Taylor Swift”s a good girl led astray in her edgy new video for “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which debuted on MTV today. It”s her 23rd video and she”s releasing it on her 23rd birthday. Yay synchronicity! The song is on “Red,” her new album which leapt back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week.
The video opens as Swift wakes up in the morning on the littered ground, (“the cold hard ground” of the song”s lyrics), seemingly the only one left over from a hell of a rave the night before. The memories start to come back in flashes as New Wave/Post Punk Swift, in skinny jeans, a wig with pink highlights, and a torn t-shirt, tries to reconstruct the past 24 hours. Or she”s figuring out how the hell everyone else left and now she doesn”t have a ride home.
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Reeve Carney, who starred in as Spider-Man on Broadway”s “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” plays Swift”s tattooed love boy in the video. As the music starts, he”s all PG-rated danger. You know the type: he stands up when he”s driving, he”s (of course) in a band, he has a mysterious past and she can”t stay away, even when she catches him kissing someone else. It”s like a moth to a flame.
It”s a gritty, dark video, full of seedy hotel rooms and public bathrooms with dirty tiles and mirrors. She keeps her image clean as there”s not a drink or hint of drugs anywhere in sight, but the quick cuts, club culture and flirtation with dubstep will probably make it a non-starter for any of her country video outlets.
A long voice-over narration opens the video with Swift talking about getting lost and still wondering how it all happened: “How can the devil be pulling you toward someone who looks so much like an angel when he”s smiling at you?”
It’s a big day for Swift: this morning she was nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song for “Safe & Sound” from “Hunger Games.”