The 9513 Review (A Professional Critic when it comes to country music)
Album Review: Taylor Swift – Speak Now
A preteen Taylor Swift, peering into her crystal ball, could hardly have imagined the great successes and loud failures that have marked her career so far.
She’s sold thirteen million albums since 2006, staggering figures for a girl who is not yet allowed to drink outside her own apartment. She’s claimed the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy from the good ol’ boys club of the Country Music Association. And earlier this year the young starlet won four Grammy Awards and was scheduled to perform a medley with Stevie Nicks.
The evening will be most remembered, though, for the discussion surrounding Swift’s wobbly, out-of-tune vocals. Her choppy performance soon initiated one of music’s greatest rivalries: Taylor Swift vs. the critics.
As the hype machine whirred at a hurried pace, Swift set about challenging her detractors and has now delivered one of the most intriguing albums of the year. Speak Now confronts the criticisms about her live vocals with “Mean,” a hoedown throwdown that barely masks her disgust at the haters. As a banjo plays in the background, she imagines a drunk critic in a dimly-lit bar “talking all about how I can’t sing.”
The painful realities of Swift’s growing up—personally and professionally—are reflected in her spasms of anger. She may be the most gracious performer in popular music, but she’s a spiteful menace when she gets into the studio. The calmer moments on Speak Now, then, are also the least compelling. “Innocent,” inspired by Kanye West’s tantrum at last fall’s MTV Video Awards, has all the marks of a condolence call to the boastful rapper. “Never Grow Up,” a soft lullaby sung to an infant relative, passes by with barely a notice.
Swift is most powerful when she’s not holding her peace. Few singers are so frank in their a public forum as she is. On “Better than Revenge,” a caustic rebuke of a romantic rival, she declares her intentions: “You might have him,” she sneers over a pop-punk beat, “But I always get the last word.”
That cocky remark is a Cliffs Notes summary of Speak Now. (In fact, the album, with its wordy passages, is a dense work and begins to wear thin around Track 13.) Swift’s ill-fated romances, so often splashed across the tabloids, are relived here with her own brutally candid commentary. Speak Now exposes Swift’s biggest weakness. It’s not her singing voice, as some might expect, but her appetite for lanky, dark-haired young men. Her paramours–Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner, GLEE star Cory Monteith, Joe Jonas—remain anonymous and ready fodder for journalists scouring the lyric sheet for clues.
The best song here offers a big exception. “Dear John,” a dark account of Swift’s brief dalliance with rock star John Mayer, seethes with a newfound intensity. A small reminder that she’s no longer a kid, she admits that the romance sprung forth without parental permission: “My mother accused me of losing my mind,” she mourns. “But I swore I was fine.” Mayer’s trademark blues guitar licks are mimicked as Swift claims victory in their lover’s quarrel: “I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.”
Swift appears to be saved by her own common sense before her fairy tale turned into a cautionary tale. No matter how many bad days she’s dodged, she’s emerged with her inner contentment intact. Speak Now will be known as her diary for ***-for-tat diatribes, but there’s a good dose of Swift sweetness as well. Songs like “The Story of Us,” a sharp piece of emo pop, and the goth-lite ballad “Haunted” express a wistful melancholy for love affairs that couldn’t withstand the pressures of fame or fickle hormones. If it’s not exactly a happy ending, it’s at least a hopeful one.
For a massive star like Swift, pressure is a privilege. It brings out the best in some entertainers and the worst in others, and the former teenage queen sounds ready to rise to the challenge. Country music, where Swift still belongs despite the grander scope of her arrangements, is centered on the heart’s conflicts. By laying bare her flaws, she’s figured out a way to shine all the more brightly.
FEARLESS got 3 and 1/2 Stars