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Album of the week: 1989, by Taylor Swift

Much has been made of Taylor Swift's decision to move from country music to pure pop. The transition may seem natural but she is divesting herself of a security blanket: in country, she's one of a kind; in pop she's one among many. Now she stands unshrouded and surrounded by potential rivals.

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Album of the week: 1989, by Taylor Swift
1989
Taylor Swift
Big Machine
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Much has been made of Taylor Swift's decision to move from country music to pure pop. The transition may seem natural but she is divesting herself of a security blanket: in country, she's one of a kind; in pop she's one among many. Now she stands unshrouded and surrounded by potential rivals.

The album is a nod to her birth year and to her new, lightly seasoned late 1980s sensibility. She opens with , a celebration of the city so misguided it could only have been written by a celebrity or a tourist. It's the album's low point.

Taken under a microscope, is full of generic songwriting and clichéd couplets. But taken altogether (call it a Monet), it rings with charm and vivacity.

Swift tries on lots of styles - they are borrowed: is Lana Del Rey, is Haim, and Lorde is sprinkled throughout. Plus older influences: I heard echoes of Eve 6, Natasha Bedingfield and Savage Garden.

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Swift's own contributions are her flawless image ("That good girl faith and a tight little skirt") and her storytelling, which shimmers when specific ("Remember when you hit the brakes too soon/Twenty stitches in the hospital room").

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