Taylor swiftly takes over country music

She might not be able to belt out that high note to send chills down listeners’ backs, but Taylor Swift certainly can impress an audience with her impeccable songwriting skills. She parades her amazing talent in her latest album, Fearless.

“You be the prince and I’ll be the princess / It’s a love story, baby, just say yes,” Swift sings in her first single, “Love Story.” The song chronicles the relationship of Romeo and Juliet, but she gives it a much happier ending than the Shakespeare version. Two songs later, though, Swift realizes that life isn’t full of happy endings.

“I’m not a princess, this ain’t a fairy tale / I’m not the one you’ll sweep off her feet / and lead her up the stairwell,” she sings emotionally in “White Horse.” Fearless is full of truths and realizations like this.

Swift certainly doesn’t have pipes that can rival Carrie Underwood or Martina McBride, but through her songwriting, she has the ability to connect with the younger generation. After all, Swift is only 18 years old, but her ability to make sense of the world through song is much more mature than her age suggests.

This is most apparent in the second track, “Fifteen.” She sings about a freshman in high school trying to find her identity. She manages to paint the vulnerability of 15-year-old girls with pinpoint accuracy.

“‘Cause when you’re 15 and somebody tells you they love you / You’re gonna believe them,” she sings in a mentoring manner. “Well, count to 10, take it in / This is life before you know who you’re gonna be.”

She even continues some of the stories told on her previous self-titled album. “Teardrops on my Guitar” became a huge hit in both the pop and country worlds two years ago as Swift sang about a boy whom she loves but only considers her a close friend. Fearless’ “You Belong With Me” is a faster-paced, more optimistic version of that experience.

After a fun acoustic intro, she sings about this boy’s girlfriend not understanding him like the narrator does.

“She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers,” she sings in a knowing tone. “Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find / That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time.”

The most interesting song on the album is easily “The Way I Loved You.” Swift sings about her new boyfriend who is the perfect gentleman. He opens doors for her, never makes her wait, always calls and is close to her parents. But Swift finally explains why girls never fall for the nice guys. 

Many musicians sing about tough relationships with the typical “bad boy” who is nothing like a perfect gentleman. But Swift finally manages to provide an explanation for why girls stay in these relationships. 

“You’re so in love that you act insane,” she confesses.

At the end of the album, instead of thanking her family in the thank-you notes, she dedicated a whole song to them, and specifically to her mother.

“The Best Day” demonstrates that Swift doesn’t take anything for granted. She sings about how her mother protected her and helped her grow into the successful woman she has become.

“I have an excellent father ... God shines on my little brother ... I grew up in a pretty house and I had space to run,” she sings, speaking about her upbringing in a nice neighborhood near Reading, Pa. 

Swift’s second album has several potential hits, thanks to her immaculate songwriting. If she can write songs of this caliber after living only 18 years, just imagine what’s in store for the future.

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