Taylor Swift Looks Back On Her Past With Growth On ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’
The star’s third re-recorded album features collaborations with Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy
Taylor Swift has released her third re-recorded album – itself a revisitation of her third studio album – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
The 22-track record follows the Taylor’s Version releases of Fearless and Red. Like those previous albums, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) also includes several previously unreleased “From The Vault” tracks.
Two of those special songs feature collaborations with other big-name stars. “Electric Touch” sees Swift make an unlikely team-up with emo kings Fall Out Boy, while “Castles Crumbling” features a guest appearance from her childhood Nashville friend – and Paramore frontwoman – Hayley Williams.
“It’s here. It’s yours, it’s mine, it’s ours,” Swift wrote after the album was released. “It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20. I remember making tracklist after tracklist, obsessing over the right way to tell the story. I had to be ruthless with my choices, and I left behind some songs I am still unfailingly proud of now.
“Therefore, you have 6 From The Vault tracks! I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and the memories it brought back filled me with nostalgia and appreciation. For life, for you, for the fact that I get to reclaim my work. Thank you a million times, for the memories that break our fall.”
On Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Swift doesn’t just look back at her past but updates it. The album features stories from a songwriter on the brink of adulthood but also of superstardom, with the star capturing youth in all its intensity – and sometimes ugliness – within her lyrics. On “Better Than Revenge,” she changes a previously controversial lyric from “She’s an actress/She’s better known for the things that she does on a mattress” to “She’s an actress/He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”
The pop icon previously teased “Back To December (Taylor’s Version),” which appears on the album, in a new TV trailer. The song appeared in the teaser for the second season of Amazon Prime Video teen drama The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Meanwhile, Swift is currently taking her The Eras tour across North America, with that leg set to wrap up in LA in August. Afterward, she will expand the run around the world, visiting Latin America, Asia, Australia, the UK, and Europe. Earlier this week, the tour was named the biggest of 2023 so far, bringing in over $300 million from its shows so far.
