Taylor Swift – “Speak Now”

Call me cliché or compare me to a high school girl, but I adore Taylor Swift music.

Maybe it’s because her music can be painfully honest or cute and funny. Maybe it’s because she’s an excellent entertainer who has a huge budget for her songs, videos, and shows. Maybe it’s because she’s more of a pop singer than country-western, since I don’t like country music.

Screen shot 2010-11-02 at 11.30.16 PM

But mostly, I like listening to her because my favorite thing to do is sing along with the radio really loud while I’m driving, and Taylor Swift songs are perfect for a sing-along. It’s no surprise, then, that I bought her new album as soon as it came out.

Speak Now follows the footsteps of Taylor Swift’s other albums but with more flair. To cater to her fans who aren’t country-western fans (like me) she includes several songs that have no western feel at all. “Haunted” includes violins and electric guitar that make a gorgeous, sophisticated sound different from anything she’s done before.

Screen shot 2010-11-02 at 11.43.19 PM

“Last Kiss” is a slower ballad that also indicates Taylor Swift is much more grown up than the 16-year-old who first sang “Teardrops on My Guitar.” However, “Last Kiss” still retains the painfully honest and vulnerable lyrics that made us identify with Taylor Swift in the first place. “So I’ll go sit on the floor wearing your clothes, all that I know is I don’t know how to be something you’ll miss,” the song says. Let me pause for a second while I grab a tissue.

I do like her more country-sounding songs on this album, though, especially “Mean.” This song has banjo and all the other trappings of country music, but it has the signature, cutesy Taylor Swift lyrics we all know and love about a mean boyfriend. “Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things, drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing,” the lyrics complain with a touch of irony.

Screen shot 2010-11-02 at 11.39.27 PM

The cutest song by far – and possibly my favorite song on the whole album – is the title track. “Speak Now” is about a girl who protests at a wedding when the preacher says, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” As with a lot of songs like this, it’s completely unrealistic romanticism, but being a girl, I love it.

Once again, Taylor Swift doesn’t fail to disappoint. While I wouldn’t say Speak Now is better than anything she’s done before, it’s definitely as good as her previous albums. Any fan or even anyone who just likes good music for your mp3 player or to sing along with should buy this album.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to drive to Shawnee and back so I can spend two hours listening and singing to Speak Now.

Trackback URL

, ,

One Comment on "Taylor Swift – “Speak Now”"

  1. Christina Brown
    05/11/2010 at 9:39 am Permalink

    Enjoyed your article very much! I am not a big country music fan either, but I do enjoy Taylor Swift’s music as well.

Hi Stranger, leave a comment:

ALLOWED XHTML TAGS:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe to Comments
Skip to toolbar