On October 22, the world saw Red as Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated fourth album, almost two arduously long years after Speak Now.
The album launched on iTunes at midnight, and the special edition can also be found at Target with six additional tracks.
Red is the color of love. It’s mature and passionate.
The same can be said for Swift’s new album. She uses the symbolism of colors in her title song, “Red”, crooning “Losing him was blue like I’d never known/Missing him was dark grey all alone…loving him was red.”
Swift uses colors as representations of emotions.
In an interview with Good Morning America, she says, “I wrote this song about the fact that some things are just hard to forget because the emotions involved with them were so intense, and to me, intense emotion is red.” The album is a beautifully wrought journal of intense emotions.
Red is a huge step away from Taylor Swift’s beginnings as a teenage country songstress. Her new songs are unapologetically pop.
Her maturity is reflected in the genres she experiments with and the depths of the lyrics.
The album cover is striking; it features a close up of her face and her prominent red lipstick. Swift’s reflections of love at 22 are fittingly more comprehensive than at 15, when playing football and owning a car were the main criterion for Prince Charming.
Unlike previous albums, Taylor Swift collaborated with other pop artists on the creation of this album.
A total of six songs on the album are a result of partnership, which is crucial to Swift’s development as an artist. A musician cannot be an island.
While she should be commended on this evolution, fans will be glad to hear that most of the songs on Red are solo Swift compositions.
“Everything Has Changed” features Ed Sheeran, an English singer/songwriter.
It is a beautiful duet, combining two voices in perfect harmony.
Red is the first instance of Swift featuring male artists in her own album. The only other occurrence was a special version of “Breathe,” featuring Colbie Caillat.
In previous years, Swift had been criticized for being too pop-esq with songs that were supposed to be categorized as country. However, her fans still embraced her songs despite their lack of country tones.
Red definitely has heavy pop overtones with catchy beats which get stuck in your head.
It also dares to venture into realms that Swift has previously left unexplored. “I Knew You Were Trouble” audaciously moves into dubstep territory, boasting heavy bass in some parts and vocals that have been purposefully heavily autotuned to sound mechanized.
Initially, Red had a disappointing introduction to the public.
The first single released from the album was also, unfortunately, its weakest.
“We Are Never Getting Back Together” was surrounded by extreme hype because of its role as the first song from Red, and because of that, it broke the record of most downloaded track in one week, a title previously held by Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way.”
The song appeals to the shallow echelon of pop music, showing little to none of Swift’s characteristic emotional depth.
A third of the song is a repetition of the title, while another third is meaningless vocalization. Its music video is also a disappointment, quirky for the sake of being quirky. The other songs on Red are thankfully worlds apart.
Swift’s strongest songs are the deceptively simple sounding ones.
“The Last Time,” featuring Gary Lightbody, is a tragic account of heartbreak.
Swift’s and Lightbody’s haunting vocals complement each other. There are no fancy metaphors, just raw emotion.
In contrast, “Stay Stay Stay” is a fun and welcome blast from the past. With its characteristically country guitar background, this song sounds like it could have come straight from Fearless.
“I Almost Do” is another track on the record with noticeable traces of Swift’s country background.
Though Swift’s songs provide undeniably catchy beats, their real strengths lie in their relatable lyrics.
Fans everywhere, regardless of gender, can associate their own life experiences with her songs. Swift writes about her own experiences of the anxieties, euphoria, and eventual letdowns of romantic encounters.
She is so honest that audiences feel like they are reflecting on and reliving their own love stories. Her power is in her genuine and raw lyrics.
Red reflects all that is good about Swift’s music.
Despite heartache, Swift pushes herself and fans to keep on searching for The One, sentiments that are summarized in “State of Grace”: “This is a state of grace. This is a worthwhile fight. Love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right. You’re my Achilles Heel.”
Even though Swift found unmatched success in the country pop niche, she took the risk to grow as an artist by expanding into new genres.
Similarly, Swift has found success in opening up her heart to write songs about her personal romantic experiences.
However, these experiences are not an inexhaustible source of lyrics. She can’t keep bouncing around Hollywood’s young studs forever. She will eventually settle into a long term relationship, and a whole album’s worth of songs can’t be based off of dating one guy.
For continued musical growth, Swift will need to expand her horizons to songs about things other than falling in and out of love.
Until then, fans will continue to loyally love her.
