Taylor Swift, America’s beloved country star and now pop star, released her fifth studio album “1989”. The album is pure pop, which is not completely new territory for Swift considering she was criticized for her previous album being more pop than country. Despite the outrage of her country fans, Swift decided to take a plunge into the mainstream.

“Shake It Off” , the first song released from Swift’s album, set a precedent for the pop album. With its repetitive and almost annoying message of “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” it gave a false impression of the album as a whole. Collectively, the album is not one huge mass of teen annoyance that “Shake It Off” portrays.

The second song that was released from the album, “Out of the Woods”, follows the same trend of annoying repetition. Though I can’t say it isn’t catchy, the main question of “are we out of the woods yet?” gets to be too much after about a minute.

The third song, “Welcome to New York”, follows the pattern of the first two and may only be relevant when arriving in New York. Otherwise, the song is thoroughly depressing when you realize you are not actually in New York.

Honestly, the first three songs that were released frightened me. I pre-ordered the album on iTunes and after hearing the first songs I had doubts. But, when the complete album was released my doubts were resolved immediately. The same Taylor Swift I loved in “Speak Now” and “Red” re-appeared in 1989 spunkier than ever.

Bad Blood, the eighth track on the album, is my absolute favorite. Swift displays her full force of post-breakup angst in one catchy tune in which Swift so kindly reminds her audience that “band-aids don’t fix bullet holes,” (in case anyone was unsure).

Another of my top tracks is “I Wish You Would.” Basically, Swift is recounting all the things she wishes would have happened to prevent one of the numerous break-ups she sings about. This song, however, is not to be confused with “All You Had To Do Was Stay” in which Swift sings about being emotionally rejected and shut out by someone. Swift addresses this in a surprisingly upbeat fashion, by blaming it solely on the person’s inability to be present in the relationship.

Out of the few slower songs on the album, “This Love” is a favorite also. Swift sings about testing the ‘if you love something let it go’ theory in which her love returns to her. This is one of those typical Swift songs that teen girls will quote on twitter, sing in the shower and hope will come true for them some day. It resembles “Enchanted” and “Begin Again” from her previous albums, and it is a predictable Swift ballad. And I think that is why I adore it so much.

The last song worth discussing is “How You Get the Girl”, one of the more upbeat songs from the album in which Swift delivers on what is promised in the title- a ballad about how to get ‘the girl’. What is Swift’s advice to boys? To tell ‘the girl’ “I want you for worse or for better, I would wait forever and ever,” as if it is really as easy as she implies when she belts it on the track. Regardless of the seemingly trivial message, it is quite catchy and delightful.

The album is an overall success, though it has attracted some flack, being deemed a failed attempt as a transition to the pop music genre. However, I am supportive of Swift’s sidestep into this genre, and the variation of sounds her album displays. This album is a necessity for Swift fans and even those who don’t purchase the entire album will likely purchase a few singles in the coming months as they surface to the radio stations.