving on to rock and metal. After watching "Shake it Off" on Youtube I kind of dismissed it a little, and assumed that Swift was "manufactured" like many others. How utterly wrong I was. After going down a Youtube rabbit hole and exploring Swift's entire output the sheer talent of this girl/woman quickly became obvious. I now consider her to be one of the greatest pop song writers and performers of all time. Whilst many meanly attack her vocal technique (mainly in a live setting), I personally adore her voice, it has a crystal clear transparency, but with a punchy power in the lower part of her range. Her eagerness to whip out an acoustic guitar for a small crowd, or to a stadium of 75,000+, and to connect with the audience so powerfully is truly breath taking. Her authenticity as a performer is as good as I've ever seen, and rare amongst pop acts. As a song writer her sense of 'hook' melody and harmony is amazing. The album "1989" marked a full move away from country-pop-rock (and the amazing "Red" album) into full pop. Whilst inspired by the music of the 1980s (of which Swift is a fan) I wouldn't say it sounds particularly like 80s pop music. Yes, it does has the same kind of synth tones, but the songs/production are smoother and the sound quite "full" unlike the syncopated "space loaded" feel of actual 80s pop. As such "1989" almost has a unique timeless sound IMO, and I believe it will stand the test of time very well, and not date quickly like a lot of 80s music has. The most famous track "Shake It Off" (with just a drum, bass and saxophone) is actually very atypical of the rest of the tracks on the album which are mostly entirely synth loaded. The quality of the songs on 1989 is outstanding, every single track is wonderful. Taylor wrote the majority of the tracks on acoustic guitar or piano, before producers Max Martin etc. converted them into pop productions. On the Deluxe CD version, you can hear her play the demo version of the mega hit Blank Space (that she'd written on acoustic guitar) to the producers. Some people meanly claim the producers wrote the songs on 1989 and/or were solely responsible for its success. This is clearly nonsense, in fact I would say that ANY decent pop producer could make smash hits from Taylor's song ideas. Make no mistake, (bar a couple of tracks like I Wish You Would and Out of The Woods) the musical core of the songs is all her. Only the very, very best albums reach the heights of "1989". I never quite expected this, but Swift has moved me more than any musicians since Queen who I listened to for the first time as a kid in the 1980s, she's that good. Her music makes me feel like that kid again. She's now an icon, and graced a cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Paul McCartney, and rightfully so.

This is my first Taylor Swift album. Obviously I'd heard some of her songs (who hasn't?) but I suppose in the past I've just been a bit predjudiced that it's probably going to be "too young" for me. But recently I took the plunge.And - Wow - I'm glad I did. It's good enough that it prompted me to get two more of her back catalog, Red and Fearless. I've been working away the past couple of days and had these 3 albums on in the car. I have become a "Swiftie".The other albums have some great tracks too - but of these three, 1989 is definitely the best. You feel a lot more of her country roots in the other 2, but personally I found this album to be a lot more creative, mature, and contemporary. The lyrics are smart and catchy, and somehow just great fun to (attempt to) sing (if you're a bloke, you just might want to turn it down a notch at the traffic lights...).It's easy to see why this young talent is already the 6th best selling solo female artist of all time, and undoubtedly with plenty more to come.

I love Taylor Swift's music and have both the standard and deluxe/platinum editions of all her albums, so I had to get this after hearing "Wonderland" and an acoustic cover of "You Are in Love" on YouTube. It is a great album and the three extra tracks are pretty essential - hard to fathom why they are not on the standard edition. "You Are in Love" has a fairly repetitive melody, but the backing reminds me of "I'm on Fire" or "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen. Great track - very atmospheric! The voice memos are nice to have too.

As a 47 year old male maybe I shouldn't be writing a review about Taylor Swift but what a talented lady!! Every album I buy gets better and better and this one is no exception!Here Taylor clearly experiments with a slightly different and more modern sound which I absolutely love, the newly released 'style' is a superb sing along track while other parts of the album are spell bounding. 'Wildest Dream' sits as one of my favorites but the whole album will involve you in some way or another.Taylor clearly understands her audience and the three bonus tracks at the end of the CD shows her fans how she writes and records her music. This clearly demonstrates a very clever, creative and talented woman who I think has still got a long way to go to find her 'real' style and 'oh boy' what a great journey this is going to be for all of her fans and supporters, I can't wait to see where we go next!

I have only recently discovered Taylor's music and am very pleased with the deluxe version of this CD.The opening track, Welcome To New York, has three notes constantly playing in the background - this reminded me very much of Baba O'Riley by The Who (the theme tune to CSI NY for those of you unfamiliar with The Who). The track is very enjoyable and is, for this listener, a highlight.I don't know whether it's Taylor herself or her co-writers, but someone has the knack of writing catchy choruses that stick in the mind and turn a good track into a highlight. Examples include Out Of The Woods, Shake It Off, I Wish You Would, Wildest Dreams, and I Know Places.Shake It Off has an opening that is reminiscent of Mickey by Toni Basil, but is an enjoyable song in its own right.Most of the music is lively and energetic, so special mention should be made of This Love, which is softer and moodier than the rest. This track is another highlight.The final highlight for this listener is one of the bonus tracks, New Romantics - this song probably makes it worth paying the extra for the deluxe version.I have to admit that the three "voice memos" at the end do little for me, but it would be a five-star CD even if they were excluded so I can't justify removing a star.