Music review: Taylor Swift 

Source: ONE NewsTaylor Swift's Fearless album cover

Taylor Swift, the pretty, blonde, country-crossover megastar the industry was desperate for, was announced in July 2009 as having the top selling album for the first half of the year.

Her debut album, Fearless, released in November 2008, sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Unlike previous country stars like Leann Rimes and Carrie Underwood, Swift's relatable persona saw her skyrocket to teen idol status and now, one year later, Fearless: Platinum Edition, has hit music stores across the globe.

But while the album features six new songs, a DVD featurette and photos of Swift on tour, plus all of the star's music videos for her hit songs, the release feels like an attempt by her record company Big Machine Records to expand Taylor Swift, the brand, as opposed to Taylor Swift, the artist.

Fearless: Platinum Edition delivers more of what made Swift so successful in the first place: Mid-tempo ballads that reference her experiences with boys, love, and relationship issues.

Superstar and Jump Then Fall, two of Swift's six new songs, are typical Taylor at work. Lyrical banalities such as "every time you smile/I smile" as Swift's insight into a developing relationship in Jump Then Fall are short of making the lyrical song of the year list, but the listener must remember that that is not what Swift is about.

Her ability to relate each song to any emotion teenage girls around the world feel going through puberty is what has propelled her profile to international icon status. All Swift's songs are either about boys who broke her heart, boys she can't have, or boys she has just met - something completely relatable across the globe.

But while it makes for a recipe for success, continuous listening to the album can become aurally and intellectually tedious for those who have since moved past high-school crushes.

Someone recently told me they found Swift "completely inoffensive", and I truly could not coin a more apt description. Untouchable, the second of Swift's new songs, is a countrified version of emo-rock band Luna Halo's 2007 release. What had the makings of something completely different music-wise for Swift has become another soppy ballad to add to the collection. What strikes me as interesting is the fact Swift is given songwriting credit for the tune after having only rearranged the song from its rock-based origins.

Having said that, it is not a deflection on Swift's songwriting talents; the young pop star knows how to craft a successful song. The "new" song Forever And Always, a piano version of a song released on Fearless and present on the Platinum Edition, demonstrates Swift's innate ability to develop her skill in writing classically structured music. The new version, a smooth ballad of reminiscence, is easily transformed from the originally recorded teenage girl anthem.

All in all, while hardly groundbreaking, Fearless: Platinum Edition serves as a strong reminder as to how successful a girl with all the right musical and social elements can be.