Don't waste your money on Taylor Swift's new CD, Beautiful Eyes

Taylor Swift released a new CD today exclusively to Wal-Mart and I have no intensions of buying it.

I'm a big fan of Taylor. I even had the chance to meet her and ride with her back to her hotel in Spokane when she played at the University of Idaho last year. It was pretty cool and she put on a heck of a show.

After seeing her perform, I believed she would be a superstar in a few years, when she was older and had lived life and could write songs that had nothing to do with high school love. It turns out, I was wrong. She already is a superstar in her own right. And she's only going to get better. For country music fans, watching Taylor Swift grow into the megastar she will eventually become is like a sports fan watching his favorite quarterback make the transition from the college game to the Super Bowl or seeing his favorite baseball player go from the minor leagues to the All-Star game.

It's a rare experience, one that should be enjoyed by fans. The majority of today's country stars started off playing in bars, clubs or wherever they could get a gig (or American Idol). An artist, no matter how talented, isn't born ready to go on the stage and be a superstar. That takes time to develop. The extremely talented Taylor is no different, but instead of cutting her teeth playing honky-tonks, she's opening for George Straight, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley and others. If she's this good to start with, she's only going to get better and it's only going to get better for her fans.

Or at least, I hope it's only going to get better for her fans.

The new CD, "Beautiful Eyes," is Taylor's third. Her self-titled debut CD has sold three million copies, spent twenty weeks at the top of the charts (only the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood have done that this decade) and recently became the first solo female debut album to produce five top ten singles. There's no denying people like the CD.

Her second CD, "Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection," was released to only Target and had a half dozen songs on it, only two of which were original tunes.

"Beautiful Eyes" was released to only Wal-Mart today and has six singles on it, which only two are originals.

Anyone else seeing a pattern?

Music fans deserve more than being forced to pay the full price of a CD for half an album's worth of music.

Occasionally an artist will release a CD, wait a few months then re-release it with a couple of more songs on it and charge fans the full price for that CD. How is that fair to his or her loyal fans who bought the CD when it first came out? Should they pay the full price for three more songs? And what about greatest hits albums? It seems everyone is coming out with greatest hits albums nowadays, even people who have released like three CDs. Unless an artist has had a major career reconstruction (think Toby Keith before "How do you like me now?" and after), there is no reason for everyone and their brother to have a greatest hits CD, unless it's a huge collection (think George Stright). If someone is a fan of an artist, they will support the artist and buy their music when it is new. For example, say you like Keith Urban and you own all of his CDs. He recently released a greatest hits CD. You have no need to buy it, becaue you own the CDs that the hits came from. However, there are two new singles on the CD. If you want to hear them, you must pay full price for the CD just to hear two new songs. How is that fair?

How is having to shell out $11.88 at Wal-Mart to hear two new songs by Taylor Swift fair?

It's not. And that's why I'm refusing to do so.

To be fair, there is also a DVD of nine of her vidoes, including her live performance of "Should have said no" at the 2008 ACM Awards, which was probably one of the greatest four-minute performances ever.

However, many of these can be found on YouTube or CMT, which means you can watch them for free. Which means, you too have no need to purchase the CD/DVD combo.

Below is the listing of the songs on the CD or DVD.

CD

1. Beautiful Eyes (Exclusive)

2. Should've Said No (Alternate Version)

3. Teardrops On My Guitar (Acoustic Version)

4. Picture To Burn (Radio Edit)

5. I'm Only Me When I'm With You

6. I Heart ? (Exclusive)

DVD

1. Beautiful Eyes Video (New) (Video isn't official.)

2. Picture To Burn Video

3. I'm Only Me When I'm With You Video

4. Tim McGraw Video

5. Teardrops On My Guitar Video (Pop Version)

6. Our Song Video

7. The Making of Picture To Burn Video

8. GAC New Artist Interview

9. Should've Said No Video (2008 ACM Awards Performance)

These are some other videos of Taylor not on the CD that I found online. Feel free to check them out, after you first mail me a $11.88 check. You can find my address on our website.

1. A bad copy of Eminem's "Lose Yourself." She opened the show at Idaho with this and it was really cool.

2. She also did a cover of Beyonce's Irreplaceable. So did Sugarland.

3. "Our last night," Better than Ezra.

4. "Tim McGraw," When she met him at the CMA's.

5. This video is super funny. A DJ tries to pitch "When you think of Faith Hill" while Taylor plays it.

6. Taylor goes fishing on Brad's stage.

7. He gets her back.

8. Umbrella

9. The first song she wrote, according the never wrong folks at YouTube.

10. Fearless, a new song, on the bus with Jack Ingram.

Taylor straight out rocks, it's a shame she doesn't so more of it in the studio.