Arts & Entertainment Review

Taylor Swift: Speak Now

She had millions of young girls (and a few thousand sensitive men) waiting on the release of her third album. They were girls who had played her sophomore mega-hit Fearless until they knew every word, every guitar solo, and every mid-song giggle. For Swift's fans, music is nothing short of their lifeline, her lyrics piercing deep into their heart while they are in the middle of a breakup or articulating the giddy feeling of falling in love. It is an understatement to say that her fans were ready for Taylor to Speak Now.

And she did just that, releasing into her eager followers' hands an album that showed growth as a vocalist, diversity as a musician, and natural giftedness as a songwriter. Not just for your 12-year-old daughter anymore, Swift's songs have matured in a sense. She sings of having a drawer of her things at her boyfriend's place in the first track, "Mine," and mentions another girl being known for "the things that she does on the mattress" in the Paramore-like "Better Than Revenge." The caring songstress also responds the Kanye West debaucle with love and sympathy in the carefully-crafted "Innocent."

That doesn't mean that her songs are not still laden with fairytale imagery and cute, detailed lyrics that draw the listener in. She still croons of being "wonderstruck" when she hits things off with a cute guy and seeing "sparks fly" when her crush smiles. And as per usual, this bubbly romanticism is balanced out with plenty of sullen tracks pining for ex-boyfriends and regretting the mistakes made. In "Back to December," Swift longs to go back to a time when her and a beau were blissfully in love. The ballad "Dear John" speaks of the regret she feels for not listening to when she was advised to stay away from notorious heartbreaker John Mayer.

Her vocals are stronger on Speak Now than albums previous, proving that she is growing with each record she puts out. And the fact that she wrote each track on her own and co-produced the entire album certainly places her above the other young Hollywood pop singers vying for musical success by simply parroting songs that others wrote. Swift continues to set herself apart with this album, and now, a year after it's release, she has multiple CMAs, AMAs, and fill-in-the-blank-MAs to prove it.