Taylor Swift is young. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, she likes singing songs about boys and heartbreak, she plays guitar, and she loves her Daddy (and God). She's American. Does I really need to go on? Even someone with their finger on the pulse of a three month old festering corpse can imagine what the country-pop starlet's music is bound to sound like, but that hasn't stopped the 19-year-old from reaching the dizzying heights of megastardom in her native USA.
'Fearless', her second album, has already broken chart records, and it's not hard to see why. Swift's repertoire consists solely of innocuous guitar-pop songs that embody all the pep of a paranoid cheerleader, or ballads with bucketloads of contrived sincerity and lyrics to match. Many have praised the singer for her lyrical maturity, but some of her couplets are nothing short of hilarious (rhyming "Stephen" with "deceivin'", or 'The Best Day''s gem: "I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger / God smiles on my little brother" ) and consist of the same themes (boys, heartbreak, boys, fun, boys, sneaking out windows at night to see boys).
It's corny, samey country-pop with songs that are overlong and overdone, with many of Swift's ideas being constantly recycled - and therefore repetitive and attention-numbing. In short, it's the sort of music that the mainstream adores; it's far from painful, but it'll suck all the hope and joy out of your body after just one listen. For the love of God, avoid.