Just before the stoke of midnight, a new song off Taylor Swift's forthcoming album, 1989, surfaced on iTunes. It quickly rose to number one, sending her first single "Shake It Off" to second place. It's a hard-knock life.
"Out Of The Woods," like Swift's previous number one smash, is decidedly more poppy than anything she's put out before. ("I Knew You Were Trouble" can't hold a candle to this '80s synth production.) And, it's good. It's really good. It's another sugary-sweet earworm that's probably (definitely) about Harry Styles, a relationship she describes as one "where you never feel like you're standing on solid ground."
Relationship drama aside, though, "Out Of The Woods" lives up to the sonic switch Swift's 1989 hype machine has been promoting. Unlike Lady Gaga, who used pop as a launching pad to make the music she truly wanted to make (read: jazz, maybe), Swift is using it as a means of self-actualizing. She's traded her country roots for pre-recorded productions that simply require some verses and a hook to spin over them. Whether this will reveal who Taylor Swift truly is will be proved come October 27 when 1989 drops. Until then, enjoy the grade-A formulaic chorus. You'll be repeating it for days on end. (Just Jared)