9 Days Until Red

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard the name Taylor Swift. The pop-country-rock princess has taken the world by storm over the last three years. So far in her career Swift has released three albums; Taylor Swift, Fearless, and Speak Now. Swift has always pushed the boundaries of what it means to be a “country singer”, some would argue that she isn’t really a country singer. In fact, if you take some time to listen to her albums back to back to back, you’ll hear the gradual movement away from country.

Swift’s new album ‘Red’ comes out in 9 days and fans already have 4 singles off of the album. Usually you can tell a lot about what the album will sound like from the singles. That is not the case in this situation.

The first single released was ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’. For a lot of people this was a shock to the system. The last we heard from Taylor Swift was her mellower, country ballads from ‘Speak Now’ and then along came this pop song. It made a lot of people, including myself, wary about what the album was going to sound like. However, despite the pop sound there was still the signature, jaw-dropping, ‘I can’t believe she just said that’ lyrics.

A week later fans got to hear the second single, ‘Red’. This had much more of a ‘Speak Now’ feel to it. The song opens with just Taylor and a banjo singing about a boy. The way we all remembered her. The song is a metaphor comparing emotions to colors, in other words she wrote another amazing song, and fans breathed a sigh of relief.

And then a week later, ‘Begin Again’ came out and everybody agreed that this was the old Taylor Swift. ‘Begin Again’ is a heartbreakingly beautiful song about going through a bad relationship and a bad breakup and finding a way to love again. With nothing but acoustic guitar and her voice, there’s not much to complain about with this song.

But then a week later, ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ dropped and fans were back to being confused. The song sounds more like ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ only this one features a dubstep breakdown. It’s not a bad song by any means, it’s just not what Taylor Swift fans are used to.

Personally, I like the new change. I don’t think she was really that country to begin with, it’s just the genre she got her start in and is inspired by. With 9 days until ‘Red’ drops, I don’t think anyone but the pop-country-rock princess herself knows what to expect.