1. "Welcome to New York" → Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, "She's Leaving"
2. "Blank Space" → ASTR, "Operate"
"Blank Space" and "Operate" have the same irresistible boom-bap rhythm and crisp snares, propelling each track along with a head-nodding swagger.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / ASTRtv)
3. "Style" → Odesza, "Say My Name (ft. Zyra)"
"Say My Name" and "Style" both have thumping, slow-build verses that open up in anthemic, fist-pumping choruses. Each deftly use synthesizers in service of a towering melody. The Washington state duo have also remixed Sia and Charli XCX.
LISTEN: Soundcloud | Spotify
(Images via Big Machine Records / Pitch Perfect PR)
4. "Out of the Woods" → Jimmy Eat World, "Lucky Denver Mint"
The Taylor Swift/Jimmy Eat World Mutual Appreciation Society has been cemented, with Taylor inviting the band on stage in Phoenix to perform their hit "The Middle" and Jimmy Eat World covering "We are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together" on Conan. It's maybe not surprising, then, that the hypnotic rhythm and dreamy chorus of "Out of the Woods" is reminiscent of Jimmy Eat World's underrated gem, "Lucky Denver Mint."
(Images via Big Machine Records / Instagram)
5. "All You Had to Do Was Stay" → Allie X, "Catch"
Canadian Allie X's Katy Perry-approved "Catch" is a bit of a slow burn, shuffling and addictive. It sounds a lot like "All You Had to Do Was Stay," down to the cascading synths and even the tempo.
Compare Taylor in "Stay" — "All I know is that you drove us off the road" — with Allie in "Catch" – "You thought you'd get away with murder" — and it quickly becomes clear that we have two perfect f-off jams here.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Allie X)
6. "Shake it Off" → Kat Dahlia, "Crazy"
"Crazy" isn't quite as funky and buoyant as the impossibly catchy "Shake it Off," but it shimmies and saunters with the same brimming confidence and is also accented by similarly bright and staccato horns. Both are undeniably great Songs For Strutting.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Kat Dahlia)
7. "I Wish You Would" → Haim, "Forever"
Taylor and the Haim girls are best buds. They whale watch together. They also happen to both make sparkling, muscular, irresistible pop music. "I Wish You Would" and "Forever" are both propulsive and percussive, riding waves of brimming confidence and bravado.
LISTEN: YouTube | Spotify
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Haim)
8. "Bad Blood" → Tegan and Sara, "Closer"
Surprisingly anthemic? ✓
Sultry, kinda coquettish, party vibe? ✓
Gets stuck in your head after one listen? ✓
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Tegan & Sara)
9. "Wildest Dreams" → Sofi de la Torre, "Vermillion"
"Wildest Dreams" is one of the more bleary-eyed tracks on 1989, with a woozy synth anchor and submerged-sounding percussion. It slowly builds and builds with drama. Ditto "Vermillion." Sofi de la Torre's understated 2014 summer slow burner is a little more insistent, with humming four-on-the-floor throbs, but is wispy and cooing and subtle in all the same (great) ways as "Wildest Dreams."
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Sofi de la Torre)
10. "How You Get the Girl" → Phoenix, "Everything is Everything"
"How You Get the Girl" is strummier than a lot of the sparkling, new wave-y 1989. It also has a syncopated, stuttering rhythm and a maximalist chorus, much like the precise, funky, detail-laden "Everything is Everything," from beloved French pop maestros Phoenix.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Phoenix)
11. "This Love" → Wet, "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl"
If you like Taylor in the breathy ballad mode of "This Love," you should check out not only the lush, slowly unfurling "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl," but really all of Wet's debut, self-titled EP. It's full of beautiful and heartbreaking and subtle R&B-influenced pop.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Wet)
12. "I Know Places" → Charli XCX, "Stay Away"
You might know Charli from the chorus of "Fancy" and the big, brassy "Boom Clap," but her fantastic 2013 album, True Romance often found her belting out dark, swirling anthems like "Stay Away." "I Know Places" has a similarly minor key, moody, brooding vibe.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Charli XCX)
13. "Clean" → Montgomery, "Piñata"
"Clean" and "Piñata" are both fluttering, minimal, mid-tempo gems that threaten to explode into some cathartic release, but keep stringing along and stringing along the drama.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Montgomery)
14. "Wonderland" → Natalia Kills, "Wonderland"
These two's similarities don't end at the title — both are stomping, no-nonsense, dare we say Gaga-esque anthems? OK, maybe Natalia's is more Gaga and Tay's is more Rihanna, but the stomping anthems thing still holds.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Natalia Kills)
15. "You are in Love" → Jessie Ware, "Tough Love"
"You are in Love" has a lot in common with the title track from English chanteuse Jessie Ware's gorgeous Tough Love — two shimmering, towering, vulnerable ballads.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Jessie Ware)
16. "New Romantics" → Betty Who, "Heartbreak Dream"
Esteemed Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield called "New Romantics" the "best song the Pet Shop Boys never wrote." It certainly has the Big, Bold sound of '80s New Romantic pop. You can find a similar airy sheen in Betty Who's "Heartbreak Dream," a chest-beating, cotton candy-colored jam. If you're not up on Betty, check out pretty much literally everything she's ever done. So underrated, so wonderful.
(Images via Big Machine Records / Facebook / Betty Who)
