Red by Taylor Swift

The music industry has seen it's profits continually shrink over the last decade. The answer is evident of how to solve this. Simply put the industry needs a few more Taylor Swift's.

Her fourth album debuted recently and shot to the top of the charts with sales of over a million in the first week. Compared to what other acts are selling over the duration of their albums runs this is remarkable.

It is not news that Swift is popular, ever since her single Tim McGraw took off a few years back her career has just gotten bigger and bigger. In our house my daughter knows all her songs and sings them constantly. I should say that there is a comfort in the fact that I can know my thirteen year old is listening to albums that I need no fear of the content.

With her fourth album Swift has not really broken any new ground. One song is a bit more adult, she sings " you can say anything as long as you say it with your hands" but that is about as risque as it gets. Of course much of the persona you see could be contrived and she could be a drug swilling, promiscuous twenty two year old but nothing seems to indicate this to be the case. Her appearances on television shows are cute, laughable, and her songs and voice match the personality shown.

She sings about her past relationships which are many, in ways that makes you think these could have been the same things she would have written in her journal were she not a successful recording artist.

The new album finds Swift branching out a bit more. The single State of Grace has U2 style guitars and could easily be a song a " real" singer sings.

Songs like I Knew You Were Trouble are among my least favorites but are unbearably catchy, in fact it gets my daughters highest approval.

Swift does not record songs that are not catchy. It does not seem like there is any filler on the album. On first listen I identified a few songs I thought that were just filler but on second and third listen to write this I realized that could not be said. In short her voice, her sense of melody, and one must not forget the songs she sings and writes are like earwigs. You cannot get them out of your head.

Begin Again is a song any teenager wanting to get back with her old partner can appreciate, a few adults could as well and the first single is perhaps the most infectious single of the year. When Swift sings We are never getting back together it is impossible not to sing along.

Other songs include the title cut Red which appears to be the second single but with a Swift album it is hard to know what are really the singles. Treacherous could easily be the flip side to Begin Again, same tone, could even be part of the same relationship.

The song that might be the most easily missed in relation to it's future success is called All Too Well. This is a sweet song, Swift's breathy voice fits it perfectly. The fact is all the songs have merit and one could review them all with a smile.

This girl is incredibly talented. Will she as he approaches her late twenties feel the need to sex it up so that she can be taken seriously. Let us hope not. Her songs are sweet, her personality ( that we see ) is sweet, and honestly, even if it is an illusion, does not the world need a little more outward sweetness.

I like the album but I love to hear my daughter singing the songs. That is worth more than one can realize until they witness it.