Taylor Swift, ‘Elizabeth Taylor’

“She was, in short, too bloody much.” That’s what Richard Burton said the night he met Elizabeth Taylor. No wonder Taylor Swift can relate — just her kind of girl. This is the kind of ingeniously crafted melodramatic bombshell that Swift specializes in, serenading the Hollywood legend she calls “the ultimate quintessential showgirl,” an orchestral torch banger about a movie star living the sequins-are-forever lifestyle. The showgirl yearns for true love, but on her own fiercely independent terms, with tears in her violet eyes, ice in her veins, and a cloud of scandal swirling around her. (Great line: “They call me bad news, I just say thanks.”) The louder the song gets, the lonelier it sounds. It’s a garish mess of a song, but I love the bombast of it, the sparkly overkill of it, the too-bloody-muchness of it. That’s what Taylor Swift was born for. Tell me for real, do you think it’s forever?