TAYLOR SWIFT – 1989

On album five, Ms Swift pays homage to the brash ’80s and her adoration for the pop tunes of Madonna and Eurythmics. What she appears to have created instead is something stuck around 2001. While the first single, Shake It Off, was a breezy girlie group reworking of The Cars' Shake It Up hit from 1981, everything else here sounds more rock light than pop heavy. What missing is the spirit of the era – nothing on 1989 is as much fun as it should be. Tracks plod along with lyrics about boyfriends who make her feel like she’s drowning, or ex-boyfriends who should remember her in a f loral dress looking at the sunset. Like, really?