1989 fulfills every listener’s ‘Wildest Dreams’: A track-by-track review(4 of 5)
"This Love" is the opposite when it comes to sound on 1989, with soft multi-vocals and slow warm synths that contrast to the hard-hitting synth guitars and drums that are constant in the instrumentals of most songs on the album. Many fans have ranked this song one of their lowest out of the 16 songs on 1989, but proves itself to be instrumentally, lyrically, and emotionally unique compared to the rest of the songs on the album. Photo is a screenshot.
by Leanna Tabora, staff reporter
This section of 1989 includes a few of Swift’s best work for late-80’s synth-pop. Multi-vocaled love songs and seductive fatalist wild dreams prove that Swift is best at whatever genre she decides to tackle.
- “Wildest Dreams”– This dreamy and seductive song about the dark tale of a dangerous and fatalist love. Swift’s vocals, which are very similar to Lana Del Rey’s, sing in a very alluring and sexual tone. Followed by the beat of Swift’s heartbeat and surging drums, Swift’s lyrics display everything a “wild dream” would actually be when you develop an intimate connection with someone. Dangerous, sexy, and mysterious. “I said, “No one has to know what we do/His hands are in my hair/His clothes are in my room” are lyrics that not only seduce the lover she’s speaking to, but anyone who listens to this song. This provocative song is definitely lives up to the superior quality of 1989. Grade: 10/10
- “How You Get The Girl”– Following the seducing “Wildest Dreams”, “How You Get The Girl” is one of the cheerful and liveliest songs on 1989. The instrumentals are built over strumming acoustic guitars. “Tell her that you’ve lost your mind/When you left her all alone/And never told her why/And that’s how it works/That’s how you lost the girl.” The lyrics in the song works as a guide tutorial on steps to get back into an ex-girlfriend’s life after leaving her all alone. The chorus of this song is sung in the perspective of the ex-boyfriend, saying sweet phrases to get his ex-girlfriend back, resembling wedding vows. “I want you for worse or for better/I would wait for ever and ever/Broke your heart? I’ll put it back together/I would wait for ever and ever.” This song is a mix of Swift’s old and new material, but is definitely an adorable and lovely masterpiece. Grade: 8.8/10
- “This Love”– This multi-tracked vocal song produced by Nathan Chapman is the only song that Swift wrote herself for the album, approaching heartbreak with a wider perspective. This is the slowest song on the record filled with a warm wash of synths that sounds like ocean waves. The sound of the ocean waves serves as a metaphor in the song, hoping that if you let go of a love it will come back like tide waves. This feverishly emotional ballad is refreshing and calming, and serves perfectly as the one soft-synth pop song on 1989. Grade: 10/10
- “I Know Places”– This dark track is about Swift and a lover carrying on a relationship while the media and their cynics (metaphorically compared to as vultures and hunters) circle around it and negatively judging them (metaphorically compared to as foxes who are being taken down by the hunters). “They are the hunters/We are the foxes/And we run”and “See the vultures circling in dark cloud” are the major metaphors that are implied that Swift and a lover are trying to keep their relationship in tact while being “whispered” about. Beginning and ending the song with flashing cameras of photographers and hard-hitting martial drums, the song perfectly fits the mood Swift is aiming for. Grade: 7/10
Stay tuned for the final part of this review.