Is this the next 'Call Me Maybe'?

I like Taylor Swift. She always comes across as charming and likeable and unaffected in her interviews. In private, she might be the sort of person who pours salt into her assistant's cappuccino and locks them in a cupboard "for a laugh", but somehow I doubt it.

What I don't have time for is her music. My brain is deficient in country music neurons. My ears do not enjoy any noise resembling a twang. My heart is neither achy nor breaky.

So its something of a surprise to find that Swift has ditched the sound that made her a squillionaire and "gone pop". And I mean wholeheartedly, unashamedly, punch you in the tits, autotune up the wazoo, 72-point comic sans, pink bubblegum, pure POP.

Her new single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together is basically Avril Lavigne's faux angst channeled through Hannah Montana. It has already confused some of Swift's fans. "Just trash," wrote one on Youtube. Another noted: "She is contributing majorly to the destruction of this planet's ecology and humanity," a statement which raises more questions than it answers, really.

To be fair, it's a cracking pop song and one which might finally end Swift's appalling chart record in the UK. It has the same breezy, effortless charm that made Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe an unavoidable radio hit - I wonder if the playlist people will agree?

NB: Try not to pay attention to the lyrics, which have all the emotional insight of a Jersey Shore box set.

Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (lyric video)

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