Taylor Swift has just released her highly anticipated re-recorded album which is her album Red (Taylor’s Version). If you have not listened to it yet, stop everything you’re doing right now, open your Spotify or Apple Music, and be prepared to crawl into a corner and feel everything emotion of excitement, nostalgia, and heartbreak for the next 2 hours and 10 minutes.
While there has been serious debate about whether to listen to all the songs in order of the tracklist or to jump straight into Taylor’s ten-minute version of “All Too Well,” I decided to listen in its proper order because “State of Grace” is deemed the perfect album opener in my mind. As I write this article and listen to the album on repeat in my Red Tour t-shirt that still fits me from 2013, Taylor does not disappoint with her re-recordings and her “From the Vault” songs that were initially left off the original album.
My reaction went from stress from Spotify crashing at midnight to happiness and nostalgia at hearing the songs I love all over again. I immediately noticed how different the songs on the album sounded from the original. In Fearless (Taylor’s Version), it appeared that Taylor tried her best to keep the songs as original as possible, but this album has a fresher, different, and better beat that made me fall even more in love with them. It was an experience jamming along with some of my favorite songs like “Holy Ground,” “22,” and “Everything Has Changed (feat. Ed Sheeran).” Even her own versions of “Babe” and “Better Man” that were originally sung by Sugarland and Little Big Town, respectively, were amazing to hear from her version.
The songs “From the Vault” were just as mesmerizing to hear for the first time. They feature a song titled “Nothing New” which features Phoebe Bridgers, another collaboration with Ed Sheeran called “Run,” and other amazing listens like “Message in a Bottle” and, my personal favorite, “The Very First Night.” These 2 hours’ worth of music all led up to what Swifties have all been waiting for: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”.
This song includes the original lyrics that we all know and love, as well as the new lyrics that make us all want to riot in front of Jake Gyllenhaal’s house for a breakup that happened ten years ago. Swift uses heartbreaking lyrics like “You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath” and “They say all’s well that ends well, but I’m in a new hell every time you double cross my mind” that make her a true lyrical genius. She even references the large age difference in her relationship with Gyllenhaal that shows she was truly taken advantage of in her relationship. This version even got a short film written and directed by Taylor on Youtube, which really adds to the lyrics as Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien do an amazing job recreating a devastating relationship.
Taylor Swift once again proves her talent in the music industry with an album that she now officially owns! I cannot wait to see which re-recording she does next: will it be Speak Now, 1989, or her debut self-titled album? The road continues as Taylor finally takes back what is hers. For now, I will be listening to Red (Taylor’s Version) on repeat and watching it all begin again…