Daryl Tay.net

Fearless

Surprising as it may be, I’m actually going to review a country artist this week! Truth is, I personally think a lot of Taylor Swift’s music counts as pop, but she is “classified” as country, and a lot of her album sounds like country, so country it is.

I first heard Taylor’s music probably the same way everyone else did, with Teardrops On My Guitar, and while I was at MTV this summer, she was appearing on TRL all the time and I found myself thinking “wow her hair is awesome”. Like seriously, how does she keep that hair in place? It curves and curls at exactly the right spots.

So let’s talk about Fearless, released last week. First off, I have to say Taylor’s voice is pretty nice to listen too. I gave it a first listen while I was studying, and was amazed at how easily “digested” the whole album was. Also, one thing that really stands out is how songs are distinct. You know how some albums the tracks just seem to melt together and it’s hard to remember which is which? No such difficulties with this album.

My favourite track has to be Love Story, which is written around the central lines/theme of “This love is difficult; but it’s real” and has the “plot” of a Romeo and Juliet story, but the ending is re-written the way Taylor would have liked the original literature to end. The music video (with her gorgeous hair) can be found here, Unfortunately I can’t embed it because clearly, Universal Music thinks that me embedding the music video on my blog and spreading the word about Taylor Swift’s music and letting other people sample her great voice will bring no positive benefits at all)

Taylor Swift

The problem with that song, and perhaps the whole album, is the lack of lyrical depth. On one hand you know immediately what each song is about, on the other it’s almost too straightforward. One of the tracks, Fifteen - a story about love at fifteen - particularly irks me with lines like “Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them”. I mean, seriously.

That said, don’t let that one critique stop you from checking out this album, because overall, it’s a very good listen and one which will be on my playlist for easily most of 2009. I’m already eagerly awaiting her next album, and personally wouldn’t mind a slight pop slant over country.

[Image credits: Fearless | Taylor Swift]