Speak Now (Taylor's Version)

''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' is the third re-recorded album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on July 7, 2023, by Republic Records. It is a re-recording of Swift's third studio album, ''Speak Now'' (2010), part of Swift's counteraction to a 2019 masters dispute regarding the ownership of her back catalog. The album was announced on May 5, 2023, at a Nashville show of her the Eras Tour.

Swift wrote all 22 tracks on ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' by herself. The album contains re-recorded versions of the 16 songs from ''Speak Now'''s deluxe edition, produced by Swift and Christopher Rowe; and six previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks, produced by Swift, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff. The American rock musicians Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams featured on two vault tracks. Strongly influenced by rock styles, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' is an incorporation of country pop and pop rock, with styles of emo, pop-punk, and gothic rock. Its dynamic compositions consist of acoustic instruments alongside electric guitars, drums, and strings. Lyrically, it is a loose concept album about unspoken confessions that document the volatile emotions of Swift's adolescence.

The album received acclaim from music critics, who complimented the vocals and emotionally engaging songwriting. Some critics nonetheless debated the lyrical change on the re-recording of " Better than Revenge" with mixed opinions. Commercially, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' reached number one on albums charts of Australia, Canada, Belgian Flanders, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it marked Swift's 12th album to top the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, breaking Barbra Streisand's all-time record for the most number-one albums by a female artist. All 22 of its tracks debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, with " I Can See You" as its highest charting song at number five.

Background

Taylor Swift released her third studio album, ''Speak Now'', on October 25, 2010, under Big Machine Records. A predominantly pop rock and country pop album, ''Speak Now'' was entirely self-written by Swift. It received positive reviews from music journalists, who have since praised it for being a self-written Swift album about "dismissals of exploitative male characters and poetic embrace of girlhood." It sold over 1,047,000 copies within its opening week in the United States—the largest first week in history for a female country artist, and the first million-selling week of Swift's career, a feat she would go on to repeat five more times. ''Speak Now'' achieved the ''Guinness World Record'' as the fastest selling album in the US by a female country act. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards (2012), its single "Mean" won Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song.

Swift released three more studio albums under Big Machine, as per her recording contract, which expired in November 2018. She hence withdrew from Big Machine and signed a new deal with Republic Records, which secured her the rights to own the masters of any new music she would release. In 2019, American businessman Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine; the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six studio albums, including ''Speak Now'', transferred to him. In August 2019, Swift denounced Braun's purchase and announced that she would re-record her first six studio albums so as to own their masters herself. Swift began the re-recording process in November 2020. ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'', the first of her six re-recorded albums, was released on April 9, 2021, followed by ''Red (Taylor's Version)'' on November 12, 2021; both achieved critical and commercial success, debuting atop the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

Speculations about Swift's next re-recorded album being ''Speak Now'' dated back as far as November 2021, when she released ''Red (Taylor's Version)'', referencing key words of the 2010 era in social media posts. The music videos for "Bejeweled" (2022) and "Lavender Haze" (2023) contained numerous Easter eggs referencing ''Speak Now''. Fan theories intensified after Swift's 2023 concert tour, the Eras Tour, began; the multi-colored wristbands that attendees received flashed purple at the end of a concert. Swift hinted at a re-release during the performance of "Speak Now", and used a purple heart emoji on social media days before the announcement.

On May 5, 2023, at the first Nashville date of the Eras Tour, Swift announced ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' and its release date on July 7. The announcement acted as a lead-in to one of her "surprise songs", an acoustic version of the album's second track " Sparks Fly"; lights along the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge turned purple. She subsequently revealed in social media posts, "I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing ... and living to speak about it". Swift emphasized the hardships she faced in her life during the time she wrote the record, noting the lyrics as containing "brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness".

Writing and production

The album consists of 22 tracks: the re-recordings of the 14 songs from the standard edition, two of the three deluxe edition tracks, "Ours" and "Superman", and six previously unreleased "From the Vault" songs that were written for the 2010 album but never included. The remaining deluxe edition track "If This Was a Movie" was not included because it was the sole track on the album not written solely by Swift, and its re-recording was instead released as a standalone promotional single and as part of a ''Fearless (Taylor’s Version)''-themed compilation on March 17, 2023. All the songs were written solely by Swift, as a reaction to those who questioned her artistic integrity as a songwriter.

The re-recorded tracks were produced by Swift and Christopher Rowe, whereas the "From the Vault" tracks were produced by Swift with longtime collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. Two of the vault tracks, " Electric Touch" and " Castles Crumbling", feature American rock band Fall Out Boy and American singer-songwriter Hayley Williams, the frontwoman of rock band Paramore, respectively. ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' retained all the original lyrics, except a previously controversial line ("She's better known for the things / That she does on the mattress") in the chorus of " Better than Revenge", which was replaced with "He was a moth to the flame / She was holding the matches".

Music and lyrics

Composition

''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' is rooted in Swift's trademark country-pop sound, but also stylistically embraces pop-rock. '' Clash'' critic Alex Berry described the album as a seamless blend of rock, country, and pop. As Swift's most "rock-focused" album, it incorporates an ensemble of rock genres, such as pop-punk, emo, and alternative rock. The melodies are characterized by rousing electric guitars, heavy drumming, orchestral elements and eruptive choruses. Critics said that the re-recorded tracks have a better audio quality brought by "thicker" guitars and enhanced sonics than those of the original recordings. A loose concept album, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' is mainly about "words left unsaid". Inspired by Swift's life between the ages of 18 and 20, it is an autobiographical album exploring the angst of late teenage and her adolescent perspectives of life, romance and career.

"From the Vault" tracks

Critics opined that the six vault songs are in line with the pop-rock sound of the original ''Speak Now''. " Electric Touch", featuring Fall Out Boy, is a soaring, cinematic pop-punk song with distorted guitars and crescendo drums. Swift's "creamy" vocals are juxtaposed with Patrick Stump's sharp voice. It is about the anxieties, pessimism and self-doubt over going on a first date. " When Emma Falls in Love" is a mellow song led by piano and banjo, presenting Swift's third person perspective of a friend's life and character. It incorporates "stately piano balladry and swaying country-pop". Due to its character study of the subject Emma, the song has been compared to Swift's 2020 fictitious albums, ''Folklore'' and '' Evermore''. Media outlets considered American actress Emma Stone, a friend of Swift since 2008, as the inspiration.

" I Can See You" is a groovy indie rock song with elements of funk and surf rock. It is driven by a "choppy" guitar riff and sinuous bass, containing "edgy" guitars and flirtatious, sexually suggestive innuendos. " Castles Crumbling" is a duet between Swift and Williams. It is a smooth ballad about dealing with paranoia over losing the interest of fans, depicting their worries worry over "how the empires they built as teens could implode at any moment." It has been widely compared to " Nothing New" (2021), a vault track from ''Red (Taylor's Version)'' featuring Phoebe Bridgers. "Foolish One" sees Swift chastise herself for her naivety, confronting her "hopeless romantic" side with reality. It is a country pop song driven by acoustic guitar strums and programmed drums. In the ballad "Timeless", Swift finds old photos of couples in an antique shop and superimposes herself in their lives. The song's arrangement mainly consists of acoustic guitars and organ, with accents of ukulele and flute.

Release

''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' was released on July 7, 2023, making it Swift's third re-recorded album. The re-recording of "If This Was a Movie", one of the three deluxe edition songs from the original album, and the only one with a co-writer, was released as a promotional single and included on a ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)''-themed streaming compilation on March 17, 2023. The standard vinyl edition of ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' is a set of three marbled violet LP records. Two additional lilac and orchid marbled variants were also released.

On June 5, 2023, Swift announced the track-list of ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)''. It also revealed the guest features of Fall Out Boy and Williams, who were cited by Swift as influences on her lyrics while writing ''Speak Now''. On June 24, 13 days before the album release, Swift teased a snippet of " Mine (Taylor's Version)" on social media. On June 29, a short preview of " Back to December (Taylor's Version)" was featured in the official trailer for the second season of Amazon Prime Video series ''The Summer I Turned Pretty''.

When the album was released on July 7, Swift premiered the music video for the vault track " I Can See You" at the first Kansas City show on the Eras Tour, which was released to her YouTube channel the day after. Directed and written by Swift, the video stars her alongside actors Taylor Lautner, Joey King, and Presley Cash; the latter two previously appeared in Swift's video for "Mean" (2011). On July 13, 2023, Swift released a digital deluxe edition of the album, featuring live recordings of " Dear John" and "Last Kiss" from the Minneapolis and Kansas City shows of the Eras Tour, respectively.

Piracy

On June 9, 2023, French newspaper ''Ouest-France'' reported that a temporary worker from Le Mans, France, was arrested for stealing 10 vinyl records of ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' from a warehouse and selling them on Leboncoin, a classified ads website; two copies of the album were sold for each, following which he raised the cost to per unit. The worker—who had been convicted 24 times before for theft, damage, drug trafficking, fraud and various other offences—was sentenced to eight months in prison. The public prosecutor stated that only the eight unsold LPs were retrieved from the worker; the whereabouts of the two sold copies remain unknown, posing a threat of leaking online. The back cover, guest features and titles of the vault tracks leaked online before Swift could reveal them.

Critical reception

''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average based on ratings from publications, the album scored 81 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". AnyDecentMusic? compiled 13 reviews and gave the album a score of 7.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Maura Johnston of ''Rolling Stone'' stated, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' "expands our image of a landmark album", with grittier production quality. The same magazine's UK critic Mark Sutherland wrote, "the empowering, elemental force and simmering hurt that made the original ''Speak Now'' such a remarkable record remains strikingly intact." Reviews from Annabel Nugent of ''The Independent'', Poppie Platt of ''The Daily Telegraph,'' Jonathan Keefe of ''Slant Magazine'', Rachel Caroll of ''PopMatters'', Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, and Will Hodgkinson of ''The Times'' praised the album's crisper production mix, emotional heft, added nuance of the vault songs, and Swift's strong and refined vocals. Alex Hopper of ''American Songwriter'' and Kelsey Barnes of ''The Line of Best Fit'' complimented the album's catharsis for an accurate portrayal of adolescence. ''Spin'' critic Bobby Olivier admired the album's "rock elegance" and Swift's "mature and textured vocal performance".

The lyric change in "Better than Revenge" was a common point of contention in reviews, with some calling it unnecessary. Others appreciated the change, opining that it is line with Swift's changed perspective as a grown woman. ''The Guardian'' Laura Snapes and ''Pitchfork'' Vrinda Jagota said that Swift's voice, despite being "much richer" than in 2010, has lost its "youthful twang" and "teenage angst" but nevertheless considered the album's evolved songwriting and musical consistency impressive.

Commercial performance

Upon release, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' received 126.3 million streams on its opening day on Spotify, breaking the records for the most single-day streams for any album in 2023 and for a country album ever. It also became the second most-streamed album by a female artist in a single day, behind Swift's own ''Midnights'' (2022).

In the US, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' spent two weeks atop the ''Billboard'' 200. It earned 575,000 album-equivalent units within its first four days, including over 400,000 album sales (of which 225,000 were vinyl LPs), marking the largest consumption and sales week for an album in 2023, as well as the second-largest vinyl sales week in US history, behind ''Midnights''. It debuted atop the ''Billboard'' 200 with 716,000 units, including 507,000 album sales (of which 268,500 were vinyl LPs), earning the largest week for a country album since December 2014. Swift set new records among female artists for most number-one albums in chart history (12) and most consecutive years with a new number-one album (5), surpassing Barbra Streisand and Miley Cyrus, respectively. Swift became the first woman to chart four albums in the top 10 simultaneously, the first woman and living soloist to chart 11 albums simultaneously (after the Beatles and Prince), and the first act to have nine albums sell at least 500,000 copies in one week. All 22 tracks from ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, bringing Swift's total career entries to 212 songs, surpassing the cast of ''Glee'' for second-most of all time. The album marked Swift's eighth number-one on the Top Country Albums chart, and all tracks charted on the Hot Country Songs, with seven in the top 10.

''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 67,000 units, surpassing the 2010 album's peak (number six) and doubling its first-week sales. Swift became the fastest female artist to collect 10 number-one albums in the UK, surpassing Madonna. In Australia, ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' debuted atop the ARIA Albums Chart, displacing ''Midnights'' from the top spot. It became Swift's 11th number-one album and made her the first act to replace themselves at the top spot. Fifteen tracks from the album entered the ARIA Singles Chart simultaneously, with three in the top 10.

Recognition

* On July 10, the Washington, D.C. branch of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a mock ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'' back cover encouraging social media users to submit tips regarding possible criminal activity, replacing track titles with offenses such as terrorism, cybercrime, counterintelligence, civil rights, public corruption, weapons of mass destruction, organized crime, violent crime and white-collar crime.
* To honor a record six sold-out shows of the Eras Tour at the SoFi Stadium, the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live hosted a pop-up exhibit from August 2 to September 18, 2023, displaying 11 of Swift's costumes and two of her music instruments from the "I Can See You" music video.
* At the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, Swift received 20 nominations, including Top Country Album for ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)'', Top Country Artist and Top Country Female Artist.

Track listing

Notes
* Tracks 1–22 are subtitled "Taylor's Version"; and tracks 17–22 are additionally subtitled "From the Vault".
* The album's CD package consists of two discs; one containing tracks 1–16, and the other with tracks 17–22.
* "If This Was A Movie", a track on the deluxe edition of the original album, is not present in the re-recording but instead was included on the EP ''The More Fearless (Taylor's Version) Chapter'' on digital platforms.

Personnel

Musicians

* Taylor Swift – vocals (all tracks), background vocals (1–16)
* Mike Meadows – acoustic guitar (1–16), background vocals (1–3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13–16, 18), Hammond B3 (1–3, 5, 7, 12, 14, 16), mandolin (2, 3, 6, 7, 12, 16), clapping (4, 6), organ (4), banjo (6), electric guitar (10)
* Amos Heller – bass guitar (1–7, 9–16), clapping (4, 6)
* Matt Billingslea – drums, percussion (1–7, 9–16); clapping (4, 6), vibraphone (5)
* Max Bernstein – electric guitar (1–6, 10–12, 14, 16), synthesizer (1, 5, 7, 11, 14), synth pads (3), acoustic guitar (7, 13), strings (11), keyboards (15)
* Paul Sidoti – slide guitar (1), electric guitar (2–7, 9–16), acoustic guitar (3, 6), ukulele (15)
* David Cook – piano (2, 5, 11, 12–14)
* Jonathan Yudkin – fiddle (2, 6)
* London Contemporary Orchestra – strings (3, 9, 12)
* Liz Huett – background vocals (4, 6, 7, 16)
* Caitlin Evanson – background vocals (6, 11, 14)
* Christopher Rowe – background vocals (9, 18, 22)
* Brian Pruitt – drum programming (10, 13, 14)
* Aaron Dessner – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer (17, 18, 21); electric guitar (17, 18), percussion (17, 21), piano (18, 21), drum programming (21)
* Josh Kaufman – electric guitar, organ (17, 18, 21); piano (17, 21), acoustic guitar (17), banjo (18); keyboards, synthesizer (21)
* Thomas Bartlett – keyboards, piano, synthesizer (17)
* Benjamin Lanz – synthesizer (17, 18, 21)
* James McAlister – synthesizer (17, 18, 21); drums, percussion (18, 21); drum programming (21)
* Joe Russo – drums, percussion (17)
* Patrick Stump – electric guitar, vocals (17)
* James Krivchenia – drums (18), percussion (18)
* Jack Antonoff – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar (19, 20, 22); programming, synthesizer (19, 20); 12-string acoustic guitar, background vocals, keyboards (19); drums, piano (20); Mellotron (22)
* Sean Hutchinson – drums, percussion (19, 20, 22)
* Mikey Freedom Hart – electric guitar (19), synthesizer (19, 20), Wurlitzer electronic piano (19)
* Evan Smith – saxophone (19, 20, 22), flute (20, 22); electric guitar, organ, synthesizer (22), ukulele (22)
* Eric Byers – cello (20)
* Bobby Hawk – violin (20)
* Hayley Williams – vocals (20)

Technical

* Randy Merrill – mastering
* Serban Ghenea – mixing (1–16, 19, 20, 22)
* Jonathan Low – mixing, engineering (17, 18, 21)
* David Payne – engineering (1–16)
* Derek Garten – editing, engineering, programmer (1–16)
* Jeremy Murphy – engineering (3, 9, 12)
* Aaron Dessner – engineering (17, 18, 21)
* David Hart – engineering (19, 20)
* Evan Smith – engineering (19, 20, 22)
* Jack Antonoff – engineering (19, 20, 22)
* Laura Sisk – engineering (19, 20, 22)
* Mikey Freedom Hart – engineering (19, 20)
* Sean Hutchinson – engineering (19, 20, 22)
* Eric Byers – engineering (20)
* Jon Gautier – engineering (20)
* Bryce Bordone – mix engineering (1–16, 19, 20, 22)
* Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering
* Taylor York – vocal engineering (20)
* Lowell Reynolds – editing, engineering assistance (1–16)
* Bella Blasko – additional engineering (17, 18)
* Benjamin Lanz – additional engineering (17, 18)
* James McAlister – additional engineering (17, 18)
* Thomas Bartlett – additional engineering (17)
* Patrick Stump – additional engineering (17)
* John Rooney – engineering assistance (19, 20, 22)
* Jon Sher – engineering assistance (19, 20, 22)
* Megan Searl – engineering assistance (19, 20, 22)

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

External links

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2023 albums
Republic Records albums
Taylor Swift albums
Country pop albums
Country albums by American artists
Pop rock albums by American artists
Albums produced by Taylor Swift
Albums produced by Chris Rowe
Albums produced by Aaron Dessner
Albums produced by Jack Antonoff
Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios
Re-recorded albums