Taylor Swift "Taylor Swift" (Big Machine)
If you have an eMusic account, you've probably seen Taylor Swift's debut album gazing at you from the top of the site's bestseller chart for about a year or so. It's like some sort of bizarre quantum-physics particle (the T-Swift? the Swifton?) -- a mysterious and powerful presence offsetting the Indie Rock Strong Force that dominates the Top 10 at any given time.
She has another record on the way in the fall, but this one remains a pop-country juggernaut, with certified-multiplatinum sales and a gaggle of singles issued over two years -- including this year's "Picture To Burn," which contains the immortal line, "So go and tell your friends I'm obsessive and crazy/That's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay." If you look closely, she's not concerned about debunking any rumors about herself, and she's not goin' homophobe -- she just wants to keep her fellow hotties from lining themselves up as rebound material. She hates his pickup truck, too. "As far as I'm concerned/You're just another picture to burn," goes the chorus. The real implication? She's already burned several pictures of exes.
But despite such displays of feistiness, the girl who manifests herself on Taylor Swift is economically comfortable (deprivation isn't an issue) and largely twang-free (she's from Reading, Pa., which isn't quite in the sticks). And those reasons -- along with its perfectly professional Nashville sonics -- are probably why the album is still selling like hotcakes. A couple of decades ago, you'd find a copy of Huey Lewis' Sports in lots of suburban bedrooms, for largely the same reasons. By comparison, that album was like, totally edgy. But hey, a girl can grow, can't she? Here's what she told CMT:
It's so fun to see you come out on stage singing an Eminem cover and your version of Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" rocks. Any plans to do a duet with a rap artist on an upcoming album?
Ha ha! I don't know! I'm not planning anything like that right now, but I think the coolest thing in the world would be to do something with Jay-Z. When I was 11, I sang the national anthem at a 76ers game in Philly. Jay-Z was sitting courtside and gave me a high-five after I sang. I bragged about that for like a year straight. I love doing cover songs that nobody expects. When I went to live shows, I always loved stuff like that. I like it when something you wouldn't expect to happen onstage happens -- musically or visually. I think Sugarland does a great job of incorporating different surprises into their shows.
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