Billboard singles reviews: Taylor Swift, Gil Scott-Heron

ARTIST: TAYLOR SWIFT

SINGLE: TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE

NEW YORK (Billboard) - On the heels of winning an album-of-the-year Grammy for "Fearless," Taylor Swift has scored another hit in "Today Was a Fairytale," a new song written for the film "Valentine's Day." The lyrics are driven more by sweeping emotion than by the kind of specific, youth-focused imagery found in Swift's recent singles "Fifteen" and "You Belong With Me." Likewise, her vocals display a growing maturity that could entice her few remaining doubters. As Swift keeps growing as a songwriter and artist, songs like "Fairytale" will help her reach an even broader audience.

ARTIST: GIL SCOTT-HERON

SINGLE: ME AND THE DEVIL (XL Recordings)

Gil Scott-Heron comes to grips with a decade of incarceration and tribulation on this captivating number, a variation of blues giant Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues." The lead single from the legendary spoken-word laureate's album "I'm New Here" -- his first since 1994's "Spirits" -- was produced by XL label head Richard Russell, who cooks up a downtempo, dubstep beat. Scott-Heron sounds far older than his 60 years might suggest as he wails, "Early this morning, when you knocked upon my door/I said, 'Hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go.'" When he delivers those ominous opening lines, he transplants Johnson's Mississippi scene all the way to Harlem with the conviction of a man who's done his own share of small talk with the devil.

ARTIST: THE BLACK EYED PEAS

SINGLE: IMMA BE (Interscope Records)

With three hits from "The E.N.D." already under their belts, the Black Eyed Peas are ready to pack dance floors again with the album's fourth single. The group sounds as unabashedly confident as ever here, and yet it manages to keep its boasts sounding clever: "Imma be a brother, but my name ain't Lehman," declares Will.i.am, who also co-produced "Imma Be." A brazen horn section and smooth keyboards cruise along until the song's sudden transition, when the beat switches from a snap music-meets-Neptunes stomp to a funk-house glide, meshing with a seemingly endless vocal loop of "Imma be" to form a pounding, assertive club thumper. Given the success of its predecessors, "Imma Be," while inherently gimmicky, should be sticking around for a long time.

ARTIST: ALAN JACKSON

SINGLE: IT'S JUST THAT WAY (Arista Nashville)

The first single from this country veteran's forthcoming "Freight Train" sounds like classic Alan Jackson -- a beautiful, understated love song with a gentle melody and heartfelt lyric. Though he wrote every track on his previous album, "Good Time," Jackson turns to other Nashville tunesmiths for some contributions to his new collection, and this well-crafted song is a winner. Penned by his longtime producer Keith Stegall and co-writers Vicky McGehee and Kylie Sackley, the song is just a simple celebration of a love that's as natural as the sunrise. The ever-dependable Jackson delivers a performance that oozes with warmth and his usual easygoing charm. "It's Just That Way" is a strong lead-in to what's sure to be one of country music's biggest releases in 2010.