Taylor Swift: Red

"Awe and amazement have been Taylor Swift’s grammar for years now. Whether singing about love or heartbreak — there has been no third subject — Ms. Swift has excelled at capturing the fresh sting, as if arriving at a feeling for the first time. But Ms. Swift is 22 now, and certainly she has seen some things. For most of 'Red,' her fourth album, that’s not necessarily clear. Her growth is largely musical, not experiential. There is a moment, though, on 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' — the album’s lead single and, as it happens, her first No. 1 pop hit — where the cracks begin to show. At the bridge the song gives way to a conversation between Ms. Swift and friends in which she’s recalling how she shut down a persistent ex who wouldn’t stop calling. 'This is exhausting,' she tells him, emphasizing the middle syllable of the last word, like a car that’s just run out of gas. There is something different in Ms. Swift’s voice here: it’s serious and deep, and also shrewd. She has been through this before. She sounds like an adult. It’s about time" (Jon Caramanica, "No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift," New York Times, 10/24/12).

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