Taylor Swift’s new album “Red” departed a bit from the old country Taylor that we love, but even though T’s metamorphosis into a poppy and mainstream artist continues I’m still a fan of the album.
The new album is good. It hasn’t (yet) become the major part of my everyday life that “Speak Now” was, but it definitely shows promise. “I Knew You Were Trouble,” though lacking even the slightest country touch, was what I listened to on repeat to get stoked for my football game (which we won 40-0).
I couldn’t lie and say I don’t miss the fiddles and banjos and steel guitars that started my relationship with Taylor, but I’ve accepted that she’s changing and that’s just a fact of life that all couples deal with. “Stay Stay Stay,” “Everything Has Changed,” and even WANEGBT (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”)––which I was not initially a fan of––have all become favorites.
It was sort of weird when I found out Taylor was going to do a song with Ed Sheeran because she didn’t ask me about it beforehand, but I got over it and everyone agrees it was for the best because it’s an amazing song (that’s “Everything Has Changed”). The only thing that can actually put a little bit of a damper on the album for me is everyone else’s attitude.
A lot of people are seriously attacking Taylor’s work for it’s repetitive subject matter: boys and bad break ups. Admittedly, the topics are well exhausted, but if you don’t think her lyrical talent is impressive, you aren’t being honest with yourself (“White Horse,” the metaphor that contrasts someone she loved with the ideal knight; “Dear John,” the named call-out of John Mayer that compares him to a “sad, empty town”; the rhythmic cadence of “Mean” “you with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation.”) But it doesn’t really matter if she doesn’t use as much fiddle or she talks about all the boyfriends before me. I am a fan of her. Even more than her music and everything else. She is cute, funny, talented, makes good music, and only five years older than me. What more could I ask for?
