Review Summary: If you don't like it, why don't you go and write a better album?
You love that criticism, don't you? Actually, I'm fairly sure that it makes your blood boil just as much as it does mine. It doesn't take a musician to debate the quality of music any more than it takes a politician to elect MPs or a journalist to point out that the Daily Express is packed full of lies. People can talk about music because music is aimed at people, and more specifically, their emotions; if it doesn't have an impact on you, it's perfectly reasonable to seek an explanation, and the suggestion that you should pick up a guitar yourself before engaging in criticism is ludicrous. Except here.
I mean, granted, it's still a bit of a stupid thing to say, but Taylor Swift makes music where it's possible the argument holds some water. If you honestly
can write more endearing pop songs about getting your heart broken and falling in love and all the other
very very generic things that teenagers will always do, then congratulations, you should buy yourself a microphone and an acoustic guitar and get to work. I have one request, though; don't make it too
complex. Because the thing about teenage emotion is that the vast majority of it is so, so simple. The confusion you felt when you were sixteen wasn't due to the intricacies of the situation, it was due to those emotions screwing up your thought process. How does it sound to have someone capable of unravelling those situations in a level-headed but still very teenage manner? Welcome to
Fearless.
Taylor Swift's sophomore album drops somewhere in a very narrow gap on the spectrum between pop and country; certain tracks twang like a Garth Brooks number, where others seem written for top 40 radio. In much the same way, Swift's songwriting borrows elements of the direct approach of most singer-songwriter pop music ("when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're gonna believe them) and the nostalgic plotlines of many country favourites ("that's the way I loved you!") This duality means that she has a knack of appealing to a wider audience than would at first seem likely, because literally everybody can relate to lines like, "people are people and sometimes it doesn't work out," whether or not they choose to admit it to the people around them.
But if you're the type to keep those unbridled adolescent sentiments under lock and key, then good luck to you;
Fearless is an album which will both force you to confront that problem and try to get it out of you by sheer force. Honestly, try listening to the fantastically bouncy 'You Belong With Me' without singing along to a chorus which, were you not so
enamoured by its persistent catchiness, would seem immensely clichéd. That's the thing about
Fearless; it
is cheesy and it
is universal, and it's almost a wonder that Taylor Swift doesn't come from a Disney Channel show, but at the end of the day it's clear why she doesn't; there is nothing artificial or fake about the music she makes. Her Tennessee roots account for the country tinge that shades the enormous, beautiful 'Love Story', and her age accounts for its wide-reaching innocence. And her pop songwriting talent accounts for how
fuc
king good it is.
So that's it; 13 songs of varied tempo, employing little more than acoustic guitars, bass, drums, pianos, and the heartfelt, gorgeous vocals of a young girl with boundless potential. Robert Christgau of the MSN Consumer Guide once claimed that Fearless could "pass for a concept album about the romantic life of an uncommonly-to-impossibly strong and gifted teenage girl." He's right on the money, but Swift doesn't make a big deal out of that thematic approach; it's not in her nature to do so. These are radio-ready songs with pristine production, huge choruses and earthy, infectious melodies which throw a veil over the real reason this is the pop album of 2008 and one of the best of recent years. The real reason is that, try as they might, so few people on this planet could phrase teenage infatuation as perfectly as Swift does when she grins, "I love you and that's all I really know." I couldn't put it any better myself, and nor could you. So we'll just have to listen.
