- A promotional image for Taylor Swift’s album 1989
Last night, 24-year-old pop powerhouse Taylor Swift released the second single from her forthcoming album, 1989. “Out of the Woods” takes a very different tone than the no-worries number “Shake It Off,” released last August—it’s a tense ballad with stark, punchy production. Big drums compete with Swift’s vocals in the foreground, while whispers of synth bass snake around the back. For a young songwriter who’s staked her claim in the pop world by writing flexible, athletic melodies, “Out of the Woods” is something of a sharp turn: its chorus pounds out just two notes bunched together in tight, dense syllables. Compared to recent singles by Miley Cyrus and Sky Ferreira, “Out of the Woods” almost works as a counterpoint to traditional ballad structure—it’s very nearly an antiballad.
