Red in Bloomington, MN

Taylor Swift
designed her 2012 album
Red
as her breakthrough into the pop market -- a crossover she pulled off with ease, elevating her to the rarefied air of superstars who can be identified by a single name.
may not be flawless -- it runs just a shade too long as it sprints along in its quest to be everything to everyone -- but there's an empowering fearlessness in how
Swift
shakes off her country bona fides. Leaving Nashville behind, she rushes to collaborate with
Britney Spears
hitmaker
Max Martin
and
Snow Patrol
's
Gary Lightbody
, along with mainstream rock mainstays
Dan Wilson
Butch Walker
. Appropriately for an album featuring so many producers,
isn't sequenced like a proper album, it's a buffet, offering every kind of sound or identity a
fan could possibly want.
Taylor
deftly shifts styles, adapting well to the insistent pulse of
Martin
, easing into a shimmering melancholy reminiscent of
Mazzy Star
("Sad Beautiful Tragic"), and coolly riding a chilly new wave pulse ("The Lucky One"). Combined with the unabashed arena rock fanfare of "State of Grace," the dance-pop of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and the dubstep feint "I Knew You Were Trouble" -- not to mention the cheerfully ludicrous club-filler "22" --
barely winks at country, and it's a better album for it. It is, as all pop albums should be, recognizable primarily as the work of
alone: her girlish persona is at its center, allowing her to try on the latest fashions while always sounding like herself. Although she can still seem a little gangly in her lyrical details -- her relationship songs are too on the nose and she has an odd obsession about her perceived persecution by the cool kids -- these details hardly undermine the pristine pop confections surrounding them. If anything, these ungainly, awkward phrasings humanizes this mammoth pop monolith: she's constructed something so precise that its success seems preordained, but underneath it all,
is still twitchy, which makes
not just catchy but compelling. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine