Taylor Swift came into the music industry in 2006 when she released her self-titled album which had 5 hits singles, "Tim McGraw", "Teardrops On My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn", and "Should've Said No". In 2008 she continued her success with her second album "Fearless". "Fearless" debuted at number 1 on the billboard charts also with 5 hit singles, "Love Story", "White Horse", "You Belong With Me", "Fifteen", and "Fearless". Although "Fearless" was a hard album to beat Taylor managed to do so in 2010 with "Speak Now", where she wrote all the songs by herself. The album had 6 singles, "Mine", "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly", and "Ours". "The Story of Us" became Taylor's first, and so far only single, to miss the top 40 on the billboard charts. I thought when Taylor was going to release her 4th album it'd be better than "Speak Now". BOY WAS I WRONG! Despite "Red" doing good on the charts, it sounded uneven and bad to me. Here's my review of the album track by track.
1) State of Grace: State of Grace was released as the final promo before the album released. It sounded like something U2 probably would have sung. Despite that it doesn't feel like a Taylor Swift song at all. 4/10.
2) Red: The title track was one of the 2 songs announced for the album in August. It was also released as the second promo single. Unlike State of Grace, I like this song. Despite it using lines like "Losing him was blue like I'd never known, Missing him was dark gray all alone." and the auto-tuned "Red" part at the end of the chorus it still sounds great. It was released as the 5th single and like previous 5th singles "Fearless" and "Sparks Fly" from her previous albums it's video showed parts of Taylor's concert. That annoys me but at least we got a video right? 10/10.
3) Treacherous: When I saw this as a song title I thought it'd be an angry song like "Picture to Burn". Clearly I was wrong, however the song is my favorite song on the whole album. It's slow buts gets a little faster as it continues. Taylor co-wrote the song with Dan Wilson who co-wrote Adele's hit "Someone Like You" so it's no surprise the song is great. This should be the final single instead of The Last Time. 10/10.
4) I Knew You Were Trouble: Considering State of Grace being alternative rock, Red being mainly pop, and Treacherous being country, we'd think there wouldn't be anymore surprises with the album. However I Knew You Were Trouble adds a little bit of dub step to the mix. Very surprising. The song was released as the third promo single and later the 3rd official single from the album. I liked the song initially but after hearing on radio so much it bored me to death. The video was great though. 7/10.
5) All to Well: Co-written by Liz Rose, who's co-written a lot of Taylor's songs, All to Well ends up being the longest song on the record. I didn't like the song at first but after a bad day last December I listened to it and it grew on me. It's rumored to be about Taylor's ex-boyfriend and famous actor, Jake Gyllenhaal. 9/10.
6) 22: When I first heard it I thought "Did she use the same melody from The Corrs' song Humdrum?". Afterwards I thought it was catchy and then I turned 22 and many people would mention this song. It annoyed me so much and the fact that this song was released as the 4th single didn't help. After a couple of listens today I'm starting to think it was a rejected from a Katy Perry album. 5/10.
7) I Almost Do: I don't listen to this one. For some reason it's not memorable. 2/10.
8) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together: I HATE THIS SONG! I admit it sounded good the first time I heard it. Then it got on my nerves. It sounds like a song Avril Lavigne might've recorded if she didn't do "Under My Skin". This was the 1st single from the album and became Taylor's first number 1 on the billboard charts. WHAT?! I know, shocking especially since she's had better songs like "Love Story", "Sparks Fly", "Today Was a Fairytale", just to name a few. The video is also strange was her band mates dresses as animals. Creepy. 1/10.
9) Stay Stay Stay: Bad Bad Bad. That's all I have to say. 0/10.
10) The Last Time featuring Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol: The 7th and final single from the album. This is surprising considering Taylor rarely features anyone on her records. The slow is is half good half bad. Taylor's vocals are perfect but Gary's don't mesh well with hers. I think if she did the song by herself it would've been better. 5/10.
11) Holy Ground: Because of it's title, I thought the song would be a ballad. Instead the song is more upbeat and probably could've been on Speak Now. Not bad at all. 8/10.
12) Sad Beautiful Tragic: Unlike Holy Ground being upbeat Sad Beautiful Tragic is slow with hints of sadness and vulnerability. The song also stays at the same pace without that much of a change. Taylor's vocals are great but I feel the song goes on just a minute too long. 5/10.
13) The Lucky One: A song that tells a story about a star who faces many ups in the beginning but it comes crashing down and leaves the spotlight for a normal life. Not a bad song but I skip it most of the time like I do with I Almost Do. 5/10
14) Everything Has Changed featuring Ed Sheeran): Another collaboration. Unlike The Last Time Ed and Taylor's vocals complement each other perfectly. It's mainly an acoustic-like song but it's hands down one of the best tracks. It is the 6th single from the album and the video for it was cute. 10/10.
15) Starlight: Taylor's known for always having an amazing love song on her albums. On her first album it was "Mary's Song (Oh My My)", on Fearless it was "Love Story", on Speak Now it was "Mine", and on Red it's Starlight. This probably should've been the first single from the album. My favorite part is the chorus. 10/10.
16) Begin Again: Begin Again was the first promo single from the album and then became the 2nd official single. When I first heard it I thought it wasn't all the great but after a couple more listens I liked the song. 10/10.
17) The Moment I Knew: If you got the deluxe edition of Red at target you got 3 bonus tracks. The first being The Moment I Knew. Taylor shows a lot of vulnerability in this song. I feel sad when I listen to it though. 9/10.
18) Come Back... Be Here: Like Treacherous, Come Back... Be Here was also co-written by Dan Wilson. It's not bad but it isn't awesome, it's kind of in the middle. 6/10.
19) Girl At Home: I go back and forth with this song. When I first heard it I thought it was great and after awhile I thought it satisfactory. I still listen to it a lot though. Just like with Holy Ground this could've been on Speak Now. 9/10.
Overall Taylor's Red album was not as good as "Taylor Swift", "Fearless", and "Speak Now". I liked only a few of the songs on this album. I understand artists need to grow but she basically made the album Avril Lavigne would've made after Let Go had she not gone and made Under My Skin. Another thing that doesn't make sense is that before the album was released Taylor released two songs for the Hunger Games soundtrack called "Safe & Sound" and "Eyes Open", both amazing songs and so it doesn't make sense why she didn't make the album a little bit like those songs. Anyway, the songs I recommend are: Red, Treacherous, All to Well, Everything Has Changed, Starlight, Begin Again, and Girl At Home. Out of 190 points the album gets 125 which is summed up as 65% a D. My advice to Taylor is stick with writing with Ed Sheeran and Liz Rose, don't lose your country pop sound, and I pray your 5th album ends up being better than this. Sorry!
