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Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody is among the guest writers on Swift's fourth album. Charles Sykes / Invision / AP Photo
Si Hawkins
Taylor Swift
Red
(Mercury)
***
It's rare these days for a record to receive a formal introduction, the kind of welcoming message that once graced the back of LP sleeves, preparing potential listeners for the journey ahead.
A salute, then, to Taylor Swift, who has embraced the idea on this, her fourth album. Swift's love life is much gossiped about in the US and the new record is inspired by particular romances: "the 'red' relationships", as she puts it in the CD booklet's revealing prologue. "The ones that went from zero to a hundred miles...