Idolator

Our look at the closing lines of reviews of the week’s biggest new music continues with a look at reactions to Taylor Swift’s Fearless, which arrives in stores tomorrow:

• “‘The Best Day’ also happens to be the best song. A musical valentine about how great Mom and Dad are, it’s understated enough to go unnoticed, but then you realize it sounds like nothing else on Fearless. After an entire album of wide-open choruses, it’s refreshing to hear Swift tell her story simply. If the melody doesn’t stick in your mind, the message at least speaks to the heart.” [Boston Globe]

• “When she sings about sexuality, she sounds like a real teen, not some manufactured vixen-Lolita, as on the beautifully crafted ‘Fifteen’ (’Abigail gave everything she had/To a boy who changed his mind’). For now, her primary fan base will probably remain the young girls she speaks to so well—but it will be exciting to watch her precocious talent grow.” [EW]

• “In ‘Fifteen,’ Swift confides, ‘Abigail gave everything she had to a boy/Who changed his mind/And we both cried.’ Swift’s real-life best friend is a girl called Abigail—the singer’s not afraid to name names. It’s safe to assume that the titular love object in the lilting ‘Hey Stephen’ is, well, some dude named Stephen that Swift has a crush on. And she has a question for him: ‘All those other girls, well, they’re beautiful, but would they write a song for you?’” [RS]

• “On one level there’s something refreshing about Swift’s literalism, and her willingness to play the righteous loser. Ever since hip hop made ‘hit the road, jack’ songs mandatory for nearly all women, we’ve missed the old-fashioned tear queens of the prefeminist era. Would that pop celebrated a more engaging one than Swift.” [NY Daily News]