Big Machine

Speak Now proves that Swift is more than the world's biggest country singer — at 21, she's a one-woman song factory with a rock & roll heart. There are tracks about celebrity studs, but what matters is how she can command a deep-freeze soft-soul ballad like "Enchanted" or a Phil Spector-style rocker like "Long Live."

• Rob Sheffield's Original Review
• Gallery: Taylor Swift's Rise to Fame