SPEAK NOW (TAYLOR'S VERSION) ALBUM REVIEW💜
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Drop everything now! The highly anticipated third installment of Taylor Swift's re-recorded albums is finally here with Speak Now (Taylor's Version). Speak Now has always been an album that has meant so much to me. When it was released thirteen years ago, it became one of the first albums that I really discovered my love for music through. What Taylor did with Speak Now has always been so inspiring to me and changed my life in so many ways that I didn't even realize at the time. Looking back on the music that shaped my life from a young age, Speak Now is at the top of my list. In 2010, I was eleven years old and still vividly remember going to my local music store and being able to get the CD a couple of days early. Fittingly, that was the same store I bought a copy of Taylor's Version from over a decade later! I listened to this album every day for years and years on my first iPod, which even had a case with the album cover on it. All of Taylor's music has been so important to me in my life since I was about eight years old, but Speak Now in particular was the first time that I really fell in love with music in a deeper way than ever before. It is truly one of the most formative albums in my life from a very young age.
It is so special being able to relive these memories through the Taylor's Version releases and get to experience them for the first time all over again. So many of these songs have become a symbol of strength and resilience for her continued artistic journey and the origins for the artist she went on to become. With hindsight, the meaning of so many of these songs has completely transformed from the first time she released them. The lyric "32 and still growing up now" from "Innocent" especially feels representative of that sentiment, as she was 32 at the time she re-recorded this album. I feel the same when looking at the meaning behind Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) too. It always takes me back to a lyric from "Fifteen" that feels like the mission statement behind all of the Taylor's Version releases; "I found time can heal most anything, and you might just find out who you're supposed to be".
Speak Now reflected the growing pains of a nineteen-year-old girl who was trying to navigate adulthood and the new world she was put into, while finding her voice, falling in love, experiencing heartbreak and intense public criticism for the first time. In the album's prologue, Taylor wrote that she views Speak Now as the album being made during a period in her life that "... was so vibrantly aglow with the last light of the setting sun of my childhood," and continued, "I've spoken about how I feel like those ages are the most emotionally turbulent ones in a person's life. Maybe when I say that, I'm really just talking about myself. I think they might just be the most idealistic, hopeful yеars too." So much of Speak Now is centered around themes often present in mystical storybook fairytales; with fighting dragons, castles crumbling and falling in (and out of) love with prince charming. I have always loved the imagery that ties together so many of these songs in such a stunning and creative way.
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Speak Now was the first (and so far the only) time she has ever released an album that is fully self-written without any collaborators. It served as a follow up to Fearless, which was massively successful and the most awarded country album of all time. Speak Now also came at a time where she was receiving heavy scrutiny in regard to every aspect of her life, but particularly her songwriting abilities. To this day, it is still a topic that people love to question in the media, which I have never understood. In the album's prologue, she touched on the topic of debate around if she really writes her own music, and said "Spoiler alert: I really, really do."
Over the past nearly 20 years Taylor has been releasing music, she has written hundreds of incredible songs and in the next 20+ years, I'm sure will go on to write hundreds more, but something about Speak Now has always and will always feel like some of her best work she has ever done. She paints such a vivid portrait of what it feels like to be a young woman at that age, all of the hopes, dreams, and heightened wonderstruck emotions described in such detail. It beautifully captures every facet of such a specific moment in time that every young woman has experienced. It details Taylor being out on her own for the first time, finding her voice and knowing when to speak now. In the prologue for this album, Taylor wrote, "I know now that one of the bravest things a person can do is create something with unblinking sincerity, to put it all on the line." This level of unfiltered honesty in her songwriting is an aspect of her artistry that paved the way for a new generation of so many other female artists to be able to do the same in their own writing.
Speak Now was the first of many times she wanted to reclaim her own narrative in the face of criticism and doubt. It feels like such a retrospective moment when looking at it in the context of why she is re-releasing this album, thirteen years, to begin with. Her frequent collaborator, Aaron Dessner, put it best in his caption on Instagram for the album's release, "I am constantly inspired by the example she is setting for all artists that you have the right to own your own work and chart your own path without compromise." Charting her own path without compromise has been something that Taylor has always done best.
For the Speak Now (Taylor's Version) prologue, she went into detail about why this is such an important album for her, then and now; "I wanted to get better, to challenge myself, and to build on my skills as a writer, an artist, and a performer. I didn't want to just be handed respect and acceptance in my field, I wanted to earn it. To try and confront these demons, I underwent extensive vocal training and made a decision that would completely define the album: I decided I would write it entirely on my own. I figured, they couldn't give all the credit to my cowriters if there weren't any. But that posed a new challenge: It really had to be good. If it wasn't, it would be proving my critics right. I had no idea how much this pain would change me. That this was the beginning of my series of creative choices made by reacting to setbacks with defiance. That my stubbornness in the face of doubters and dissenters would become my coping mechanism through my entire career from that point forward. This exact pattern of enacting my own form of rebellion when I feel broken is exactly why you're reading these very words, and I'm re-releasing this album now."
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An aspect of these re-recordings I haven't talked about much in my reviews of Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version), is that the primary producer of her first five albums through 1989, Nathan Chapman, hasn't been involved in the re-recordings at all. Neither have given an official reason for not working together anymore, but it is said to be because of his continued involvement with her old record label, Big Machine Records. Every single song from Speak Now (Taylor's Version), aside from the vault tracks, is now co-produced by Christopher Rowe and Taylor.
When it comes to re-recording an album as special as Speak Now, or any of Taylor's first six albums, it comes with a risk of not being able to fully recapture the magic of the original. With previous Taylor's Versions, I thought they were overall executed really well, with a few exceptions. Mostly they were able to capture what made albums like Fearless and Red so special in the first place and in many ways improved upon them.
When it comes to Speak Now (Taylor's Version), I was kind of split upon my first listen with a lot of the songs. Before I get into detail about it, I will say overall they did capture a lot of the magic and essence of the original Speak Now after re-listening several more times. Since I have heard this album a million times throughout my life, I feel like the originals are ingrained in my brain at this point, so I immediately noticed every difference when listening to it. Her vocals sound amazing in every single song and is truly the strongest part of the entire album. Some of my critiques come from the aspects of the mixing and engineering throughout the standard tracks, mostly in regard to some of the more up-tempo songs. There are also some strange production choices throughout, too. "Haunted" is a track that immediately comes to mind, the echo and reverb on the first verse is terrible and so distracting. I have always loved that song, but I haven't been able to get used to the changes they made to it.
With that being said, the production feels much fuller and more detailed on all of the ballads, which are generally the tracks that have always carried this album. "Back To December" in particular feels so elevated, with heightened instrumentation and orchestral elements. "Last Kiss" is another song that was done so well and far surpasses the original. Most notably, the confidence in her voice is at the forefront of every single song and that personal maturity and growth in her artistry is more prevalent than ever.
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The centerpiece of this album has always been track five, "Dear John". Taylor said that this is her most "scathing" song she has ever written. For her to write this song with such poignancy and self-awareness at such a young age is something that never fails to blow my mind. A song like this has changed in meaning to me so much over the years, I just could never have fully understood the weight and significance of "Dear John" when it was first released, but now thirteen years later, I view it as one of the most important songs she has ever written. The feelings of naiveite and regret in the original are now replaced with confidence and strength for having gone through this experience.
The message of this song feels just as relevant today as it did then, perhaps even more so now. I get chills as she sings the chorus, "Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone, don't you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress cried the whole way home" and especially the lyric, "Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong, don't you think nineteen's too young to be played by your dark, twisted games when I loved you so? I should've known".
Hearing "Dear John" now in the context of her releasing "Would've, Could've, Should've" just last year as the nineteenth track on Midnights, also puts into perspective how much this time in her life truly affected her and the lasting implications it has had on her, even now looking back at it. "I should've stayed on my knees, and I damn sure never would've danced with the devil at nineteen, and the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven," she sings all these years later. "And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts, memories feel like weapons, and now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering". Both "Dear John" and "Would've, Could've, Should've" are really heartbreaking songs, the latter of which I never expected from her all these years later with that level of specificity. One of the most heart-wrenching lyrics she has probably ever written is, "Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first," which is just so powerful in it's simplicity. The lines, "I miss who I used to be", "I can't let this go", and "I regret you all the time" reiterate the pain and hurt she holds from this time in her life.
"Dear John" is absolutely one of the best songs on Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in every aspect, vocally she is at her strongest, the production is amazing and beautifully done all around. Hearing it now with the context of all of the experiences she has had since this period of her life feels so powerful and like such a triumph. I always feel so moved as she sings the closing lines, "I see it all now that you're gone, don't you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress wrote you a song, you should've known".
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Other songs that have always been highlights from this album for me are "The Story of Us", "Better Than Revenge" and the title track, "Speak Now". They have always been some of my favorites and the Taylor's Versions are so well done. The album's title track is about her crashing a wedding, or "rudely barging in on a white veil occasion", which also served as the thesis of this entire album's concept. "I decided to call the album Speak Now. It was a play on the 'speak now or forever hold your peace' moment in weddings, but for me it symbolized a chance to respond to the chatter and commentary around my own life."
"The Story of Us", in particular features some of her best vocals of the entire album, especially the high note at the end. It is very close to the original and forever a favorite. The storybook imagery is also recurring throughout so much of this album and ties into each metaphorical chapter of her life during this time. "I've never heard silence quite this loud" has always been one of the lyrical highlights of this song.
"Better Than Revenge" is a song that can be very divisive and has sparked a lot of debate in the lead-up to Speak Now (Taylor's Version) being released. It is a nuanced conversation to have, but in 2014, Taylor opened up in an interview about this song in retrospect, "I was 18 when I wrote that. That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one take someone from you if they don’t want to leave." In general, I do think the controversy surrounding this song was mostly overblown and made into a bigger deal than it needed to be. There has always been a level of playfulness to this song, so I never really took any of it that seriously to begin with. It reminds me of "Misery Business" by Paramore, which some may deem offensive by today's standards as well and is a song that "Better Than Revenge" was heavily inspired by. In 2015, Hayley Williams reflected on "Misery Business" in a way that also feels relevant to the discussion surrounding "Better Than Revenge"; "'Misery Business' is not a set of lyrics that I relate to as a 26-year-old woman. I haven’t related to it in a very long time. those words were written when I was 17... admittedly, from a very narrow-minded perspective. It wasn’t really meant to be this big philosophical statement about anything. it was quite literally a page in my diary about a singular moment I experienced as a high schooler."
In an effort to keep all of her music closer to the set of ideals she holds today, Taylor has now changed the lyrics to the beginning of the chorus on "Better Than Revenge". It is the first major change she has made during the first three Taylor's Version releases so far. In the original version she sings, "She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress, but she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress", and on Taylor's Version she changed the last line to "He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches". Comparatively, the new lyric is better written and sounds more poetic, especially as the metaphor of matches is present in "Dear John" with the lyric, "But I took your matches before fire could catch me, so don't look now". It also changes the direction of the blame being on both the man and the woman, instead of solely the woman being at fault.
Sonically, it is another one of the best in terms of the new production. The guitar riffs and drums are so elevated and even the ad-libs in the background are so much more prominent. It has a very early 2000's pop-punk feel to it, and it's very Paramore-esque in her delivery and attitude.
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"Never Grow Up" is a song that made me fully sob when I first heard the new version of it. For me, it's in the category of songs like "The Best Day", "Soon You'll Get Better", and "Marjorie", which are truly incredible songs and are so special, but I cannot emotionally handle to listen to them often. Again, a song like this means something so different to me now on a deeper level than when I first heard it at eleven years old. I said this earlier, but it feels so special to get to hear these songs for the first time again. Only Taylor can get me that emotional when listening to music, the entirety of Folklore, "Nothing New" and "You're On Your Own Kid" are some other recent examples where I had a very strong reaction and felt deeply moved.
This song looks back on very specific memories of her childhood. It is such an beautiful song and I feel so emotionally connected to so many of the lyrics. Now at almost 24 years old, so many of these lyrics just mean something so different to me. The bridge especially is a part of the song that I wanted to highlight, "Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room, memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home, remember the footsteps, remember the words said and all your little brother's favorite songs, I just realized everything I have is, someday, gonna be gone".
In the album's prologue, she reflected on the inspiration behind this song, "I moved out of my parents' house and set my bags down in a new apartment, I hung photos on my walls and decorated the space where I would sob and cackle and chatter and dream. Sometimes I felt like a grown up, but a lot of the time I just wanted to time travel back to my childhood bed, where my mom would read stories to me until I fell asleep." and later wrote, "I still sometimes wish I was a little kid again in a tiny bed before I ever grew up."
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"Enchanted" has always and will always be one of my favorite songs ever. I was obsessed with this song for years and still am to this day. It truly defines the entire Speak Now album and era for me. When I was younger, I played this song over and over and even printed out the lyrics and hung them on my wall at the time. While I would say probably 90% of the re-recordings surpass the originals in terms of the overall quality, some of the Taylor's Version songs I was worried about her being able to re-capture what made the originals so special in the first place - more on that when 1989 (Taylor's Version) is released. "Enchanted" was one of those songs for me and I am so happy that this new version turned out as well as it did.
The fairytale imagery in the lyricism has always been so stunning, it's like Taylor having her own Cinderella moment. I have always loved the chorus, "This night is sparklin', don't you let it go, I'm wonderstruck, blushin' all the way home, I'll spеnd forever wonderin' if you knеw I was enchanted to meet you". It is a dazzling, magical, masterpiece, one that Taylor called her most "wistfully romantic" song she has ever written. It is such a beautiful song that encapsulates the fairytale themes of this album so perfectly. The bridge is one of my favorite she has ever written, "This is me praying that this was the very first page, not where the storyline ends, my thoughts will echo your name until I see you again, these are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon, I was enchanted to meet you, please, don't be in love with someone else, please, don't have somebody waitin' on you".
Another song that I love so much that makes me so emotional is the closing track for the standard album, "Long Live". It is written as a love letter to her band and her fans. In the first verse, she describes the moment Fearless won a Grammy Award for Album of The Year, "I said, "'Remember this moment' in the back of my mind, the time we stood with our shaking hands, the crowds in stands went wild, we were the kings and the queens and they read off our names, the night you danced like you knew our lives would never be the same, you held your head like a hero on a history book page, it was the end of a decade, but the start of an age". There is something so special about her singing this song all of these years later with the same band she has been touring with since the very beginning.
In the album's prologue she wrote, "I'll always feel shivers all over when I remember singing "Long Live" to close the show every night on tour. The outstretched hands of those bright and beautiful faces of the fans. Their support was like an open palm that reached out and helped me up off the ground when others were, frankly, mean. These days I make my choices for those people who thought I had been good enough all along. I try to speak my mind when I feel strongly in the moment I feel it. I'm still idealistic and earnest about the music I make, but I'm less crushed when people mock me for it."
The bridge is another one of my all-time favorites Taylor has ever written; "Hold on to spinning around, confetti falls to the ground, may these memories break our fall - Will you take a moment? Promise me this, that you'll stand by me forever, but if, God forbid, fate should step in and force us into a goodbye, if you have children someday, when they point to the pictures, please, tell 'em my name, tell 'em how the crowds went wild, tell 'em how I hope they shine".
Now that she is in the process of looking back through her early work and reclaiming her first six albums, this song feels so much more symbolic of the decades long journey she has been on in her career. I'm sure any long-time fan can relate to how emotional a lyric like, "Long live the walls we crashed through, I had the time of my life with you", feels, both in 2010 and 2023. There are so many memories held in this music. The lyric, "One day, we will be remembered" also being repeated throughout the song, as well as her final words, feels so symbolic of her entire legacy.
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The six vault tracks on this album really serve as a window into the person she was between the ages of eighteen and twenty. Many even feel self-referential and give a glimpse to what was to come with her music in future releases. As with all of the tracks From The Vault, they are produced by Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, who are her frequent collaborators that I truly believe she continuously has made some of the best work of her career with. While she and Jack didn't start working together until around 2014 and with Aaron until 2020, I love how they have had the chance to reinterpret some of her early work in a really special way. With so many of the vault tracks released so far from these three albums, I often am in disbelief that some of them were kept unreleased for so long, as they are some of the best songs she has ever written. Songs like "Nothing New", "Forever Winter", and "Mr. Perfectly Fine" all come to mind as highlights so far up to this point.
Some of the Speak Now (Taylor's Version) vault tracks I loved immediately on first listen, others took a few listens to really get into. One of the best songs From The Vault so far is "I Can See You", which served as the lead single of Speak Now (Taylor's Version). It is such a fun and flirty song, that is produced by Jack Antonoff and features all of Bleachers on the instrumentals. I always love the music she and Jack make together and I am so curious to hear how different this song was intended to sound back in 2010, because it is completely transformed now. Sonically, it is so different than anything they have ever made together before. The melody and guitar riff are both so infectious, I truly can't stop listening to it. Upon first listen, I knew immediately that this was going to be one of my top favorite songs of the year.
The album's release was paired with the "I Can See You" music video, which featured Joey King and Presley Cash, who both starred in her "Mean" music video back in 2011 when they were very young. It also starred Taylor Lautner, who famously she wrote some of the songs on this album about, like "Back To December" (and possibly "I Can See You" too?). It all feels so full-circle. Conceptually is one of my favorite videos she has ever done, the storyline is so well executed and is also just so much fun. With Taylor Lautner being in this video, it makes me hope we are one day closer to "Style (Taylor's Version) (featuring Harry Styles)" becoming a reality...or his involvement in 1989 (Taylor's Version) in any capacity. It is all I could ever ask for from either of them!
Other tracks I had a less positive reaction to, particularly "Electric Touch" which features Fall Out Boy. This song I am overall very torn about my stance on. In regard to Taylor, she sounds incredible and lyrically it's a great song too. The production is crisp and modern from Aaron Dessner, while still feeling reminiscent of songs like "Haunted" or "Story of Us" that fits with the rest of Speak Now. I just know that I would have a much different opinion on this song if it was just Taylor solo. However, in regard to the Fall Out Boy feature, I honestly couldn't hate it more. Maybe it's because I don't necessarily have any kind of nostalgia for the band, but Patrick Stump's voice sounds really bad and doesn't match Taylor's vocal range at all. I understand her sentiment behind having them feature on this song, as the vault songs seem like an ode to the artists that inspired her in 2010 during the creation of the original Speak Now. However, it is just such a bad fit for a feature on this track.
On the other hand, a vault track feature that was executed really well is "Castles Crumbling" featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore. Hayley is such an incredible vocalist and I have always wanted them to collaborate. On Instagram alongside the announcement of their collaboration, Hayley wrote, "Taylor was the first industry friend I ever made and hung out with outside of work things. When Speak Now dropped, I bought my friend’s record (as you do!) and listened to the whole thing in my first car, sitting still in the driveway. It’s my favorite Taylor Swift album for so many reasons. I wish I could go back to this moment at my 21st birthday and tell her one day she’ll legitimately own Speak Now and we’ll get to sing together on one of the songs." A big portion of Speak Now was inspired by Paramore's music at the time, so this collaboration feels so natural for them on this album. It has also been heavily speculated through the years that "Speak Now" the song is said to have been inspired by Hayley, as well.
In an interview with Coup de Main, Hayley shared more about how meaningful this collaboration is for them, "...I heard the song and was super surprised by the storytelling in it, which is no surprise because it’s a Taylor Swift song, but it’s about an experience that we’ve both shared growing up in the public eye and I just feel very honored to get to sing about that feeling. And yeah, I just really love it. I love it. I can’t believe I got to be a part of it." The song details Taylor feeling like she has fallen from grace in the public eye and looking back at how she "once had an empire". On the chorus they sing, "And I feel like my castle's crumbling down and I watch all my bridges burn to the ground and you don't want to know me, I will just let you down, you don't wanna know me now". It feels reminiscent of the themes within "Nothing New", having intense feelings of self-doubt and feeling as if those that built you up so high are on the verge of knocking you down to the ground again. On the bridge Taylor sings, "I don't know how it could've ended this way, smoke billows from my ships in the harbor, people look at me like I'm a monster, now they're screamin' at the palace front gates, used to chant my name, now they're screaming that they hate me, never wanted you to hate me". It truly gives so much insight to her mindset at the time of her writing this album and opens up a side of her that wasn't really shown on the standard tracks of Speak Now.
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The other three songs From The Vault are sonically more country leaning than the other three. "When Emma Falls In Love" sounds very reminiscent of Train's "Drops of Jupiter", which is fitting since she used to cover that song on the Speak Now Tour. It's a very cute song about her friend, presumably Emma Stone, who she views as this larger-than-life figure that is so cool and everything Taylor wishes she could be. She even sings, "And to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I was her". The chorus is so sweet and I love the line toward the end of the song, "Well, she's so New York when she's in L.A."
"Foolish One" is another cute track that paints Taylor as a hopeless romantic waiting at her mailbox for love letters that never arrive. "And it's delicate, but I will do my best to seem bulletproof" she sings, which obviously feels reminiscent of a song that she would write years later called "Delicate". It's a fun and simple song that sounds as if it was ripped from the pages of her diary as a teenager. The outro sounds as if it was written by Taylor in present day looking back on who she was when she first wrote this song, "You will learn the hard way now, foolish one, sittin' 'round waiting for confessions of love, they ain't never gonna come and thinkin' he's the one, you should've been walkin' out, foolish one, the day is gonna come for your confessions of love, when all is said and done, he just wasn't the one".
The final song on the album is called "Timeless", which is about her going into an antique shop and imagining the love stories between couples in old photographs and comparing it to her own hopes of having a timeless love that transcends the ages. It feels like such a flashback to so much of the classic country music Taylor made throughout her early releases, with songs like "Mine", "Ours" and even as early as her first album with "Mary's Song (Oh My My My)". "Starlight" also feels connected to some of the verses on this song too. The story feels like it's straight from a Nicholas Sparks love story, "Somehow, I know that you and I would've found each other, in another life, you still would've turned my head even if wе'd met on a crowded street in 1944 and you werе headed off to fight in the war, you still would've been mine, we would've been timeless". The theme feels so linked to future songs she would write contemplating fate and timeless loves, like "Invisible String" and "Mastermind", to name a few. About halfway through, it does start to feel like it's going on a little bit long, but there are still some lyrical gems that stand out and is a creative concept overall. I especially love the lines, "That's when I came upon a book covered in cobwebs, story of a romance torn apart by fate, hundreds of years ago, they fell in love, like we did and I'd die for you in the same way if I first saw your face".
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Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is a testament to how impactful Taylor Swift's legacy is. This process of her looking back and re-recording her first six albums is such a powerful statement to make, one that encapsulates the entire message of Speak Now. This album is a timeless masterpiece and having the opportunity to relive is all again and hear these songs in a new light is so special. May these memories break our fall!💜
Thanks for reading! The day I am posting this is the sixth anniversary of when I published my very first article on my blog. I wanted to thank anyone who has ever taken the time to read my blog and support my writing in any way, I appreciate it so so so much. I am looking forward to the next six and beyond!
Photo Credit:
Taylor Swift, Taylor Nation, TAS Management and Beth Garrabrant
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