The Deal: Teen country sensation releases sophomore album, follow up to triple-platinum self-titled debut, one month before her 19th birthday.
The Good: First off, credit has to be given to the fact Swift wrote or co-wrote all the tunes on her album. The album's tone sticks to the pop side of the country road. She's got a solid voice with strength at the right times and enough of a breezy tilt when needed. The album gives Swift a second building block in a strong foundation that is sure to lead to a lengthy career. Cliches are never good, but I'm sure the best is yet to come from the young singer. Part of Swift's appeal is that she teeters on the country fence – "White Horse" would do well on just about any pop station that plays ballads. Other songs use violins or other instrumentation to give it more of a country than pop feel, but it's definitely a fine line – see "You Belong With Me" and "Change."
The Bad: You almost wonder if the new disc is out too soon – she scored her fifth number-one single from her debut over the summer. Then again, she's just riding the wave of success. "Fifteen" made me feel old – I don't want to remember going to high school, it's been more than 15 years since I graduated. A lot of the songs deal with young heartbreak and it gets old after a few tracks.
The Verdict: She's won a number of awards, appeared on just about every talk show there is, handfuls of magazine covers and sold more than three million copies of her debut CD – Swift will be around for a while. No sophomore slump here – this one sold nearly 600,000 in its first week to debut at number one. She's no LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill or Shania Twain, but she's still a helluva lot better than Miley Cyrus.