Taylor Swift ‘Begin Again’ video premieres; AMA performance due

The Taylor Swift release-week blitz continues with the arrival of the video for her new single “Begin Again,” the closing track from her album “Red.” The record was released Monday, and Billboard has projected the album will top sales of 1 million copies in its first week of release.

In the “Begin Again” video, she strolls the banks of the Seine River and the streets of Paris as she sings of a promising new relationship, and how it contrasts with a previous romance.

I think it’s strange that you think I’m funny

‘Cuz he never did

I’ve been spending the last 8 months thinking all love ever does

Is break and burn and end

But on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again.

The banjo and mandolin accents on the track constitute perhaps the closest Swift comes to country music on her pop-infused fourth album. The ethereal tone of the music on “Begin Again” mirrors the dreamy mood of her lyrics, a trait that she considers the thread connecting the varied sonic textures on the new collection.

“I don’t feel like any two songs sound alike on the entire record,” Swift said when she sat down for a recent interview. “What ties them together for me is that the rhythm of each one of them sounds like the emotion I was writing about.”

Wednesday also brought the announcement that Swift will join Nicki Minaj, Linkin Park and Christina Aguilera among the performers on this year’s American Music Awards show slated for Nov. 18. The show will air live on ABC from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

She also has a performance spot lined up next week at the 41stCountry Music Assn. Awards, which will be handed out Wednesday in Nashville.

Here’s the “Begin Again” video:

ALSO:

Taylor Swift makes a grown-up move on ‘Red’

Sales of Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ off to a flying start

Kendrick Lamar, from one ‘good kid’ to another

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