No opinion on her past albums as I'm not a fan of that style.
There's a handful of songs on Red that are listenable. I Knew You Were Trouble and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together in particular are really good pop songs.
I actually haven't heard
Red yet, aside from hearing those singles in passing. I keep meaning to, but this whole roulette thing I'm doing has pretty much taken up all my new music time. I got into to Taylor's music shortly after her second album,
Fearless came out, but by the time
Red was released, I had lost interest. Then my interest was revived once I saw the video for Blank Space.
If you can't stand country music, then, yeah, you won't like her earlier albums. But I can assure you that her being a very good songwriter is not a new thing, it's been a thing at least since she was 16.