- I feel pretty confident saying that the opening six tracks on this album constitute the strongest run on any of her albums to date. It's a blast, and I'm sure that it's the section of the album I'll return to the most. State Of Grace is a great opener. That steady drum beat and The Edge-lite guitar riff, her vocal delivery in the chorus, everything. The title track and I Knew You Were Trouble are two potential singles that I dig as much as I did when we first heard them.
But the real kickers, and what takes the first half of the album to the next level, are All Too Well and 22. The former had me misty eyed when I listened to it the first time this afternoon. One of her best songs, a soulful, personal, moving story, and it's written and performed brilliantly. Powerful stuff. Reminds me of Enchanted, which we all know (well, the four or so of us who post in this thread) is one of the better songs in human history.
And then that poignant tearjerker is followed up with easily the goofiest, silliest song of her career. Yes. Hell yes. 22, I feel, could be pretty divisive amongst her fans, but I fucking love it. She's adopted this exaggerated accent in the verses that makes me swoon. It's dumb, insanely catchy, and funny, and will probably be my new Friday night song. The juxtaposition of these two tracks is a masterstroke.
- The album doesn't sustain this pace all the way through, though. Right after 22 comes I Almost Do, and I've heard it twice now and can't really remember anything about it.
- Stay Stay Stay is probably my favorite song on the back half of the album at this point. It feels like something that took her probably 10 minutes to write, and in her own words, it's SOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNNNNNN.
- The two duets. Hmmm. They're good, but I'm trying to hear Taylor Swift, not the dude from Snow Patrol or some other British dude that I've never heard of. Like I said, though, they're well written songs and definitely have the potential to grow on me.
- Sad Beautiful Tragic. Terrible song title, and probably my least favorite thing on here. Kind of a snooze, really.
- Starlight is cool, and has a lovably optimistic and naive tone that reminds me of some of her older songs.
- Begin Again sounds 10x better in the context of the album, as I expected it would. A fitting closer.
So, overall, it's easily the best pop album released by anybody in the last two years, but I honestly don't think I love it quite as much as Speak Now. Didn't hit me as hard as that one did after two full listens. Still, the best songwriter and living person on the planet. I like the variety and ambition of it, and the collaborative nature of the project certainly makes it stand out from the rest of her work. Based on everything she's said in interviews and what-not prior to release, this whole project was something she needed to get out of her system: i.e. working with other writers and producers, etc. It's damn good, but it's not gonna go down as her magnum opus. We haven't heard that yet.