4th
What’s her age again?
I’ve got a bone to pick with Jon Caramanica over his post-Grammys Taylor Swift piece, in which he argued that the 20-year-old singer is going to have to start acting like the grown woman she is now that she is a certified superstar. I realize he’s talking about her public persona— and it’s true, she has been playing a wide-eyed teenager at award shows— and he’s probably right that that needs to change. But it seems to me that any discussion of Taylor Swift’s age and whether she acts it must somehow address the incredible maturity and self-awareness demonstrated by the lyrics on Fearless. Because to me that’s one of the most amazing things about Fearless, and the first 30 times I listened to it I caught myself repeatedly marveling at how sensitive and perceptive she is about things in life that continue to bewilder me and everyone I know. And it’s not just that she describes certain feelings originally and precisely— it’s that she has those feelings in the first place that’s astonishing.
Start with “The Way I Loved You,” in which she compares the peaceful, happy relationship she enjoys with her current boyfriend (“he is sensible and so incredible”) to the tumultuous and painful one she had with her last one. The song swells at “He can’t see the smile I’m faking / and my heart’s not breaking / because I’m not feeling anything at all.” I dunno, are these thoughts you were thinking when you were 15, or however old Taylor Swift was when she wrote this song?
Also: “Here’s to everything coming down to nothing,” from “Forever and Always.” I dunno if I’ve ever heard a better articulation of the horror one feels staring down the barrel of a breakup.
Also again, from “Fifteen”: “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind / we both cried.” This might be a song about childhood, but I bet you anything that Abigail, when that happened to her, didn’t think of it in those terms.
Caramanica in his piece says that Taylor Swift’s next album, due to her success and her age, cannot have “the same emotional guideposts as the previous ones.” I for one hope it does!
