Within hours of its midnight release on Monday, Taylor Swift's newest album, Red, sky-rocketed to the No. 1 slot on iTunes and is shaping up to be another hit album for the 22-year-old songstress. Swift has already released three No. 1 albums and received multiple Grammy awards. The highly anticipated release of Red marks the epitome of what it means to be Holly-wood's starlet, with her fans hanging on every lyric of the new singles off of the album.
To be quite honest, I have been a devoted Taylor Swift fan since I heard her eponymous first album, followed by Fearless and Speak Now. I have grown up with Taylor; she was there at my first heartbreak and I cried along to every emotional lyric that so boldly expressed what I was feeling. But now, as Taylor and I have both grown up, her music has changed. Red has many similarities to past hits in terms of song themes, but Swift also experiments with new sounds, especially pop.
The album starts off with "State of Grace," and although the song is admittedly weaker than others, it is typical of Swift to not start an album with her best work. The song draws listen-ers in, with her tender voice contrasted by strong instrumentals. Following this song, "Red" steals the show and is one of my favorite tracks of the entire album. The beginning line, "Loving him is like driving a new Maserati on a dead end street," perfectly evokes the feeling she seeks: speeding up with nowhere to go. The song is catchy and the color symbolism-red for love, blue for breaking up and grey for missing him-provides a visual context of emotional state that most songs do not. As a whole, the song reminds me of "The Way I Loved You" from Fearless because they both deal with lost love yet don't sink into a despairing, heart-wrenching tone.
Toward the middle of the album, most of the songs are filler, light-hearted pop that diminishes Swift's talent. Both "22," "Stay Stay Stay" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" all exemplify this cursory musical style of mediocre pop songs. "I Knew You Were Trouble" almost falls into this precarious category, but redeems itself purely in its comical value. For whatever reason, Swift breaks into some form of dubstep; the echoes of "trouble trouble trouble" resonate through the entire song somewhat eerily. These filler songs add nothing to the album and detract from the success of what Swift does best: ballads.
In this album, "I Almost Do" and "Sad Beautiful Tragic" fill the ballad expectation of heartbreak commentary. The former features an acoustic guitar opener, followed by Swift's airy voice. Unlike the ballads on past albums, her voice is clearly more digitally enhanced, but in this instance it does the song justice. Additionally, Swift's mostly teenage girl audience, having much experience in this area, can relate to the love-jaded lyrics, the power of which should not be ignored. "Sad Beautiful Tragic" is another prime example of a Swift ballad-the music slowly creeps to its pinnacle of melancholy, drowning in her lost love and heartbreak. This is the type of song that I blast at full volume while I let my emotions run wild. Like "Enchanted" off of Speak Now, it pulls at my carefully tied-up emotions and brought back the Taylor I connected with in previous albums.
On other albums, Swift has been accompanied by fellow female artist Colbie Caillat, but Red features the soulful voices of both Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody. Of the two, I personally enjoyed "Everything Has Changed" with Sheeran and his raw, acoustic voice. Swift banishes the distasteful pop that dominates other tracks in favor of a more natural, earthy sound. Her lyrics are as powerful as ever, but in place of a depressing failed-love story, Swift is optimistic and perfectly captures that first moment of attraction.
What can I say? As a proud Taylor supporter, I'm trying hard not to fall into the bottom-less trap of blind approval of Red, but it is a solid album. She hits all the classical features of past songs but is also continuing to develop and evolve her style.
I won't be listening to the album on repeat for the next month, but select songs have earned their place in a new playlist.