Despite being a huge Taylor Swift fan, I am not a huge fan of her albums. Speak Now was a smooth sailing serial monogamists diary wrapped in a bloated piece of pop product, unlike her second album, Fearless, a superior career making charge at teenagerhood that joined her to a fanbase part peer part pardon.The problem with Speak Now was it was over arranged, the problem with Red is that it is over produced. But neither problems can weaken the impact of Swift's best songs, all tall stories about romantic fatigue, and their ability to be entirely subjective yet with a wide net that trawls and captures first her fanbase and then the rest of the world.
The proof is in the truly astonishing "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" which might not be the success "Call Me Maybe" is but as pure pop product, beats it solid. Carly Rae's song dug deep into the national vocabulary but that is all there was. The album is a dud and a support slot on Justin Bieber's tour isn't gonna save it. But "Never Ever" is a cheeky "how ya been guys, here is something new by Taylor. It isn't a defining moment, it isn't a defining song. the (feigned) off hand nature of the song is so inner circle, so directed to a guy but winking at her fans, it is like running into a best friend who moved away a year ago.
The best song on the album, and not quite as good as a song as "Speak Now", let alone "Love Story", but a better pop moment, a better way to define zeitgeist. And the rest of the album doesn't reach this magnificent pop height. Indeed, considering "Never Ever" is a break up song, the rest of the album doesn't even reach such high spirits. Both "22" and "Stay Stay Stay" are sweet, joyful moments but that makes 3 out of 16 songs. Even the Joni Mitchell, giving up Madison Square for a Rose Garden and Ethel Kennedy gets given this is a downer of an album.
And there in lies the first problem here, the album is a little depressing, honestly "Begin Again", surely the whole point of the enterprise is all achy and sad because of the lyrical direction: she might be in the process of leaving one love for another but it is still a process, not a completed act. All the relationships are moving either away or towards, the one unequivocally right romance is as much a dream as "Speak Now" was.
Let's take a look at the songs:
1. State of Grace – The drums suggest we are gonna rock hard, at least Hayley hard, but the guitars are too strummy and the lick too unforgiving. It is also very sexual, I read somewhere saying how Taylor was a little squeamish when it came to sex, but I don't think there is any question as to the nature of the relationship. It is like a clarion call of desire, "And I never saw you coming, and I'll never be the same again". The suggestion here, the implication, is this is her first serious sexual relationship. And the album opens mid-story. It is all shimmering sexuality. grade: A-
2. Red – Followed by a weaker song. I didn't really like it, I don't like the move from acoustic to lyric, and the metaphor is too simple, and the hook is weak by Taylor's standards. Taylor obviously considers it a stirring of the emotional make up of the song but for once Chapman does her no real favors. – Grade: B-
3. Treacherous – Written with the Semisonic guy, Dan Huff, and again, after the plunge of "State Of Grace" into an emotional turmoil, "Treacherous" holds back. It is also the first song to hint at her country root. It is sexy mooted, adult but not quite – Grade: B-
4. I Knew You Were Trouble -Of the three Martin and Shellback songs, this is the only one that lacks focus. It is catchy enough but it isn't ear candy, and it isn't serious, plus because it is handclap snacky oodle dimple, it can't quite find it bearing in the real world. It doesn't work as pop bop and it doesn't work as pop ballad or rock song. And the song placement seems to be a little wrong – Grade: C+
5. All Too Well – This is the only song Liz Rose co-writes on the album, but it is a central song and at over 5 minutes it is longer than the others, and unlike Speak Now where everything drifted, its length has a serious purpose. This is the one where the first serious relationship on the album is completely, the man has returned all property except the scarf she wore on their "very first week". The scarf still smells of Taylor's perfume and, loaded loaded loaded word, her innocence. The song itself harkens back to an earlier Taylor, its roots are in country ballads, it is a child of "Tears On My Guitar", and as such it is really perfect – Grade: A
6. 22 – I have no idea why this wonderful little bonding song, nearly as much fun as "never ever", is doing here. Who thought this stuff up? Where is the sense of momentum here??? Martin and Shellback – Grade: A
7. I Almost Do – Swiftian ballad, but not the equal of "All Too Well" – Grade: B
8. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Again – What a great song, what a magnificent pop stroke, funny, cheeky, spoken word, young, colloquial, dance – Grade: A+
9. Stay Stay Stay – "Never ever" is the half way point, this one slips onto the other side of the album and it does so in great fashion. All Swift, but she has a apparently learnt a think or two on this light hearted romp of a track. About loving a guy because he knows how to handle her moodiness – Grade: A
10. The Last Time – Duet with Snow Patrol guy should work but doesn't – Grade: C+
11. Holy Ground – Nice metaphor for the places where "we" used to go and the song is really pretty. And what's more, one thing is really rare, for once she is in New York where she should really have all her songs happen. A catchy, well paced country-rocker – Grade: A-
12. Sad Beautiful Tragic – This sounds like it jumped off Speak now, swam ashore and landed on red. It is the definition of a mid-album bummer – Grade: C+
13. The Lucky One – Science fiction. Joni Mitchell less retired and was more put out to pasture and by the way, I love Taylor but the fewer times she mentions Joni the better off she will be – Grade: B
14. Everything Has Changed – If you are gonna bring Ed Sheeran all the way from London, why not do it for a better song than this? A better piece of depression than the worst songs here, but definitely second tier. The chorus isn't bad – Grade: B
15. Starlight – A very good song about a crazy fun date and now she has broken up with Conor, it even has an unintentional poignancy. I guess that's what happens when you wear your heart on your album sleeve.
16. Begin Again – Or is that end again? I really love the POV here, I love how she reaches towards a moment and captures it. It is so full of hope and emotion. Lovely song, great end – Grade: A
So what is going on here? Musically, Red is a brimming with self confidence continuation of her early career trajectory. The overreaching, the wishing and willing to turn the corner from country ingénue to singer-songwriter, that caused her to seriously overplay her hand, writing all the songs herself, overwriting many of them, with an average of four and a half minutes per song, and every thing but the kitchen sink instrumentation. On Red she shares songwriting duties and as a result the songs are tighter and smarter, though not always better. red has its eyes very firmly on the top of the charts.
But the song placement is iffy and too much of it drags. It is a theme album, and the theme album is the past two years that. In that way it is very similar to Patrick Stickles. Look at this:
Taylor Swift – Autumn, 2006
Fearless – Autumn, 2008
Speak Now – Autumn, 2010
Red – Autumn, 2012
Now look at Patrick's band, Titus Andronicus
The Airing Of Grievances – April, 2008
The Monitor – August, 2010
Local Business – October, 2012
Fair enough but here I the point:all 7 albums work as diary entries, all of them are in the business of turning the private into the public. They are all diary albums. Very rarely does either band move into the generic. It might almost be considered a problem, the question of empathy afflicts Patrick and Taylor. With Taylor EVERYTHING is subtext. On Red it gets in the way and with the news yesterday of Taylor's break up with Conor Kennedy, the album is dated before it is dated.
So, anyway, the pop operas real trajectory goes something like this. A serious, wait here is another euphemism, the album begins in the middle of her first adult relationship, follows it through its break up, a series of less serious dates, before she falls in love again. So, if she was just telling the story straight, eight songs would cover the first relationship to the overwhelming downer, "All Too Well", then four transitional songs building to "Starlight" as the first of four about the new relationship. The problem is, the songs about the first relationship are downbeat despite her attempts to bring life to them. They are just sad sad songs. And it reflects on the album. It has the beat of a a pop album but saddled to the spirit of a ballad laden sad songs. Look at Taylor's picture on the cover of the album. Is that a happy person?
Despite claims that Red shows Swifts range as a musician or, heaven knows, a singer, the truth is it does nothing of the sort. This is all of a piece soundwise, an overproduced vacuum cleaner of guitars and electronic beats fused together with heavily doctored vocals. It lacks the cleaner buzz of her first two albums. It makes you wish Nathan Chapman had a little more trust in the music on hand. Sure, we all learnt how this is done, from Katy Perry as well as from Taylor, but that doesn't mean it sounds good: it sounds like everybody else. With a weak singer. And conceptually, it is a little tiring, you want some relief. I wouldn't mind a couple of songs about her life as lived, or her opinions about God, something away from the constant noodling about love. Look: love is important, no doubt, but love isn't the only thing. To quote Tom Stoppard's Thomasina in the play Arcadia (she is talking about Clepoatra but she might well be discussing Taylor: "Everything is turned to love with her. New love, absent love, lost love – I never knew a heroine that makes such noodles of our sex." That's exactly the problem, finally, with this album, it gets to be a conceptual bore.
There are also three other songs only available on the deluxe album through Target. The nearest Target to me is in Jersey City so I guess I won't be hearing them so soon though in 2010 they were as good as anything on the album proper.
But still, Taylor's best songwriting remains the best songwriting out there and what is great here is better than the best. A handful of these songs stand as a signpost to a future not yet reached.
Grade: B+