Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Amaarae Writes Her Own Rules on the Sultry ‘Fountain Baby’: Album Review
variety.comThania Garcia The very first line of Amaarae’s “Fountain Baby” clearly tells its listeners the best possible setting for the record to be heard: “In the club,” with her breathy intonations pummeling against a wall of war drums.
It doesn’t let up from there: For the rest of this Ghanaian-American singer’s sophomore album, similar affirmations ring about female sexuality and shattered gender norms, continuing the themes from her 2020 debut, “The Angel You Don’t Know,” which introduced her to many fans via her first Billboard chart entry, via Kali Uchi’s remix of the album’s “Sad Girlz Luv Money.” The album is all over the map, with a colorful sonic palette of R&B, Afropop, guitar pop and even Japanese folk.
In “Sex, Violence, Suicide,” echoing, acoustic strings and Amaarae’s pitched-up vocals sing a lullaby about infatuation, but the kind that’s “Too much / Baby, you’re no good.” Like her debut, “Fountain Baby” also includes a tribute to punk ritualism that serves as the “part two” of “Sex, Violence, Suicide.” Silence for a few seconds, followed by a sigh, and then Amaarae sings: “Don’t care ‘bout what I’m asking you / Just fucking tell me yes! / Tell me I’m the one, tell me I’m the best,” with an instrumental assist from English pop rock band Dream Wife.
Amaarae tweeted about the album, “My most valued asset and biggest mistake was thinking I was Kanye West while I was making my album and sending a skeleton idea to like five producers and then picking what was best from each one.” But despite that, the album’s structure leads the listener to expect surprises and new settings for her deceptively, honeyed voice.
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