Taylor Swift’s sophomore CD had big shoes to fill after her acclaimed self-titled triple Platinum debut, ‘Taylor Swift.’
But Swift still manages to write beautiful country music without sounding ‘honky tonk’ – i.e. writing about trailer parks, beer or being a ‘redneck woman.’
It is clear that although Swift has graduated from high school, her lyrics have not. However, Swift has mastered this genre of music with her light, carefree and at times pensive songs on ‘Fearless.’ This new album saw success with its first pre-released single, ‘Love Story’ hitting the highest out of all of her songs on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Swift also writes all of her own songs, which is impressive for such a young artist. She refers to this in her song ‘Hey Stephen’: ‘Hey Stephen I could give you 50 reasons why I should be the one you choose all those other girls, well they’re beautiful but would they write a song for you?’
‘Fifteen’ is a song giving advice to 15 year olds. Swift advises them to not fall in love too quickly. Swift is clearly thinking that she is the wiser for being 18 now as opposed to 16 when her first CD was released in 2006. This is in keeping with the rest of her CD, shifting from the na’iuml;ve songs like ‘Our Song’ and ‘Stay Beautiful’ to more mature songs. Some ballads like ‘White Horse’ display Swift’s new style.
Yet, her efforts to mix up her style falls short. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.
The Swift that won two Country Music Awards this year for ‘Our Song’ as well as a Grammy for Top Female Vocalist is one that won us over with songs about her crushes and Tim McGraw. Swift was not really in need of a reinvention.
Her song ‘You Belong With Me’ is not the most original song, resembling ‘Girl Next Door’ by Saving Jane, it expresses Swift’s feeling of liking a guy who doesn’t realize what he is missing in her.
Swift croons ‘Can’t you see that I’m the one who understands you/been here all along/So why can’t you see/you belong with me.’ As opposed to iTunes best-sellers, ‘Fearless’ and ‘Love Story,’ tracks like ‘Breathe’ and ‘Tell Me Why’ get lost, without a spark driving them.
Swift brings out the romantic in all of her primarily female group fans. She draws from experience as she grew up on a Pennsylvania farm. Swift writes about pumpkin patches and tractor rides with her father in ‘The Best Day’.’
Swift has admitted writing songs about real life boyfriends. Perhaps some of her edgier songs on this album like ‘White Horse,’ ‘Forever ‘amp; Always’ and ‘You’re Not Sorry’ are inspired by her recent break-up with Joe Jonas. These songs refer to Swift giving up on her Prince Charming. In fact, we can almost be certain this Jonas Brothers member is an inspiration for songs on this CD. The digital booklet on iTunes features encrypted messages using capital letters saying things like ‘if you play these games, we both lose.’ No matter what her motivation was for writing these songs, they are certainly a good listen.
The best bets for downloads off ‘Fearless’ are ‘Fearless,’ ‘Love Story,’ ‘You Belong With Me,’ ‘Hey Stephen’ and ‘The Way I Loved You.’ Swift has matured with some songs on her new album but for the most part listeners can expect the same from Swift as they heard on her self-titled debut album.
But that is why we love Swift, isn’t it? This CD is definitely worth those five good downloads, the rest are lost in monotony following her previous album.
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