Review Summary: An unfortunately inconsistent album, Speak Now nonetheless showcases incredible growth from Swift’s previous work.
Taylor Swift is, without a doubt, one of the best pop stars of our generation. Her honest and straight-forward approach to the issues of teenage romance, as well as growing up and other such things, has endeared her to the public, and the pop-country blend that her music incorporates only serves to make her more interesting. On her latest record, some of the things that helped get Swift to where she is now have remained firmly in place while other things have changed. Unfortunately this makes for an inconsistent album; moments of brilliance are right next to utter failures, and the strongest tracks end up getting undermined by the filler, some of which isn’t actually filler at all. Like the lead single “Mine”, which is so far behind the more accomplished tracks like “Dear John”, that it stands out like a sore thumb.
One line in particular from “Mine” ends up destroying the façade of the song and subsequently a hefty portion of the album. “We got bills to pay” may seem like a perfectly innocent reference to Swift growing up in the adult world, except for the fact that her last album,
Fearless, sold over 6 million copies. If she's in the red after that then someone else should be handling her money.
After that, the next few songs just don’t sit right, and there’s a sense of falsehood that’s hard to ignore. I believe it was Alex Silveri, talking about Sufjan Stevens’
Age Of Adz, who said “I can’t shake this feeling that I’m being screwed with.” Frustratingly, I got the exact same feeling from the first four songs on
Speak Now. This is due to Swift’s insistence that she’s
not screwing with me, that she’s being entirely honest. In the album booklet, she says that she had a specific person in mind for every song. According to her, these aren’t just a random collection of songs. And I call bull. The first four songs aren’t very far off belonging on
Fearless, and that means they just don’t fit in with tracks like “Haunted”. “Mine” is Swift on auto-pilot, “Haunted” is her putting in the effort to steer the vehicle where she wants.
Speak Now is the journey, and she keeps switching between the two styles without warning.
I admit, her statement isn’t entirely untrue, there
are several tracks that are obviously aimed at certain people, the most obvious being the 6 and a half minute bluesy pop masterpiece “Dear John”. It’s the crowning achievement of Swift’s career so far and easily one of the best pop songs of the year. Something makes me doubt John Mayer will care that it’s about him, but by God it feels good to hear Swift not only assert herself, but also do it in a dignified and mature way. “Dear John” exemplifies everything that is right with Taylor Swift and
Speak Now. The musical growth from her previous albums is stunning, the lyrics heralding a depth that even Swift’s detractors can’t deny is impressive. Her voice is the best it’s ever been, smoothing out most of the rough country edge that did little to help her appeal.
The real beauty in
Speak Now is that aforementioned growth. Most of the songs displays it at the very least on a music level. “Haunted” is ambitious like no one could have predicted, “Last Kiss” plucks the heart strings gorgeously, “Better Than Revenge” sounds like something Paramore would be proud of. The list goes on, and that’s why it’s a real shame that the typical tracks are still here. The album would have been far better off without them, so it’s annoying to realize that Swift most probably put them on there to boost album sales amongst her teen audience, who I’m betting will miss the point of “Dear John” entirely.
Inconsistent though it may be,
Speak Now is still a great album. Some of Swift’s best moments are contained here. The more ambitious and experimental tracks leave the door wide open for the future, and there shouldn’t any doubts in anyone’s mind that Swift is well and truly capable of walking through it and going wherever she wants.
