Album Review: Speak Now (Taylor's Version) | Taylor Swift

We're Here To Bully John Mayer.

Wedding crashers rejoice! Taylor Swift has released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). In her quest to reclaim the masters of her first 6 albums, Swift has been capitalizing on the opportunity and creating moments to re-live Eras for Swifties.

In 2010, Taylor Swift had already become a force in country music. Before the release of her 3rd album Speak Now she had amassed eleven Top-40 hits before her 20th birthday and a Grammy Album of The Year Win for her second album, Fearless. With two albums of country anthems under her belt, Taylor began to take some more risks, venturing out into new genres and with the bold ambition of fully self-writing the album.

In the coming years, Speak Now became the blueprint in songwriting for not only country music but for a generation of pop, indie, and rock musicians. Today, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) reminds us why the album has been a source of inspiration for everyone to come after, and Taylor herself has taken on a new perspective for her writing on this album. In the album notes for Taylor’s Version, she claims boldly that “Last Kiss” is the saddest song she’s ever written, “Dear John” the most scathing, and “Enchanted” the most romantic. A courageous statement about the 237-track-and-counting songbook from Ms. Swift.

A challenge in its own right, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) does not contain any noticeable differences from the original record. However, there are a few things Scooter Braun must be happy about. This isn’t 19-year-old Taylor. Swift’s vocal performances on this album (and for all the other re-recordings) are more mature, stronger, and cleaner. She isn’t straining her voice at all, she doesn't try to fake any twang, it’s just how she sounds. This vocal performance, for us at least, is fine but does make some of the tracks on Taylor’s version have less emotion (Mean, Speak Now, Haunted). Better Than Revenge has been a topic of conversation amongst Swifties as it’s the first time Taylor has changed a lyric from her original records. Although the original lyric is misogynistic and the need for an alteration is valid, the new version lacks the aggressive irritability surrounding the situation she found herself in during the vocal performance.

As per tradition with the re-recordings, Taylor has included 6 previously unreleased tracks “from the vault”. This time around Taylor enlists help from Fall Out Boy on Electric Touch and Paramore’s Hayley Williams for Castles Crumbling.

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Can’t Miss: Dear John, Enchanted, Haunted, Better Than Revenge

You Can Skip: Superman, Electric Touch, Never Grow Up

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BY THE NUMBERS

• Bennett’s Score: 7.8

• Carson’s Score: 7.9

• Album Score: 16.0

• Average Track Score: 8.6

Enchanted Received an 11 from both of us, A perfect score!

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Notes from Bennett:

I was a late Swiftie. I didn’t recognize her as the greatest songwriter of our generation until post-1989. So for me, this is my first real experience with Speak Now as an album. In terms of the re-recordings, I’ve been very excited to finally experience a Speak Now era.

Mine might be her best album opener as a stand-alone track, It’s also one the best songs on this album. There isn’t much more iconic than her opening vocal melody here.

I have to give Enchanted an 11, I have a lot of praise for the talents of Taylor Swift but I don’t think I could compliment her enough here. Truly peak songwriting and great production. I think (Taylor’s Version) actually makes Enchanted better here, I really like the mixing here, the synths sound brighter because the bass is louder and more isolated from the rest of the track in comparison to the original. Just a really clean mixing cut.

Better Than Revenge

Out of all the vault tracks, I Can See You is MILES above the others. I can’t believe this song got put into the vault in the first place. I can’t even imagine the level of domination this would’ve done in 2010, thankfully it’s here to rule summer ‘23.

Electric Touch is disappointing, I just don’t like the weird vocal melody in the chorus and I think Fall Out Boy sounds borderline bad on this track.

Notes from Carson:

Speak Now is top 3 in her discography (along with 1989 and Folklore, imo). It easily clears Red and Fearless in terms of interesting production and lyrical content. Taylor’s Version of this record does unfortunately remove some of the emotional vitriol teenager angsty Taylor spews. Some songs DID get an upgrade, like the vocals on Back To December and Never Grow Up hit harder from a 32-year old than 19.

I can understand that some of the songs on this record drag on (Never Grow Up, Innocents, Last Kiss), but on the flip side some of the best songs are the 5+ minutes (Dear John, Long Live, Back To December).

Whatever bride Taylor was writing about for Speak Now, good call uninviting Taylor imo.

Pretty conflicted on the vault tracks here. Obviously, I Can See You stands out like a sore thumb to the rest of the album. Similar to Glitch on Midnights, it sounds like nothing else in Taylor’s large discography. This isn’t a bad thing, I really like this song but it so clearly got a 2023 Jack Antonoff production lathered on top of if that it feels ingenious.

The Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams assisted vault tracks really let me down. I was preparing for more of a pop-rock, punk Misery Business / Thnks Fr The Mmrs style tracks. They did not understand the assignment.

I understand why Kanye hates Taylor so much after listening to Innocent. Imagine getting humiliated and shamed for that VMA’s stunt and then she writes a song saying “hey omg!!! its okay!! your still growing up and learning :) even though your 32!!!! people make mistakes <3”. That is genuinely so funny Taylor.

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