I may have been giving the album Red too hard of a time. It's not as bad as I first thought, but it does have some serious weaknesses I feel that I need to address. Much like it's predecessor Speak Now, Red's titular song is one of the weakest on the album. Unlike some of Taylor's other songs, I think that Red's weaknesses are pretty clear, since I see what it's trying to do but also why it ultimately fails.
So what is Red trying to do? Put simply, it makes it ample use of simile and metaphor to communicate "them post breakup feels". This is all over the song, and you don't need to look any further than the chorus to see it in action.
"Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark grey all alone
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met
But loving him was red
Loving him was red"
It doesn't stop at the chorus though. Even the very first line follows this pattern.
"Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin ending so suddenly
Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall
Like the colors in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all"
I think you get what I'm saying. As always, this isn't a bad thing on it's own. Simile and metaphor are common literary tools because they are an effective way to communicate new situations to the audience. I even think that the idea behind how Red goes about it's metaphors is pretty creative. Taylor separates her comparisons into two categories. The more instinctive and basic emotions are described by colors, while the more complex ones require more complex metaphors.
"Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark grey all alone"
"But loving him was red
"Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street"
"Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met"
"Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall"
Why it doesn't work
In the abstract, I like this structure, but it relies on well structured complex metaphors. The simple comparisons to color will end up falling flat if the more complex baselines aren't relatable.
And boy, are they unrelatable. Just look at the ones I listed above! First, the Maserati line. This one should be pretty obvious, but is still the least offensive of the listed lines. It's easy to take jabs at Taylor here for being rich, but I actually understand it in this case. Even though it's totally unrelatable it's the first line in the song so it's primary purpose is to inform the listener as to the nature of the relationship, which it does. It could certainly do it better, but at least I can imagine it.
The next lines are just nonsense though. Forgetting someone who you have never met is a poor choice for a simile because I can't even go so far as to put myself in that situation. I believe that this was intentional on Taylor's end, and was supposed to give the listener insight into how her glamorous, short-lived relationship sucked her in and left her feeling afterwards. It's impossible to forget someone, and that's the point. But that doesn't change the fact that it gives the listener no insight into the details of the relationship. There is no more emotion in the line than if she had just said "forgetting him was impossible". The last line has pretty much the exact same problems as the one I just talked about it, maybe even worse. "trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall" doesn't work because it isn't a thing! The biggest problem here is the structure, similes and metaphors work well when you take a complex topic and compare it to something everyone can relate to. There actually is one good example of this in Red believe it or not.
"Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song"
See, this line works. Everyone knows the visceral feeling of belting out the lyrics to their favorite song, so we get insight into how Taylor felt about this relationship. However, it's somewhat undercut by the next line which never ceases to frustrate me.
"Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer"
I know I'm being a little pedantic, but this is just stupid. No one in the history of ever has been solving a crossword and realized there's no right answer, except maybe it's own editor, the person who's job it is to make sure that the puzzle is, in fact, solvable.
I can say nice things though, and I'll prove it! The audio production on this song is very nice. I'm not even going to give evidence to support this other than the deluxe version of the album, which includes an earlier version of Red that is a complete mess. It's extremely busy and feels unpolished for a very good reason. It can't quite make me like the normal version but I can at the very least tolerate it.
That's all for now, I need to stop writing before I start ranting about how bad this song is again.
See you tomorrow,
-C
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