Album Review: Taylor Swift - Red

It should be noted before going into any record specifics, that Red has officially made Taylor Swift the world's biggest pop star. The figures themselves are mind boggling, especially in an age where people don't actually buy CDs anymore. It's sold 1.2 million copies in it's first week – including 8,000 through US pizza chain Papa John's, which sold Red for $13 and also as part of a $22 pizza and CD combo. So how, and why, and uh... what?

Well, to state the perfectly obvious, Swift knows her way around a hook. A list of hits the length of her golden locks attests to this and Red is hookier than Dustin Hoffman. Opener State Of Grace essentially rewrites previous blockbuster You Belong With Me, while somehow doubling as a statement of intent and familiarity. A tad musclier but in no way alienating, there'll be no 16-year-old valley girls choking on their Hawaiian slices here. Elsewhere, her collaboration with future Hucknall Ed Sheeran produces predictably pleasant results, and the less said about Swift's brief (and let's hope final) foray into faux dubstep on I Knew You Were Trouble, the better.

The songs themselves aren't really the issue here. The genius behind what Taylor Swift does is her ability to live inside the surface neurosis of a million tween-to-20s relationships, sum them up in 3.5 minutes and watch the green roll in. There's no doubting her expertise on the subject of love and breakups (just ask John Mayer or Jake Gyllenhaal) and when she asserts that “For the first time, past is past” (Begin Again), even this hardened reviewer found himself a bit misty-eyed. You win again Swifty.