Speak Now (Taylor's Version) consists of songs written solely by Swift. She produced the re-recorded versions of 16 tracks from the deluxe edition of Speak Now with Christopher Rowe, and six previously-unreleased "From the Vault" tracks with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Two vault tracks respectively features Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams. A country pop and pop rock album, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) incorporates various rock styles such as emo, pop-punk, and alternative rock. Its sound is characterized by prominent electric guitars, dynamic drums, and strings. Reflecting Swift's adolescence, the songs document emotions of affection, grievance, and heartbreak, forming a loose concept album of unspoken confessions.
Music critics praised Swift's emotionally engaging songwriting in the album and the matured tone of her vocal performances, although the alteration to a lyric in the track "Better than Revenge" had a mixed response. Speak Now (Taylor's Version) reached number one on albums charts of Australia, Canada, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, among others. In the United States, it was Swift's 12th album to top the Billboard 200 chart, breaking Barbra Streisand's all-time record for the most number-one albums by a female artist. All 22 of its tracks charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "I Can See You", which was accompanied by a music video, becoming the highest-peaking at number five.
By August 2018, Swift's contract with Big Machine had expired; she signed a new contract with Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group, which secured her the rights to own the masters of the new music she would release.[11] In 2019, the talent manager Scooter Braun and his company Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Records. The masters of Swift's Big Machine-released albums were effectively transferred to Braun, which resulted in a public dispute between Swift and Braun.[12] Swift denounced the purchase and began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020.[13][14] By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use and therefore substituted the Big Machine–owned masters.[15]
Swift released the first two re-recorded albums in 2021: Fearless (Taylor's Version) in April and Red (Taylor's Version) in November; the former is the re-recording of Swift's second studio album, Fearless (2008), and the latter is of her fourth, Red (2012). In addition to reproduced versions of the original songs subtitled "Taylor's Version", each album include several unreleased tracks denoted as "From the Vault".[a] After their release, both re-recorded albums performed better in commercial metrics than their original counterparts did.[16] At the first Nashville show of her sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour, on May 5, 2023, Swift announced the third installment in her re-recording project, Speak Now (Taylor's Version).[17]
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) contains 22 tracks written solely by Swift, 16 of which are re-recorded versions of songs from the 2010 deluxe edition of Speak Now, save for "If This Was a Movie", which was re-recorded and released separately.[18][19] Six tracks were denoted as "From the Vault", which Swift had written and intended to include in the original album but ultimately did not.[20]Fall Out Boy features on the vault track "Electric Touch", and Hayley Williams on "Castles Crumbling".[21]
Swift shared via social media that re-recording Speak Now made her reminisce about it as an album that "tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing ... and living to speak about it",[22] influenced by her adolescence to encapsulate "brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness".[23] The songs on Speak Now (Taylor's Version) reflect on Swift's transition from adolescence to adulthood; they employ autobiographical songwriting to explore the sentiments stemming from love and life such as enchantment, heartbreak,[24] and teenage angst.[25] Some songs were inspired by Swift's celebrity.[26] They altogether constitute a loose concept of unspoken things Swift wanted to deliver to the subjects of her songs.[25][26] All re-recorded tracks retain their original lyrics, except "Better than Revenge", whose line "She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress" in the chorus was replaced with "He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches".[27]
Swift produced all tracks on Speak Now (Taylor's Version). The re-recorded tracks were produced with Christopher Rowe,[28] and the vault tracks with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, who were each credited on three tracks.[29]Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is a country pop[30][31] and pop rock album.[21] It incorporates elements of various rock styles,[25] such as pop-punk,[26]emo,[32] and alternative rock. In the re-recorded version, all of the original tracks are heavier compared to the original.[33]Clash's Alex Berry described the album as a blend of rock, country, and pop,[34] and Spin's Bobby Olivier attributed the rock sounds to the production elements of "rousing electric guitars, heavier drums, volatile choruses".[25] In Rolling Stone, Maura Johnston said that Swift's songwriting exhibits country roots while drawing influences from the pop-rock sound popular around the time she was writing the original album;[24] this idea was shared by Variety's Chris Willman, who described the overall sound Swift was pursuing as "the organic pop-rock band sound" that captured "the stylistic spirit of 2010".[21]
"Electric Touch" featuring Fall Out Boy is a pop rock[25] and pop-punk track[32] that is instrumented by electric guitar riffs and crescendoing drums.[35] In it, Swift duets with Fall Out Boy's frontman Patrick Stump.[25] The lyrics are about the conflicting feelings such as anxieties, pessimism, excitement, hope, and self-doubt over a newfound romance.[21][24] "When Emma Falls in Love" is a mellow piano ballad[36] that also incorporates banjo,[30] exhibiting elements of country and pop.[36] In the lyrics, Swift's character observes a friend's love life and her character.[37][32] "I Can See You" has a groove that is instrumented by a rhythmic electric guitar,[21] featuring elements of indie rock[37] and surf rock.[36] The lyrics contain sexual suggestive innuendos.[26][36]
"Castles Crumbling" is a duet between Swift and Williams.[38] It is a piano ballad[25] about dealing with the pressures of fame and potentially losing the interest of fans.[21][30] "Foolish One" is about self-criticism for one's naivety in love.[26] It is a country pop song driven by acoustic guitar strums and programmed drums.[21][39] In the closing ballad "Timeless", Swift finds old photos of couples in an antique shop and superimposes herself in their lives,[26] imagining herself longing for a lover who has gone to war.[26] The song's arrangement mainly consists of acoustic guitars and organ, with accents of ukulele and flute.[21]
Release
After announcing Speak Now (Taylor's Version) at the Eras Tour, on May 5, 2023, Swift announced its track listing via social media.[20] On June 9, the French newspaper Ouest-France reported that a temporary worker from Le Mans, France, was arrested for stealing 10 vinyl records of Speak Now (Taylor's Version) from a warehouse and selling them on Leboncoin, a classified ads website. The worker was sentenced to eight months in prison. The public prosecutor stated that only the eight unsold LPs were retrieved from the worker; the whereabouts of the two sold copies remain unknown.[40][41]
Swift released a snippet of the re-recorded version of "Mine" via social media on June 24,[42] and "Back to December" in the trailer for the Amazon Prime Video series The Summer I Turned Pretty on June 29.[43]Speak Now (Taylor's Version) was released on July 7, 2023.[44] The standard vinyl edition of Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is a set of three marbled violet LP records.[45] Two additional lilac and orchid marbled variants were also released.[46][47]Universal Music Japan released two Japanese exclusive physical versions, a standard CD and a deluxe 7–inch jacket on August 16, 2023.[48]
When the album was released on July 7, Swift premiered the music video for "I Can See You" at the first Kansas City show on the Eras Tour.[49] The following day, it was released to her YouTube channel.[50] Directed and written by Swift, the video stars her alongside Taylor Lautner, Joey King, and Presley Cash; the latter two previously appeared in Swift's video for "Mean" (2011).[51] On July 13, 2023, Swift released a digital deluxe edition of the album, featuring live recordings of "Dear John" and "Last Kiss" from the Minneapolis and Kansas City shows of the Eras Tour, respectively.[52]
On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average based on ratings from publications, the album scored 81 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[54] AnyDecentMusic? compiled 13 reviews and gave the album a score of 7.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[53]
Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone stated, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) "expands our image of a landmark album", with grittier production quality.[24] The same magazine's UK critic Mark Sutherland wrote, "the empowering, elemental force and simmering hurt that made the original Speak Now such a remarkable record remains strikingly intact."[32] Reviews from Annabel Nugent of The Independent,[37] Poppie Platt of The Daily Telegraph,[56] Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine,[57] Rachel Caroll of PopMatters,[35]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic,[55] and Will Hodgkinson of The Times praised the album's crisper production mix, emotional heft, added nuance of the vault songs, and Swift's strong and refined vocals.[58] Alex Hopper of American Songwriter and Kelsey Barnes of The Line of Best Fit complimented the album's catharsis for an accurate portrayal of adolescence.[38][33]Spin critic Bobby Olivier admired the album's "rock elegance" and Swift's "mature and textured vocal performance".[25]
The lyric change in "Better than Revenge" was a common point of contention in reviews, with some calling it unnecessary.[56][58][59] Others appreciated the change, opining that it is line with Swift's changed perspective as a grown woman.[60][34][57]The Guardian's Laura Snapes and Pitchfork's Vrinda Jagota said that Swift's voice, despite being "much richer" than in 2010, has lost its "youthful twang" and "teenage angst" but nevertheless considered the album's evolved songwriting and musical consistency impressive.[26][39]
Commercial performance
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) made Swift surpass Barbra Streisand (pictured) as the female artist with the most number-one albums on the Billboard 200
Upon release, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) broke the record for the most single-day streams for a country album on Spotify.[61] In the United States, it spent two weeks atop the Billboard 200 and became Swift's 12th number-one album.[62] Its first-week figures consisted of 716,000 album-equivalent units, including 507,000 sales, earning the largest week for a country album since December 2014. Swift set new records among female artists for most number-one albums in chart history (12) and most consecutive years with a new number-one album (5), surpassing Barbra Streisand and Miley Cyrus, respectively. In the week that Speak Now (Taylor's Version) debuted atop the chart, Swift became the first woman to chart four albums in the top 10 the same week,[b] the first woman and living soloist to chart 11 albums simultaneously (after the Beatles and Prince),[c][63] and the first act to have nine albums each sell at least 500,000 copies in one week.[64] All 22 tracks from Speak Now (Taylor's Version) debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, bringing Swift's total career entries to 212 songs.[65] The album marked Swift's eighth number one on the Top Country Albums chart, and all tracks charted on the Hot Country Songs, with seven in the top 10.[66]
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 67,000 units, surpassing the 2010 album's peak (number six) and doubling its first-week sales. Swift became the fastest female artist to collect 10 number-one albums in the United Kingdom, surpassing Madonna.[67] In Australia, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) debuted atop the ARIA Albums Chart, displacing Swift's Midnights (2022) from the top spot. It became Swift's 11th number-one album and made her the first act to replace themselves at the top spot.[68] Elsewhere, the album reached number one in Argentina,[69] Belgian Flanders,[70] Canada,[71] Ireland,[72] the Netherlands,[73] New Zealand,[74] Spain,[75] and Sweden.[76]
Tracks 1–22 are subtitled "Taylor's Version"; and tracks 17–22 are additionally subtitled "From the Vault".
The album's CD package consists of two discs; one containing tracks 1–16, and the other with tracks 17–22.
The re-recording of "If This Was a Movie", a track on the deluxe edition of the original album, was not included but instead released separately on digital platforms to celebrate the start of The Eras Tour.
Personnel
Musicians
Taylor Swift – vocals (all tracks), background vocals (1–16)
^The London Contemporary Orchestra consists of cellists Jonny Byers, Max Ruisi, and Oliver Coates; double bassist Dave Brown; violists Clifton Harrison, Matthew Kettle, Stephanie Edmundson, and Zoe Matthews; and violinists Anna Ovsyanikova, Anna de Bruin, Antonia Kesel, Charis Jenson, Charlotte Reid, Eloisa-Fleur Thorn, Galya Bisengalieva, Guy Button, Natalie Klouda, Nicole O'Donoghue, Nicole Stokes, and Zahra Benyounes.
^On the Austrian and German charts, after Speak Now (Taylor's Version) was released, the original Speak Now re-charted with statistics combined with the re-recording. The re-recording was separated into its own chart history in November 2023.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 28.Týden 2023 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
^"スピーク・ナウ（テイラーズ・ヴァージョン）[CD] - テイラー・スウィフト" [Speak Now (Taylor's Version) [CD] - Taylor Swift] (in Japanese). Universal Music Japan. Archived from the original on July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
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