Taylor Swift has had a lot going on in her life since she released her last album, "Fearless" (2008). She gained a devoted — maybe even obsessed — fan following, released three Top 10 Billboard singles, became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Award for artist of the year, made her major motion picture debut, dated a werewolf and a Jonas and, of course, sent Kanye West into a media life/death spiral by beating out Beyoncé to win the Video Music Award for best Female Video.
After accomplishing all of this, Swift is back to making music and, with her new album, "Speak Now," she's bringing back tons of the youthful country−pop that got Kanye so mad in the first place.
Swift has an undeniable gift for pop−country ballads, which is what has launched her into the national spotlight. She has a knack for making catchy songs that actually feel like they're about something, but when one listens to her album all the way through, most of the songs sound very similar.
The songs essentially fall into two categories: the country−pop power ballad that starts softly and then bursts open in the emotional but fun chorus like "Mine" or "Sparks Fly," or the soft, mellow song like "Dear John" that delivers her message in a sweeter, sadder way. In fact, when listening to her first single off "Speak Now," "Mine," I did a double take to make sure I was listening to the right song because it sounds so similar to "Love Story."
It's not that the album is bad, it's just extremely repetitive — so many of the songs follow the same formula that they start to blend together. Most of them start with a twang−y guitar riff and a soft beat that Swift croons over until the drums pick up. A few more layers are added and she belts out the chorus, a verse, one more chorus, throw in a dramatic bridge, back to the chorus and you've got a solid half of the album. It can be a winning formula for singles, but the songs lose a lot of their impact when you hear six of these tracks in a row.
The lyrics are honest and real, and Swift excels at making soft and sweet yet catchy country−pop. "Mine" is a sweet story of a difficult relationship that will get a lot of radio play, and "Innocent" is gentle, yet tough as Swift sings about the Kanye West VMA incident of 2009 like only she can — in fact, with lines like "It's OK, life is a tough crowd/32 and still growing up now," Swift may have recorded the first known country−pop diss track.
Though Swift doesn't take many risks musically, she does venture off the beaten path lyrically. Most people are used to the good girl Taylor Swift who sings about her broken heart and love, but she brings a new angry attitude to some of her songs. In the song "Mean," she expresses her feelings toward a boy who has clearly not been nice — with lines like "All you are is mean, and a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life and mean/And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean," apparently she means it.
The problem with this album doesn't lie with the songs, but with the album format as a whole. Right now, the way to be "successful" in the music industry is to make great singles and give your fan base what they want, and as a result, pop albums as a whole are almost obsolete. So in that respect, Swift has succeeded with this album. It will almost certainly spawn multiple hit singles — "Mine" is already number three on the Billboard Hot 100 — and her fans will love it, but as an album, a cohesive piece of art, it is disappointing.
For a pop album, it is above average, but if you weren't already a fan of Swift, it is unlikely that "Speak Now" will draw you in. Swift fans, however, should be satisfied by this addition to their idol's canon.
