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Discussion: Taylor Swift - 'RED' | Metascore: 77/100
Member Since: 12/8/2010
Posts: 17,643
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So with the BBC Music review the score is now 76/100.
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Member Since: 11/29/2010
Posts: 19,664
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“Higher Ground”?
Some nice reviews...but the best are probably getting snubbed.
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Member Since: 4/9/2012
Posts: 1,916
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Another one
Quote:
Of the biggest players in today’s pop music world, you can probably count the ones bigger than Taylor Swift on one hand. Amidst an ailing music industry and the ever-threatening death of the album format, Swift still moved over a million copies of her third record, 2010’s Speak Now, in a single week. Only one album has replicated that feat since (Lady Gaga’s Born This Way), and even then, the achievement was rendered suspect due to the $0.99 Amazon promotional deal that accounted for 430,000 of its sales. Indeed, in the six years since her first album, Swift has transformed herself into one of the most recognizable and polarizing presences on the radio waves, fueling her diarist confessionals with pristine melodies and full-bodied arrangements. For many (myself included), Swift has become the go-to example of pop music at its best, her honest songwriting and her penchant for towering choruses qualities that almost every other artist would kill to have. For others, her constant use of the “love-gone-wrong” trope is an immediate turn-off, the sign of a spoiled, “woe-is-me” rich girl who exploits her tabloid relationships, turns them into songwriting fodder and makes a truckload of cash in the process.
Obviously, listeners will hear what they want, but for me, Taylor’s manner of heart-on-the-sleeve conviction is one of her greatest strengths. In an age of overly-computerized poppers like Katy Perry and Ke$ha, Taylor’s honesty and candor imbues her music with a girl-next-door sensibility that is nothing short of refreshing. Furthermore, her country music roots allow her to implement traditional textures more often than most of her contemporaries, and even as she has moved away from those roots, Taylor’s reliance on organic instrumentation and classic country, pop and rock ‘n’ roll influences clearly leave her at the top of the pack…or at very least, next to her similarly-minded British counterpart, Adele.
Swift’s fourth record, simply titled Red, continues all of this while effortlessly adding more nuance into the equation, taking the same kind of genre-hopping mentality that defined Speak Now, but refining and grounding it in her most mature and dynamic set of songs to date. At 16 tracks and 75 minutes in length, this album is behemoth that could have done with some liberal trimming, but even as is, there are no obvious miss-steps or throwaways here. Right from the U2-bound arena rock of “State of Grace,” which opens the album in bombastic and triumphant fashion, Red is very obviously the work of a more grown-up Taylor Swift. She still has her moments of childishness here and there, whether she’s throwing a cell phone at her boyfriend’s head on the infectious, should-have-been b-side “Stay Stay Stay,” or joyfully bidding farewell to yet another former flame on the number-one smash “We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together” (complete with a Max Martin-approved hook and a charismatic spoken-word interlude). But most of the time, Taylor forsakes shameless name-dropping and self-victimization in favor of gleeful pop bliss or heartfelt introspection; in both cases, she’s thoroughly in her element.
The album’s most immediate standout track is also its longest. “All Too Well” is a gorgeous and wistful ballad, drenched in the kind of rootsy tradition that defined the best cuts on both Fearless and Speak Now, but taking it to another level with the best songwriting Swift has ever put on record. Rather than focusing solely on break-up fireworks like much of her earlier material, “All Too Well” charts the entire course of a relationship, from the euphoric early days of spending Thanksgiving with her new boyfriend’s family, to the nostalgic glances back after the whole thing has gone up in flames. The idea isn’t new, but the way Taylor approaches it here is undoubtedly effective, imbuing the lovely autumnal backdrop with relatable specificity that hits straight home. “Here we are again in the middle of the night/We’re dancing ‘round the kitchen in the refrigerator light/Up the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well,” Taylor sings, transporting herself (and her audience) back to a relationship whose memories still feel fresh. That sense of thinly-veiled recollection, of fondly remembered love affairs that, for whatever reason, had to end, informs the majority of the songs on Red. Make no mistake, this could easily be labeled as a break-up album, a classification that essentially fits each album Swift has made thus far. The difference this time around is that Swift doesn’t solely bask in the swells of her own romantic disasters: this is a record of ups and downs, ebb and tide, triumph and tragedy, and for probably the first time, we’re not always sure if Swift is singing about herself.
The sobering “The Last Time” is another break-up ballad, this time playing out between intertwining male (Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody) and female voices. Throughout the song, it often feels like Swift is the supporting act, with everything from the melody to the wall of guitars to the vocal distribution tilting towards Lightbody’s wheelhouse. That disconnect hints at the ambiguous perspective of the piece, at the question of whether Taylor is actually the narrator or if she has adopted the situation of another. Likely, the song is the album’s most obvious rumination on the demise of the marriage between Swift’s mother and father, who separated this past spring. “Put my name at the top of your list,” Lightbody and Swift demand in turn, questioning just how much of themselves Swift’s parents poured into their daughter’s career and whether that skewed distribution of efforts and affection may have caused their relationship to implode. The feeling is similar on “I Almost Do” and “Sad Beautiful Tragic,” a pair of sparse acoustic ballads that assist the album’s central themes (those of regret and longing, heartbreak and hope) in moving to the forefront.
But while Red spends a fair amount of its runtime situated in the lower end of the tempo spectrum, it often thrives best within moments of pure pop sensibility. The title track morphs heartbreak into a simile-loaded slice of pop perfection, while the dubstep-injected “I Knew You Were Trouble” is one of many prospective chart-toppers at play here. The beat-driven stomp of “Holy Ground” is a modern-pop take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands,” a tear-down-the-walls anthem that ranks as one of the most powerful and resilient songs ever written (and not a bad standard to be compared to); Taylor’s version should be Red’s penultimate cut. That position goes instead to the neon-drenched “Starlight,” whose luminescent opening is almost tailor-made (pun intended) for some fantastical beauty product commercial. Remarkably, that indulgence works, not only because Taylor resides in a genre where commercial connections don’t ring utterly false, but also because she’s still pretty damn good at playing the princess.
And pop princess she is, especially on “22,” which is destined to be her biggest hit to date. Fans of Swift’s country roots will likely shake their head at the redneck-Ke$ha opening, but once the song opens up into a wall of synthesizers and settles into its indelible hook, it’s almost impossible not to shout along. The song’s youthful energy and “throw-away-the-obligations” mentality will make it an essential cut for many a college party in the coming months and that association is absolutely justified. Almost equally addictive is “Everything Has Changed,” a simple folk-pop song taken to the next level by a hip-hop-ready beat and titanic production values. Swift and British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeren serenade each other, their voices blending in a sweet valentine of a song that welcomingly indicates light at the end of the tunnel for what is, on the whole, a pervasively sad record.
Fittingly, the full daybreak comes on the album’s final track: “Begin Again” sounds like classic singer-songwriter fare, something that Carole King or Joni Mitchell (whose influence extends to every corner of Red) might have put on a record in the 1970s. A classy James Taylor reference only enhances the vintage feel, but at the end of the day, it’s Swift’s growth as an artist that allows her to sell the song (and in connection, the album) so effectively. When “Begin Again” hits its bridge and Taylor delivers the climactic lines (“And we walked down the block to my car and I almost brought him up/But you start to talk about the movies that your family watches/Every single Christmas, and I won’t talk about that/For the first time, what’s past is past”), it’s the mark of a songwriter who has finally grown up and learned to let the bad things go, and it’s because of this maturation that Red is ultimately an uplifting record. Despite the trials and tribulations she runs into along the way, Swift realizes that there’s always a lesson to be learned, that the pain is all a part of growing up and becoming the people we were meant to be, and that maturation is an exciting one. People don’t pour this much of themselves into strict pop records anymore, something that would make Red notable even if it were a relatively one-note affair. That the album covers half a dozen genres without ever sacrificing flow, thematic integrity or pure pop ecstasy makes it not only the best album of Swift’s budding career, but the best mainstream pop record we are likely to hear in 2012; here’s hoping that Swift just keeps getting better.
B+
http://www.westernherald.com/arts-an...ecord-to-date/
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Member Since: 11/29/2010
Posts: 19,664
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@westernherald.
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 5,155
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Quote:
Originally posted by muddysquirrel
@westernherald.
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Will this count for Metacritic?
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Member Since: 11/29/2010
Posts: 19,664
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tainted Blood
Will this count for Metacritic?
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Probably not.
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Member Since: 12/28/2010
Posts: 26,529
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Member Since: 12/8/2010
Posts: 17,643
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tainted Blood
Will this count for Metacritic?
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No.
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Member Since: 11/9/2011
Posts: 12,849
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Updated.
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 5,155
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Quote:
Originally posted by Gossip_Boy
No.
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Not surprised
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Member Since: 4/26/2012
Posts: 1,194
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It's a good album but the score seems a bit inflated.
I mean it's higher than Halcyon.
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Member Since: 11/9/2011
Posts: 12,849
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From AP.net, by Ryan Gardner.
Quote:
The color red symbolizes a variety of emotions. The color represents courage and bravery yet also embodies passion, sensuality, and love. Still, notably, red marks anger and rage, even danger, warranting caution. In conjunction with all of these various symbols, it makes sense that Red is the title of Taylor Swift’s most ambitious, dynamic record yet.
Riding on the heels of three incredibly successful records, Miss. Swift knows she has nothing to lose here. As a result, she doesn’t hold back anything throughout Red’s 16 tracks. Her fourth record flirts with pop sensibilities, redefines her inner-country roots, and delivers tender ballads – it has a little bit of everything. Simply put, she doesn’t give a **** what anyone wants to hear; she’s bridging the “genre gap” more so than ever before and is not about to back down for a second.
Starting the record off with the warm “State Of Grace” may be one of Swift’s boldest moves yet. Once the alluring guitar riff kicks in, it’s evident this isn’t going to be what we’re used to hearing from T Swift. What follows is one of the most diverse songs in her discography. The enticing guitar weaving in and out of her hypnotic words adds depth and layering to the song by making certain neither the guitar nor her voice is fully highlighted. Rather, both the mesmerizing guitar and divine vocal delivery bask in the spotlight through this structure – it’s a 50/50 split deal – letting us know this album is going to be monumentally different, both musically and lyrically.
Title track “Red” puts quite the new spin on classic Taylor Swift. It’s country sounding, sure, but there’s more to it than that – this is something new. Initially, the chorus sounds like you’d expect, but then the vocal effects kick in and the word “red” loops throughout the chorus, as Swift flirts with elements of pop more than ever before. The trend continues more prevalently on “I Knew You Were Trouble.” The jittery, even spastic guitar riff gets the foot tapping, but the track really takes off once the synth starts to kick in and the dubstep style drop hits at the chorus, demonstrating possibly the most daring, unexpected style change of any song in her discography.
In fact, there are times when Swift doesn’t just flirt with pop, she marries it. “22” becomes the complete antithesis of “15,” with Swift now writing the soundtrack to many 22-year-old girls’ upcoming Saturday nights. Honestly, if you had told me this was a Ke$ha song I may have believed you for a minute – yeah, it’s that kind of upbeat, girl’s dance party pop. But, she makes it work again and again, as lead single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is one of the catchiest pop songs of the year. Max Martin’s handiwork definitely shines through here, as the simple acoustic guitar allows the addictive chorus to get stuck in your head time and time again. It’s a song that sounds more like Avril or Kelly Clarkson than say Sugarland. Clearly, this is drastically different than the early “Tim McGraw”-era T Swift, and that’s entirely for the best.
However, she hasn’t abandoned her country roots, as the entire second half of the record would fit fine on her earlier records. Both “Stay Stay Stay” and “I Almost Do” dabble with old-fashioned country, as Swift lets her Southern twang take the lead on the adorable former. Though nonetheless, that the two duets stand out should come as no surprise. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol makes a poignant and painfully tender appearance on “The Last Time,” as the chemistry between the two heightens as violins swell and Swift and Lightbody harmonize wonderfully, playing off one another as they sing of welcoming a second chance for the last time. It’s easily the most beautiful song on the record. Ed Sheeran makes a similar appearance on “Everything Has Changed,” another gorgeous love song that uses simplicity as its prime weapon – it’s just the two of them, a vague guitar, and almost distant drums – in order to show that she doesn’t need any extra effects to still write a stirring ballad. Rather, her sense of harmony will do the trick just fine.
In the end, this record has it all. Country, pop, acoustic ballads – there’s something for every fan here. It takes a little bit from each of Taylor Swift’s other records – the youth of her debut, the country-pop crossover of Fearless, and the pop variety of Speak Now – and adds them all together into Miss. Swift’s finest record to date with Red. It’s sexy, daring, and complete. Notably, “Begin Again” ends the record with a fitting landscape of new beginnings and better tomorrows, and that’s exactly what Red is – a burning hope, a fiery passion, a fresh start. (8.5)
http://absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?p=114531022
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Member Since: 5/9/2012
Posts: 38,050
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Quote:
Originally posted by thediscomonkey
From AP.net, by Ryan Gardner.
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Will this count?
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Member Since: 11/9/2011
Posts: 12,849
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hunter_13
Will this count?
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No.
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Member Since: 8/3/2012
Posts: 5,193
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How is Brandy's 'Two Eleven' getting a better rating than this album?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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Member Since: 10/3/2010
Posts: 50,276
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Interesting. I predict a 74/100.
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Member Since: 11/9/2011
Posts: 12,849
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Expect the score to go south. A Neg from Sputnik, this one is by Staff Reviewer, will be counted.
Quote:
Taylor Swift’s current status in pop-culture almost isn’t believable for someone her age. She is the all-time leader in digital music sales. She’s won numerous awards including six Grammys, ten American Music Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, six Academy of Country Music Awards, and thirteen BMI Awards. She’s been in movies, on talk shows, on the cover of just about every magazine, and she even has her own perfume. Swift is the cultural icon of a generation, and despite her astronomical accomplishments at the ridiculously young age of twenty-two, she has always remained very grounded. It’s been refreshing to watch someone so down-to-earth achieve such great success, and even more refreshing to watch her not change because of it.
From a public persona standpoint, Ms. Swift has basically dealt her cards perfectly. It stands to reason then that she would do everything in her power to protect her country-pop crossover kingdom, and as many musicians who have reached a similar level of prestige have discovered, that can be an extremely difficult (and at times, un-winnable) battle. Swift’s first two albums never really felt this kind of heat, because she was still establishing herself as a successful musician. Once she exploded into fame, however, the pressure to evolve increased sevenfold. Speak Now did an excellent job of progressing her sound just enough – making her even more mainstream accessible without abandoning the country roots that initially fueled her success. But a fourth album of the exact same boy-crazy country pop likely would have left her career stagnant and spinning its wheels, which is something that doesn’t usually fly in a culture whose trends are constantly in motion. So, the dilemma facing Swift on Red is that she must break ties with a formula that has yet to fail her...but would if she continued to utilize it. It’s a preemptive strike against stagnation, if you will. But as with any big change, Red comes with more than its fair share of growing pains.
Although the moments of triumph are severely dwarfed by the far more numerous gaffes and blunders, Swift does manage to make a few meaningful strides. The more she moved away from country music in the past, the clearer it became that pop was actually her calling card. Red does a splendid job of finalizing that transition, offering up sleek production tricks where forced country clichés once existed. The attempts at dubstep may have been taking it a little too far, but it’s also worth noting that her main push in that direction, ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’, is also one of the catchiest/most radio-ready tracks that she’s ever made. ‘Red’ succeeds to a similar but lesser extent, putting most of its stock in an electronic-underscored chorus that is good but doesn’t lodge itself in your memory. We’ve also all heard the jokes about her lead single, ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’, but it provides tangible evidence of her evolution from the aw shucks girl who grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania to the pop superstar who churns out number one hits like they are, well....pine needles on a Christmas tree farm. Swift makes it easy to see all that she has to offer outside of her comfortable, country-ballad groove, and when she’s on, she’s red hot.
The issues, while numerous, start with Taylor’s inability to fully embrace her new style. She seems to spend a lot of time trying to appease fans of her traditional sound, tossing in poignant but forgettable ballads like ‘Treacherous’, ‘I Almost Do’, and ‘Sad Beautiful Tragic’ with no regard to their placement within the track listing – or better yet, whether or not they even belong at all. This results in a bloated album that clocks in at sixty five minutes, when easily less than half of the songs on Red would have qualified for one of her previous albums. The abundance of filler destroys any momentum created by strong, energy exuding tracks, and it makes listening to the album in one sitting more of a chore than any mainstream pop album should be. Hopefully it hasn’t gotten to the point where Taylor thinks that anything she writes is worth hearing, but one go-through of Red would certainly make it appear that way.
Another problem comes with the guest appearances of Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran. Neither track is infectious enough to be a single, nor do they possess any indefinable qualities to make them truly likeable. ‘The Last Time’, while it is the better of the two outings, comes across lazy on Swift’s part. Gary Lightbody carries most of the vocal responsibilities, and even though the harmony between Swift and Lightbody can be gorgeous at times, it never feels like anything more than a watered down version of Snow Patrol’s ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar.’ Therein also lies the dilemma with the song – it feels like a Snow Patrol song featuring Taylor Swift, not the other way around. Besides the obvious imbalance in that sense, the song doesn’t really manage to make a splash anyway. It’s nice, but it isn’t nearly as moving or profound as it sets out to be. ‘Everything Has Changed’ is more well constructed, but unfortunately it is also flat-out boring. The tempo sways along in a kind of ho-hum, carefree way that only would have worked if it had a catchy hook or top-notch lyrics. Since it lacks both, the song can be logged in with all the other unmemorable ballads on Red...and that’s a long list.
In other cases, Taylor Swift simply seems to have a maturity regression. Her words have never painted a portrait of adulthood, but for someone thrust into the spotlight at her age, she has always come off as cool handed and sophisticated. Here, there are a number of tracks with nearly infantile lyrical topics, most notably ‘Stay Stay Stay’, in which she ends her child-like analysis of fighting within a relationship like a giggle box toddler, laughing and saying “that was so fun.” It’s clear that her objective is to come off as breezy and whimsical, but instead she just sounds foolishly silly. Then there’s a different kind of immaturity present in ‘22’, a promiscuity-anthem of sorts that we’d expect from Avril Lavigne more than Taylor Swift: “It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters and make fun of our exes...to fall in love with strangers...ah ah ah ah.” The joys and freedoms of youth have already been much more eloquently expressed, even by Swift herself (also, the opening progression is nearly identical to P!nk’s ‘Raise Your Glass’). Outside of obvious instances such as these, she also fails to depart from the boys, boys, and more boys theme that has defined her entire career, thus making a somewhat successful musical departure feel disjointed without a fresh lyrical approach to accompany it.
Red tries to be everywhere all at once. It puts its foot in every camp imaginable instead of committing to the pop/electronic-tinged style of ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.’ It’s no coincidence that the two most memorable songs on the album follow a similar approach, and if Swift wants to expand her empire even more, then she needs to actually take a risk by putting more than just a few of her eggs in one basket. If she continues to spread her ideas too thin, then all the recognizable aspects of her music – that she’s worked so hard to establish – will fade away. This also means letting go of the past and not peppering her future albums with dull ballads that drone on and on without a catchy verse or concise purpose. It also means writing lyrics about (gasp) something other than a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. Swift is a grown woman now and it is time for her to embrace a wider variety of adult topics. As it stands for now though, Red is a mixed bag, and it’s up to you to sort through the majority-holding bad in order to find the good. Swift is undoubtedly capable of better, and all we can hope for is that she’ll regain her footing in time for album number five. (2/5)
http://sputnikmusic.com/review/52837/Taylor-Swift-Red/
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Member Since: 7/15/2012
Posts: 2,055
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Quote:
Originally posted by DivaDown
How is Brandy's 'Two Eleven' getting a better rating than this album?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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She has too many great reviews that don't get counted.
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Member Since: 10/3/2010
Posts: 50,276
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Quote:
Originally posted by thediscomonkey
Expect the score to go south. A Neg from Sputnik, this one is by Staff Reviewer, will be counted.
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Oh. 2/5
I expect 70/100 then.
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Member Since: 7/15/2012
Posts: 2,055
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Quote:
Originally posted by thediscomonkey
Expect the score to go south. A Neg from Sputnik, this one is by Staff Reviewer, will be counted.
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Yikes that is going to kill her score.
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