Red
Taylor Swift
Big Machine
If you’ve ever wronged Taylor Swift, you can guarantee that she’ll wrong you back – except she happens to have a public forum of millions of fans, a guitar, and catchy lyrics on her side.
Swift’s fourth studio album Red was released Oct. 22 and, as anticipated, the album boasts a vast expanse of lyrical messages — whatever your relationship may have been with her, good, bad or ugly – she’s singing about it.
While this retaliation-oriented lyric style has driven Swift to the epitome of stardom and success, she has recently been heavily criticized for this continuation of child-like behaviour. Many hoped the fourth album for the 22-year-old singer would mark a departure from accusatory, vengeance-filled lyrics towards an expansion and growth of her musical talent.
It seems as though those critiques fuelled an album teeming with the very style that rocketed Swift to the forefront of country music in her late teens: her mantra of good songs for good boys and bad songs for bad boys is recurring in nearly every song on her extended album.
And if you’re a fan of Swift, the album Red, a colour that simultaneously represents love and anger, is exactly what you were waiting for. She croons, chants and shouts her messages rife with clarity as she explicitly trills to the poor soul who inspired the hit single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — it’s not happening, like, ever.
Yet, there’s something to be said about Swift continuing to write her own songs about her own experiences – they’re real, and hate her if you must but her songs are, simply put, undeniably relatable.
“Girl At Home’s” narrative of shaming the cheating boy or “Begin Again’s” ballad detailing a new relationship connection and attempt to persuade yourself that Swift isn’t stalking you and unswervingly speaking to you and your experiences.
Musically speaking, Swift – once everyone’s favourite country personality – has made a marked entrance into the field of pop with indisputably upbeat lyrics, underlying electronic rhythm and those chant-like, repetitive lyrics so inherently symbolic of pop music.
Coupled with lyrics about boys who are trouble, “When I fell hard, you took a step back,” and verses about acting not at all your age, “It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters and make fun of our exes,” this new pop beat makes Swift seem even more childish. What were once heartfelt, relatable ballads have transformed into sing-songy, stick-your-tongue-out tracks that feel less like a confession and more like an accusation.
For those who prefer Swift in her original, raw atmosphere, the album does offer a sparing amount of slower, calmer tracks – “All Too Well,” “Treacherous,” and “Sad Beautiful Tragic” are all reminiscent of Swift’s first and second albums.
Despite this genre change and what may be an insistent, unwavering commitment to questioning her lyrical integrity, one thing is for sure — nearly all of her songs will, at some point, slowly climb their way to your top-played list. They always do.
