My Top 2000 Songs #1168: Blank Space

When I first referenced Taylor Swift's 1989 a few years back, I called it a Guilty Pleasure. I'd never embraced music crit "poptimism," and had zero interest in pretty much anything played on popular radio after the 1990s ended. Plus, as one of those Cool Dads intent on steering my own kids clear of kiddy-oriented mainstream music, I deliberately avoided Taylor Swift, instead ensuring my kids were well versed in the work of Pavement and Wilco.

But I eventually picked up 1989 out of curiosity, maybe a couple years after its 2014 release; I think it was shortly after hearing Ryan Adams' remake of the record, which gave it a touch of indie cred (and, yeah, I'm not gonna go any further on that guy!). And I was (pleasantly? unpleasantly?) surprised to find I really liked it. Because a great pop song is a great pop song and all that, and about half the album is packed with some of the most well-constructed pop songs since the glory days of Billy Joel and Elton John, my generation's artists whom I had abhorred in my youth but came around on. And in the years since, the "Guilty" part of Guilty Pleasure has all but faded, and I genuinely enjoy a lot of Swift's music, even if my appreciation of pop radio hasn't moved far beyond her. (Ok, Olivia Rodrigo, fine.)

A lot of songs on the record caught my attention, but "Blank Space" is probably the best distillation of her songwriting chops run through the commercial production machine. It sounds great, and, once I'd deciphered it, the tangled line "Got a long list of ex-lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane" is an all-timer.

No guilt!

Solo acoustic:

Ryan Adams cover: