In case you weren't aware, Taylor Swift wants to break into the pop scene. She was edging away from country before, but her fourth album "Red" is her first full-on flirtation with pop. However, flirtation is the key word, not conformity. Take for example "Stay, Stay, Stay", a song that's laced with an incessant hook and whimsical music, the framework for a pop song, but it goes against conventional wisdom and is worked to fit the country mold. The banjos, light drums, and Southern accent take the forefront to retain her country appeal, but works very well as a pop song, too. With that said, that track is a rarity on this album. It appeals to a country audience as well as a pop one, which is what Taylor Swift has been striving for since her "Fearless" breakthrough in 2008. But, that can't be said for the rest of the album.
With "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" as the main culprits, this album is Taylor Swift's first explicit attempt to gain a cross-cultural appeal, plain and simple. Those two songs are easily some of the best she's ever recorded, the former (also the lead single) is a very successful pop-crossover hit, while the latter introduces Taylor to dubstep, sugary guitars and big, blown-out choruses. There's nothing wrong with a change of pace, but execution is also another part of the process that "Red" doesn't seem to grasp. One would make the assertion that Taylor Swift was never all that country to begin with, and to a certain extent this is very true. She always tried to shape her songs for mass consumption, and in doing so she created a good string of country-pop hits. But there's one key element that separates "Red" from "Fearless". In 2008, Taylor was still relatively new, she had yet to experience the high and blinding effects of fame (an issue in which she addresses eloquently in "The Lucky One"). But now in 2012, there's no denying that the inner diva has started to make its way forth. Mostly because four albums in, there's nothing new Swift has to say about non-relationship based material. Also, what made "Fearless" and "Speak Now" so appealing was that girlish and subtle touch that she brought to them. There's nothing subtle about "Red"; its opener "State of Grace" is riveting and cold, "Red" (the title track) is an excellent, blown out song with country influences still in tact, "I Knew You Were Trouble" features a robotic production and ingratiating hook, and all of the ballads present their subject matter with the subtlety of a jackhammer. True, it's not easy to tell who she knew was trouble, or who she had a "Sad, Beautiful, Tragic" love affair with, but nevertheless, they're still about someone in particular. It follows her trail of revenge love songs that she started with her debut, but after six years in the music game, even Taylor is running low on new and original ways to execute them. Most of the ballads here (excluding the closer "Begin Again", a soft and heartwarming tune), are too saccharine for their own good, and even the guest appearances of Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran can't bring them out of Taylor's simpering murk. What's also problematic is how her music is becoming increasingly similar, which only adds to the album's staidness. But most of all, it's what exactly this record is supposed to be that becomes in undoing. To be sure, it's not a country album, but it's also too acoustic to be thrown into pop. "Red" is pulled tight between these two extremes, as she holds on to her roots but is obviously hungry for mass appeal, which leaves half the album a wash of sound, while the other contains a slew of detached pop songs that are appealing, yet lack personality. As a whole, "Red" is cold and calculated, it bounces back and forth between her familiar territory and her pop ventures, and these constant shifts and the overall tonal inconsistency leave this album to be a frustrating mix of sensational and skippable.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. State of Grace 2. Red 3.
Treacherous
4. I
knew you were trouble 5. All too
well 6.
22
7. I Almost Do 8. We
are never ever getting back together
9. Stay,
Stay, Stay 10. The
Last Time 11. Holy Ground
12. Sad, Beautiful, Tragic 13. The
Lucky One 14. Everything has changed
15. Starlight 16. Begin Again
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