By: Emily J Ramey

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been one of those people who have dug their heels in and resisted Taylor Swift like the plague.  Then I remembered that in the 60s, it was the high-minded who listened to Joan Baez and Janis Joplin and the masses that loved Elvis and The Rolling Stones.  With this justification in mind, I pressed play on Taylor’s newest work, Speak Now.

And I have to say, Swift’s already platinum-selling third album is pretty darn catchy. The girl’s sparkling vocals and buoyant melodies are contagious; I find myself tapping my toe against my better judgment, humming along without meaning to. Speak Now is the first collection for which Swift wrote every song, songs that weave in fibers of a denser thematic thread, trading white knights and Tim McGraw for everyday responsibility and wedding talk. Still, Swift remains the radiant but unaffected girl next door, strumming her guitar and playing naught but love songs.

Glossy and saccharine, “Mine” and “Sparks Fly” kick off Speak Now, picking up where Fearless ended. Our first glimpse of Taylor Swift the woman happens in “Back to December,” a song that properly showcases the young songwriter’s often-talked-about ability to write lyrics that are expressed with sophistication while remaining relatable to her teenage audience.

The acidic “Better than Revenge” is a little punk rock; tight instrumentation and biting turns of phrase yield a song uncharacteristically vicious and correspondingly memorable. And “Haunted” is nothing short of epic – a complex and monumental composition made dark and robust by heavy electric parts and an ominous strings section, easily the finest song on the album.

Say what you will about Taylor Swift, but her songwriting is honest and unadulterated, simple and relevant. Her love songs are just what a young girl’s should be: bright, dramatic, and pure, gauzy in optimism and aglow with young, feminine confidence. And beyond those tracks, Swift makes a couple of bold sidesteps into genres not her own, an apparent effort to test her limits as an artist.

Emily J Ramey is a burgeoning young music writer, living and working in Nashville, TN. Her background includes journalism classes at New York University and a Music Business degree from Belmont University. Check out her blog at listenerextraordinaire.wordpress.com.