After a month of its release, I have fully listened to the album a number of times and let me share what I think of it.
The first single from the album is the catchy "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". I was quite surprised with the decision to title the song that way since it seems childish. After hearing the song for the first time, I knew it was going to be a hit which it did when it hit the top of the charts and making it her first #1 on the Billboard chart. I'm not a big fan of the song, it was purely pop and the lyrics are not exactly her best and even cringe-worthy at most. I feel like she's gonna alienate her country fans, not that she hasn't done any pop songs before but those had a hint of country in them.
She later on released 3 more songs as promo singles weeks before the album is released. The first one was "Begin Again" which ended up as her official 2nd single from the album and one of my favorites. It's a slow ballad that reminds me of her previous songs. It was about what happens after a relationship ends and how a person takes that loss and rebounds from it. The next song shde released was the title track, "Red" and it was a good combination of pop and country and it's a nice track that I enjoy listening to. The final song was called "State Of Grace" which was hyped as a song that gives a U2 vibe. I'm not a big fan of U2 so I was quite disappointed but still gave the song a listen. Turns out the song was energized mainly by the use of drums which can be heard throughout the entire song. I wasn't a big fan of the song but it wasn't that bad. I find it hilarious that she uses the word "never" a lot on this song just like on WANEGBT.
I got the album on the first week and was so excited to listen to the album tracks. I got the deluxe edition that was only available in Target which included 3 additional songs and demo/acoustic versions of 3 songs from the standard edition tracklist.
I was quite disappointed with the album. I thought this was going to be a mature album but it seems to me like this is a big step back in her career. Though the photoshoots and her image for this album was spectacular, the songs failed to impress me save for a couple.
Most songs had repetitive lyrics in the chorus even if it had good verses. This can be seen in songs like "The Lucky One", "Treacherous" and"Come Back Be Here". Unlike her previous album, she had some collaborations on this album and even tried to experiment with her music. Her collaboration with Ed Sheeran in the song "Everything Has Changed" sounded generic and looked like a failed attempt at showing maturity while it is the complete opposite of "The Last Time" which is a collaboration with Snow Patrol's lead vocalist, Gary Lightbody which is a fantastic song. But her most disappointing tracks are with Max Martin who also helped her with WANEGBT and also with a dubstep influenced track called "I Knew You Were Trouble" which is one of her wors in her discography in my opinion. I don't get why a lot of her fans online love it so much. Songs like "Stay Stay Stay" and "22" is a bit closer to the music that young people like her might make but it's quite immature and repetitive. There's one slow ballad called "Sad Beautiful Tragic" that tries to create a melancholic vibe but it ends up a bit dragging instead. The same could go for Treacherous which was a grower song for me even though I still find the chorus to be something that has a lot to improve on. Two standout tracks for me aside from The Last Time are the songs called "All Too Well" and "I Almost Do" and even they repetitive lyrics at some point but overall, they were up to Taylor's standards and shows a bit of her songwriting skills that she had in her previous albums. There's also a song called "Holy Ground" which I have a love/hate relationship with. I find it mediocre but it's not so bad as compared to the others. There is also "Starlight" which was written for her ex-boyfriend's mom and is meant to be taken lightly and just a feel-good song.
It's nice to see her talking about being the third party in the bonus track called "Girl At Home" and give a different perspective from being the girl chasing after a guy. The other bonus track is called "The Moment I Knew" which is quite a good song and should have been included in the standard tracklisting. The last new bonus track which is "Come Back..Be Here" is just another average song about missing a person and it resembles a lot like Lady Antebellum's "Just A Kiss" in terms of the melody.
The last three bonus tracks consists of the demos of Treacherous and Red and also the acoustic version of State Of Grace that I find better than the studio version.
Overall, despite the success this album has achieved, I find it as her worst album. But I will still support her and I'm happy that she's getting success from different parts of the world. In fact, this album became her first #1 album in the UK! I guess I have expected that Taylor's bound to have a bad album but I didn't expect it to be this one. I'm giving it 2/5 stars.
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