This review covers the pop track Taylor Swift – Shake It Off.
This track was released in 2014 on the album 1989.
For me, when I was listening to the first part, I thought that this was average, but I thought that I would wait and let this track play through, thinking it was going to build up to something. Unfortunately, it never really builds up to anything exciting in the end. So, the experience of listening to this, to me, leaves me feeling a little empty.
They lyrics try to be creative by repeating words throughout. I don’t dislike this element, but if this track built up to something particularly exciting (i.e. a distinctive instrument), then I would say that the repeated lyrics would have helped. I also thought that the lyrics hit a major cliche bump along the way. Saying what a great track you are listening to in the track itself has, in my view, been done to death by now. There are countless tracks that say things like “drop the beat” or various ways of referring to the track with the word “beats”. You might be able to get away with this kind of thing in the mid 2000’s so long as it’s merely a component of the track, but now, it’s a rather cringe-worthy cliche.
At first, I thought the brass did add a bit of flavor to the track, but as I went along, it was more and more apparent that the brass was wearing out its welcome. By the time I got to the end of the track, I was almost ready to demand that something else be put into the track.
I think one positive of this track was that the mood being portrayed here is very self-explanatory. Just look at the track title to know it.
Ultimately, there were a few directions this track could have taken to be interesting. One would be to find some way to beef up the way the lyrics were sung towards the end. Another way was to add some distinctive sound or melody that really compliments the track. At most, you get some general strings that only prevents the track from sounding very dry. Beyond that, this track pretty much went nowhere for me. So, for me, it was a bland and decidedly average track.
Score
5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
