Content area
Full text
Remember when Taylor Swift was just a plucky, innocent teenaged country music starlet?
Listening to "Red," Ms. Swift's fourth full-length album, it might be easy to forget it.
While Ms. Swift has toed the line between country and pop for the better part of four years, "Red" plants her flag firmly in the latter camp.
Certain parts of the album are quintessential Swift. With just a few exceptions, all the tracks are based on her misadventures with various love interests. She sings about the good side of love ("Starlight" and "Begin Again") and, much more often, the worst parts of being in a relationship ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Almost Do," to name two tracks).
For Ms. Swift, that's nothing new. The most notable part of "Red" is Ms. Swift branching out stylistically toward the sounds...