Taylor Swift songs

At Taylor Swift's laser show, all you've got to do is surrender to the sentiment, the sound, and the story.

The intense focus of the beams and the brightness of the designs become metaphors for the star’s sense of purpose, her alacrity and self-possession, and her total dedication to hard-selling the hook. “Laser Taylor Swift” contained some hypnotic designs, like the pulsing doughnut of light that hovered overhead during “22.” But most of the memorable sequences in the show were icons etched in laser light. When Swift describes herself as “lightning on my feet” in the irresistible “Shake It Off,” we did not need to see a bolt with legs. At the original “Laser Floyd,” for instance, most of the designs on the ceiling of the Hayden Planetarium were non-representational. The chorus of “Blank Space” is terrifying enough in its naked hunger; spelling it out in ten-foot letters on the cosmos felt downright tyrannical. “Laser Taylor Swift” underscored the fundamentally discursive nature of the superstar’s project. But once the beat kicks in, and Swift begins to sing, none of that matters. The show includes a fan-favorite fairy tale from her Nashville period, a few titanic pop songs recorded with the ruthlessly economical hit machine Max Martin, two newies from Midnights, her moody 2022 set, and “Christmas Tree Farm,” one of her many loosies, and a song appropriate to the season. Everything exists to serve the story and the star. It’s to share her sense of outrage at those who’ve done her protagonists wrong, hang on each detail, and root for her, even when she is, as she described herself in a recent song, the anti-hero. The designs aren’t terribly trippy, and the projections don’t aim to overwhelm, or stun, or blow minds. “Laser Taylor Swift” will light up the dome at the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium at Liberty Science Center (222 Jersey City Boulevard)