Country pop-cutie Taylor Swift poses - all collegiate sex kitten-like - on the current Rolling Stone wearing a letterman jacket and short shorts with the headline: The Heartbreak Kid.
And the 22-year-old, on the phone from Nashville, is fine with the tag, especially given the first single off her highly anticipated fourth album, Red, is called We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (rumoured to be about ex Jake Gyllenhaal.)
"Yeah, I've written songs about a lot of break-ups," says Swift, whose past paramours - and supposed song subjects - have also included Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and John Mayer.
"And for me, being on the cover of Rolling Stone, I couldn't think of a more eloquent way of putting it."
It doesn't hurt that We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together is her biggest hit yet.
"The success of the first single has absolutely blown me away," Swift says. "I've never heard my song on the radio this much. I don't think we've ever had a higher impacting song. And to see people scream that at the top of their lungs out in the crowd is one of the most hilarious and wonderful experiences considering ... it's a break-up song that sounds like a parade."
Still, Swift - who's currently dating Conor Kennedy (the 18-year-old son of Robert Kennedy Jr.) - insists she's an intense person, especially when she's writing her songs - "when I pick up a guitar ... in the middle of the night" - and that the new album's title reflects that.
"The emotions that are correlated and kind of represented by the colour red are at opposite end of the spectrum "¦ You have intense affection and love and warmth and on the other side you have intense anger and frustation and pain."
As for the pop direction of Red's first single, Swift says she's definitely pushing boundaries on her sound with the new record.
"I feel like this is one of the most important moments in my career because here I am releasing my fourth album, knowing that I've taken a lot of different risks on this album and waiting anxiously to see how my fans like them," she says. "I think for me, as I go on and get older, the stakes get higher."
And Swift insists with Red she isn't just limiting herself to going more pop despite the fact that are also duets/co-writes with such British artists as Ed Sheeran and Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, the latter who she met through the former.
"There are influences on this record from every genre that I love," she says. "There are country influences and pop influences and rock and folk and singer-songwriter-acoustic influences and even elements of dance influences. I think that for me, I'm so proud of the bond that we've created, my fans and I. ...So putting out this album, I kind of knew that it would be okay with them if I explored the edges."
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