Best Songs of 2010 – #9
Taylor Swift has been a pretty big deal in my household for a couple of years now, thanks to my 8- and 4-year old daughters who caught the bug from my 15-year old niece. The hits from her record-breaking album Fearless have run on repeat in their rooms and our car for some time.
So when Swift released Speak Now in 2010, I made a preemptive strike and bought the album myself. No surprise, it immediately went into constant rotation for my daughters, who can sing along word for word to every song.
More surprising was how immediately I took to the album myself. Swift has long had great songwriting chops but she took things to another level on Speak Now, writing every one of its 14 songs herself and exhibiting mastery of a host of styles.
No longer just a crossover pop country darling, she rocks harder than ever on some tracks, milks every bit of pathos out of the ballads and never feels less than completely control of this wide-ranging and complex song cycle.
Despite all this artistic growth, however, it’s one of the simple country songs that captured me more than all the rest. ‘Mean’ is a swipe at a critic who Swift feels went over the top in his attacks on her as an artist and a person. But its message is universal and could just as easily apply to a high school bully (in fact, judging by the many comments on the Web about this song, I think that’s how most of her fans read it).
Swift has this to say about the song:
No matter what you do, no matter how old you are, no matter what your job is, no matter what your place is in life. There’s always going to be someone who’s just mean to you. Dealing with that is all you can control about that situation, how you handle it. “Mean” is about how I handle it, and sort of my mind set about this whole situation.
Apparently she deals with it by writing a freakin’ great song.
You have knocked me off my feet again, got me feeling like a nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard calling me out when I’m wounded
You, picking on the weaker man
Well you can take me down with just one single blow
But you don’t know what you don’t know
Chorus
Someday I’ll be living in a big ole city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean
You, with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again, as if I don’t already see them
I walk with my head down trying to block you out cause I’ll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again
I bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now cause you can’t lead me down that road
And you don’t know what you don’t know
Repeat Chorus
And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion
But nobody’s listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing
But all you are is mean
All you are is mean
And a liar and pathetic and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean
But someday I’ll be living in a big ole city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean, yeah
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean
Someday I’ll be living in a big ole city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, needless to say, Swift is in heavy rotation on our car stereo as well. I wouldn’t go as far as you to suggest that Speak Now is a better album than Fearless. In fact, it’s hard to top songs like “Love Story,” “White Horse” or “15.” Still, Speak Now is a solid follow up effort and does display some nice musical diversity and homages to those who have influenced or had an impact upon Swift.
Indeed, while “Mean” is on the one hand a country song, it also seems to borrow heavily from a Fleetwood Mac sound, although I don’t know if the stylistic similarity was intentional. Still, a very good song, and one of my favorites on the new album.
I love that you chose this song, and even before you’ve heard Maddie and Daniel do it a capella. Now that’s a treat 🙂 Daniel was preparing to sing it in his music class, as bullying has been an all too regular part of his 4th grade year. This song, therefore, has had particular resonance in our home.
I agree with Dana that this album is a continuation of the songwriting talent already on display on Fearless, but I know that Swift herself takes a great deal of pride in the fact that she wrote every word and note of each of these songs on her own – and that is a significant accomplishment, no doubt.
Whether this is my favorite on the new album, I don’t know, but it is a top contender.