Released Oct. 24 by Big Machine Records.
So what can one expect when a debut album is released from a young, commercial friendly girl from the north? The same caliber of melodramatic music that one would suspect from a sixteen-year old girl. Taylor Swift's debut single "Tim McGraw" has no doubt gotten infinite airtime from every Nashville country station.With herself-titled album, shehas fully personified the new direction in which country music seems to be steering these days - younger artists for a younger audience. Indeed the gap between such country "greats" as Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and even Garth Brooks seems to be further widened by the emerging country artists on the scene.
But enough about the age of the artists - what truly matters to the true music lover is the quality of music that the artists are putting into the industry. Consider the following: from songwriting to background vocals to studio musicians, there are over twenty other musicians who came into the studio to contribute to Swift's album. In the track "Picture to Burn" Swift whines about not being allowed to drive her ex-boyfriend's pick-up:
"I hate that stupid old pickup truck, you never let me drive."
Perhaps she could not drive because she was not yet even 16? In the beginning of that same track, Swift spitefully warns her ex-boyfriend that she will tell all her friends that he is gay:
"I'll tell (my friends) you're gay."
Now, for those of us who have ears and the brainpower to decipher art from fluff, the objection behind Swift's album becomes obvious three tracks into the excruciating album; it is yet another attempt by a country music label to maximize profit at the expense of putting out a tasteless but profitable album. If the pursuit of music and its outcomes should always be considered art, perhaps Taylor Swift should pursue another non-musical hobby (at least for the next five years or so) and give our ears a deserved break.
1 1/2 stars
This article was written by Matthew Reynolds, writer and CD reviewer for the Belmont Vision and freelance writer for The Tennessean. See his personal blog here for more music reviews.
