http://youtu.be/88Iw1XPiB3w

This video is making the rounds today. It’s of 12-year-old Reading native Taylor Swift (perhaps you’ve heard of her) singing the National Anthem before a Sixers game at the Wells Fargo Center in 2002. She’s famous now, and since in Philadelphia we pretend famous people from anywhere near here are basically one of us and won’t leave us tired of waiting, wondering if they’ll ever come around again, I’m posting it.

Anyway, the video’s basically just for the page views, but let’s get serious for a moment and talk about 1989. It’s fantastic. Only album I’ve purchased all year. Each song is better than the one before it. It starts off with the upbeat “Welcome to New York” – replacing “Empire State of Mind” as my go-to whenever I enter NYC – which is followed up by the new single and future Grammy-winning “Blank Space,” paving the way for the mysterious “Out of the Woods,” where upon exit you’ll be encouraged to get moving with “Shake It Off,” all before bringing things back down with the excellent “This Love” and melodic “I Know Places.” I know places, too, Taylor, and one them, my heart, has made room for your music. I’m not even ashamed to admit it because 1989 is the best album of the year. It’s stupid-catchy. The Penguin agrees:

1989, which, rather creepily, is the year Taylor was born*, should be its own radio station in GTA 5 when the game drops on PS4 and Xbox One next week. Not even joking. I want to drive around in a Pegassi listening to “Out of the Woods” while traversing the hills of Los Santos on my way hijack a passenger jet at the airport. Make this happen, 24-year-old Taylor.**

*I mentioned to Mrs. CB that I bought it and, after judging me for a second, she said of the name: “Yeah, it’s about all the wisdom she’s acquired in her 24 years on Earth.” Well, yes, in fact it is. 

**It’s amazing how in 12 years she’s gone from that video to this:

The app for this video is seriously one of the best pieces of content marketing I’ve ever seen.

via Us Weekly, yeah, Us.