Taylor Swift

Speak Now

Speak‘s 14 tracks are perfectly contained snow globes of romance and catharsis, whole cinematic narratives rendered in four-to six-minute miniatures.

She may be not a girl, and not yet a woman, but on Speak Now she captures that transition with a personal grace and skill that few singer/songwriters have.

All of Speak Now engages in that act of making our story hers, and her story ours, which is what pop stars do well.

Swift has seen the world that comes with superstardom, and for all those who complained that Fearless was a one-dimensional teenage love affair, Speak Now takes that experience and wallops the critics with it.

Swift’s third album, Speak Now, is roughly twice as good as 2008’s Fearless, which was roughly twice as good as her 2006 debut.

Speak Now is a conscious attempt to move beyond those childish things while retaining her balance of maturity and relatability.

On Speak Now, Swift is strongest when she lets her country roots shine through.

Speak Now is Taylor Swift’s best record yet, all in her voice with no co-writers. It’s a powerful statement from someone who has proven that she knows who she is, and, whether Nashville likes it or not, is here to stay.

Speak Now falters whenever Swift lets her outsized personality be subsumed by big, generic ballads.

Speak Now is an album of expertly crafted pop music that actually justifies at least some of the critical hyperbole and commercial clout that have characterized the last two years of Swift’s career.