Taylor Swift
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
4.5 out of 5 stars
Videos by American Songwriter
Each of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded albums comes with a heavy emotional weight. The pursuit itself was born out of necessity—the result of a disappointing and eye-opening battle with her old label management. With every re-record, Swift gains a piece of her identity back, looking back at past versions of herself with new eyes. One would guess that process would release a kind of healing and catharsis few other therapeutic outlets can produce.
While the Taylor’s Version project makes all the sense in the world for Swift’s purposes, to some, the idea of re-recording an album might seem trite. Swift is on her third Taylor’s Version release and those outside of the Swiftie circle seem to be asking “What’s the point?” more and more. For those with the same question, there is no short answer.
The idea of regaining a piece of her identity rings particularly true for Speak Now. A young Swift wrote the entirety of Speak Now on her own, turning the other cheek toward critics who chalked up her early success to the prestige of her co-writers. Never before had Swift’s personality been so at the forefront of her music and her reputation as a candid and consequential songwriter began to take shape.
The familiar facets of country music were beginning to be replaced by more pop-focused ones on this album, with elements of alt-rock scattered throughout. Her twang was slowly disappearing (save the drawl she puts on for “Mean”) and the acoustic-led songs that were mainstays on her first two records were swapped for up-tempo, ragers pointed at her famous exes.
Childhood crushes began to turn into soulmates and break-ups began to turn into life-altering crossroads. This was no longer a Swift who was creating under the safety blanket of her teenage years and novelty in the industry. She was a woman who was loving, living, reminiscing about childhood, fearing for the worst, hoping for the best, and finding her footing in adulthood—all while being watched by the keen eyes of fame.
Despite (or maybe because of) that weight on her shoulders, Swift pulls no punches on Speak Now.
Few songs are as searing as “Dear John.” Still arguably one of her best bouts of songwriting to date, “Dear John” marks the moment Swift became a singular voice in pop music. She bottles up the kind of pain only a 20-something experiencing one of her first big heartbreaks could muster up. In the original version of the album, it’s her youthful demeanor that makes “Dear John” all the more affecting. The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home, is so simple a line, but it’s an early example of Swift’s ability to lay down her sword and dare to be vulnerable to create a far deeper cut.
“Dear John (Taylor’s Version)” is perhaps the best example to help lay out the differences between the two versions of the album. These days, Swift holds little resemblance to that girl that cried the whole way home. As she explained at an Eras tour show recently, “I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19.”
Though Taylor’s Version of “Dear John” may not have the same sharp, tear-stained notes that the original version does, it’s enticing to hear that story from the perspective of someone who has survived it rather than being in the throes of it. In 2010, Swift played the role of the supportive, yet just as naive best friend for her fans. In 2023, she’s a knowledgeable older sister with all the answers and the scars to prove it.
The same change can be heard throughout Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). At the time of the original release, it might have felt a little premature for Swift to release “Long Live” – a “Thank You” to the many people who helped her on the way up but plays vaguely like a career-retrospective. Add a decade to her tenure and “Long Live” feels like it arrived just in time to help laud Swift’s sprawling career.
“Never Grow Up” is nearly unlistenable, for fear of breaking out into sobs. Swift, now far removed from childhood and able to understand the trials of adulthood, sings the song with far more gravitas and consequence than she did as a teenager.
Another key difference is, of course, the “From the Vault” songs. The handful of new releases she delivers on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) are like a snapshot from the early 2010s. Swift teams up with alt-icons from the era, Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams, who no doubt inspired her hard turn into a punk-laced sound. Her solo vault songs reveal even more sides to the stories she tells throughout the original track list.
The vault songs are the most understandable draw for Swift’s more casual fans. They offer something completely new, which is what many people expect from an album release, but they aren’t the most interesting thing about Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), in my opinion.
The re-recorded version of Speak Now is for the kid that found solace in the album back in 2010. The one that grew up alongside Swift and used her experiences to inform their own. Swift is not just a hitmaker, she’s a cultural purveyor who has made her name by finding a direct line to her fans’ souls. You don’t generate the kind of fervor the world is seeing on her current tour by having a few catchy songs. Those fans who dedicated their year to seeing Swift on the road are doing so because she’s been a guiding force in their lives since they were teens learning to find their voice through the lens of Swift finding hers on Speak Now.
That is the “point” of this re-recording. It’s as much Swift’s album as it is her fans. Everyone who listened to the original version of Speak Now is a little older and a little wiser. That matured, time-honed voice coming out of Swift in her latest re-recording is a mirror image of a fan base who has weathered the storm and come out the other end with her.
Photo by John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
