Review Summary: After two tumultuous years, Taylor Swift returns with an album as dazzling as its cover
Taylor Swift loves boys. Lots and lots of boys. Unfortunately, she is never able to find the magical man of her dreams, probably because she’s 20 years old, or maybe she should lower her standards. For whatever reason, her relationships never end in marriage, and it really pisses her off and makes her extremely upset, not necessarily in that order. This sadness and anger at her exes and, in Better Than Revenge, an old female friend culminates in a highly emotional, exceptional third album.
Swift’s main draw for most of her fans has been her autobiographical, acid-tinged, revenge minded lyrics. These are taken to the extreme on Speak Now, with the acidic becoming the acerbic and the revenge in mind on almost all tracks, especially Dear John, Swift’s version of a diss track directed at creepy womanizer John Mayer. This six minute long verbal lashing is dreadfully boring but features some of the best lyricism on the album, which makes it noteworthy. Better Than Revenge, is this album’s “Picture to Burn,” featuring a strong vocal performance and a girl, rumored to be Camilla Belle, the target. She also shows her softer side on the acceptance track, Innocent, where she accepts Kanye West's apology after their incident at the VMA's
When not upset over her high profile romances, Swift is reflective on her high school loves. Lead single Mine, Last Kiss and The Story of Us, all regret the ones that got away, with Mine imagining an alternate future in which Swift and her ex are married and have children. Detractors will say that Swift needs to grow up and quit daydreaming but, just two years removed from high school and sounding infinitely more mature than on Taylor Swift, her analysis of relationships is far more real than on previous releases and her maturity shows with a notable absence of tracks like Love Story.
A lovely surprise of the album is how good the lyrics are. Swift no longer relies on metaphor to tell her stories for her, which adds to the autobiographical feel to the album. Evidence of Swift’s true writing talent was showcased on Fearless’ closer Change, but was manipulated on every other track she produced by former writing partner, Liz Rose. Now free from Rose’s puppet strings, Swift is Pinocchio, running freely and only making a couple missteps. The songs are longer, feature more instruments and are decidedly poppier than on her previous efforts, a sound that Swift had been gravitating towards but hadn’t made the switch to yet. This is a good niche for her, her lyrics maintain their “country” edge while her feeble voice is a perfect fit for “pop” radio.
Speak Now is something of a coming of age story while still allowing Swift to maintain her starry eyed, unlucky in lover persona. It is an extremely consistent release that has allowed her to experiment with both lyrics and the creative process (she’s a co-producer). With the entire Big Machine Records franchise squarely on her shoulders, Swift creates her best album yet, as well as one of the best of the year thus far.
Recommended Tracks: Sparks Fly, Better Than Revenge, Mine, Last Kiss
