Review: Taylor Swift's Red

Red

Taylor Swift is not a bad singer. She is also not a bad songwriter. Her new album, Red, released this past week, is not a bad album. However, I'd have to get a significant amount of money from someone to call it a "great" album.

Red would be an impressive album at the beginning of Swift's career. We've got to remember that Swift is in some ways, a prodigy. "Tim McGraw", one of the singles from her 2006 self-titled debut album, never fails to bring a smile to my face. There's something extremely poignant about the lyrics of the chorus - "When you think Tim McGraw/I hope you think my favorite song/the one we danced to all night long", just for a little example. Six years ago, when that album came out, I wanted to be Taylor Swift. She was the dream of every teen/tween girl out there, and all my friends loved her too. We got a sense that she was just like us. When 2010's Speak Now came out, I bought all of it after hearing only a few songs. Though I was in a much more mature place at that point, it felt like Swift was in a more mature place too. "Last Kiss" in particular, felt like a song that couldn't be immediately identified as teenybopper pop. 

This is the main reason why Red feels like a step backward. The lead single of the album "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" feels like something out of my twelve year old cousin's diary. The chorus could have been written by anyone. "This time, I'm telling you I'm telling you/We are never ever getting back together/We are never ever getting back together/You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me/But we are never ever ever getting back together". It feels embarrassingly juvenile. This song is something that caters to the Hannah Montana crowd. 

It was, in short, a disappointing first impression of the album. While catchy, I was definitely expecting something better, especially after Swift's collaboration with the indie band The Civil Wars - "Safe and Sound". 

Thankfully, the rest of the album is not quite as disappointing as "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" seemed to suggest. There are a few songs here that have a human sparkle to them. "Begin Again", "State of Grace", and "The Last Time" are definitely the best tracks of the album. If it weren't for its over-repetitive chorus and nasally bubblegum vocals, "The Lucky One" would be in that list too. "Red" and "State of Grace" aren't bad, but aren't really worth a repeat listen. "Treacherous" is like the Taylor Swift equivalent of Miley Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed". "Holy Ground" is cliche-ridden. "22" could have been written by Ke$ha. "I Knew You Were Trouble" feels like filler. 

The songs are nothing interesting, nothing new. Not one song makes me say "Wow, that is creative/interesting/new/fresh/compelling/inspiring/etc". The faults of the songs lie mainly in the choruses. Nearly all are extremely repetitive, and while that's good for sing-along, it doesn't make for a complex or mature album.

Taylor Swift is still young, 22 years old. It's definitely not a bad album. I've heard many try to excuse some of her flaws with her age. Taylor Swift is not the worst early-twenties artist out there. With the exception of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", all of Swift's singles are better than Britney Spears's "I'm A Slave 4 U" (2001), released when Spears was 20. However, Swift pales in comparison to some other young artists. Fiona Apple's When the Pawn... (1999) was released when she was 22. That album's Grammy-nominated single's (Paper Bag) second verse goes "I said, 'Honey, I don't feel so good, don't feel justified/Come on put a little love here in my void,' he said/'It's all in your head,' and I said, 'So's everything'/But he didn't get it I thought he was a man/But he was just a little boy". The difference between Apple and Swift as that while Swift began as the kind of singer who every girl to relate to, her music has become Guess-The-Celebrity-Boyfriend, while Apple's music is written because she wants to write music. I'm sure Swift does as well, but Red feels like an inhuman jumble of products from the pop hit factory.

I have hope for Taylor Swift's musical future. But Red is still the first Taylor Swift album I won't buy all of.