We can now officially say that a percentage of Taylor Swift’s singles are about British opera singers…

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Anthony Easton: This isn’t country (but she got a bunch of industry awards, which must mean something), but that isn’t as interesting as noting that she is doing something different with her guitar than Eric Church, who is also not country. It seems to mean something that the most interesting country is coming out of places where country is allowed to be impure. Also, the second person distance suggests a narrative power that avoids the narcissism of recent uplift odes — and that sentence is really strange to write because no one is more of a narcissist than TayTay
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Alfred Soto: This soundtrack submission has the unfinished sound of a demo — it could be shinier — but it boasts elements I want in more new Swift. Please, Taylor, more “Breathless” guitar runs, more machine-gun drum programs. As for the old tricks, note the key shift from verse to chorus. In other words, the less she tries for a hit, the higher the probability that she gets a winner.
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Patrick St. Michel: As far as goofy movie-tie-in tracks go, this could be way worse. The trying-too-hard stabs at an ’80s sound are off, but Swift makes the chorus work and her voice stretching out during the bridge is good.
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Isabel Cole: Okay, yes, “songs from the trailer of the second-best chick flick of 1999” is maybe my third-favorite genre of music, right behind, fine, famous glossy-haired millionaires promising me I will overcome all obstacles to be the shining star they know me to be, and like, it’s true, tossing oh-ohs and harmonies into a mix of shimmering instrumentation and unrepentantly sugary vocals is like having Nick Miller carry heavy objects: I’m not not a bullseye demographic several times over, here, nor am I asking anyone to respect that. But what’s kept this on single-track repeat for several of the past 48 hours is the anticipation for and satisfaction of the contrast between the straightforward confidence of the opening line and the suddenly urgent hush of its repetition at the end: every time it convinces me deep in my heart that there is nothing even a little inane about a song that strings together cliches like those gum-wrapper chains I knew how to make when I was twelve, and if that’s not cause to believe in my wildest dreams, I don’t know what could be.
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Jonathan Bradley: Like any good multinational, after an expansion, Taylor Swift embarks upon a period of consolidation. She did it on the back of Fearless, honing that record’s starry swoon into a run of radio singles — “Jump Then Fall,” “Today Was a Fairytale,” “Crazier” — that polished her diaristic songwriting into endlessly replicable formula. Now she’s doing the same after the push into pop that was Red: that record’s Max Martinisms and dubstep flourishes and dance tempos now codified and standardized. “Sweeter Than Fiction,” a soundtrack loosie, is underpinned by a drum machine’s ticking and a sparkling guitar. She could keep this up forever.
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Brad Shoup: I’d rather have more of that too-brief drum machine rattle. Swift hits her cadences like there’s an actual rock band behind her, but it’s just a wink of New Wave. Then she dips into the Edwin McCain catalog…
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Scott Mildenhall: Taylor Swift: fan of Roly-Poly Funnyman James Corden. Who knew? Not having seen One Chance, the film she was apparently so desperate to get this on the soundtrack of, it seems a bit of an odd match. One Chance focuses more on opera than pop and is set long after the 80s that “Sweeter Than Fiction” takes its calls from. Was Russell Watson busy? Obviously it doesn’t really matter that this could be the end theme to about a million films other than the one it is — though a Swiftian take on “Nessun Dorma” would have been interesting — but that doesn’t exactly speak for its memorability either.
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Juana Giaimo: “Sweeter Than Fiction” not only is beautifully crafted — probably thanks to Jack Antonoff’s slightly synthpop influence as a co-writer — but it’s also sweet, lighthearted and catchy, proving that Taylor Swift never fails to be adorable. I feel that I won’t be the only one playing this song on repeat every time I need some encouraging words!
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Katherine St Asaph: Taylor Swift is still at least nominally country, which explains why the bridge to this quotes “I’ll Be” (also nominally country, and just long enough ago for Swift’s demographic to know it through oldies osmosis.) But this is a one-off, between album cycles, for a British film soundtrack; it’s a different audience, one where as on “Safe and Sound” she’s beholden neither to country nor Max Martin’s sonic constraints. (I tried to get some actual UK chart numbers to prove or disprove this, but they prove nothing except their own bizarreness. “You Belong With Me” peaked at #30. #30!) Specifically, One Chance is a Paul Potts biopic, which explains why the verses sound like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Unexpected Song.” Except where the cloying chorus would go, there’s key-leaping synth bliss, as if a less asinine “Love Story” was soundtracking a John Hughes film. (Only slightly less asinine; ignore the words.) The first five seconds alone are more thrilling than anything Swift has ever recorded.
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Will Adams: “Hit the ground… on your knees… colors fade… shattered hopes… the rest is history…”. This was not the Taylor Swift I was looking for.
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