That's When

"That's When" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring New Zealand-born Australian country singer Keith Urban. The song is the 24th track on Swift's first re-recorded album, ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' (2021), a re-recording of her 2008 album ''Fearless''. It is one of six "from the Vault" tracks that were written for the original album but were scrapped. Swift wrote the song with The Warren Brothers when she was 14 years old and produced it with Jack Antonoff in 2021.

"That's When" is a country pop song narrating the aftermath of a broken relationship, with the lovers introspecting on how to reunite with one another. It received positive reviews from music critics, who favored the production and Urban's presence on the song. Commercially, the song reached number 30 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart, number 76 on the ''Rolling Stone'' Top 100, number 63 in Canada, and number 81 in Australia.

Background and release

On February 11, 2021, following the dispute regarding the rights to the masters of her first six studio albums, Taylor Swift announced that the first of her re-recorded albums, ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'', a re-recording of Swift's 2008 album ''Fearless,'' would be released on April 9, 2021. Alongside the announcement, Swift revealed she would release six songs, all dubbed "from the Vault" that did not make the 2008 album. Swift explained several reasons for the scrapping of the vault tracks, including not wanting too many breakup or down-tempo songs on the album, and the limitations of how many songs could fit on CDs in 2008. In her announcement of the album, Swift wrote "I've decided I want you to have the whole story. See the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my ''Fearless'' album." Swift originally wrote "That's When" with The Warren Brothers, a country music duo composed of Brad and Brett Warren, when she was 14 years old and co-writing many of her songs in Nashville. When Swift contacted The Warren Brothers seventeen years later to inform them of her intention to release the song, they stated it was the longest they've ever had a song on hold. A solo demo of "That's When" was leaked around 2014.

"That's When" marks Swift's second collaboration with Urban, after Tim McGraw's 2012 single "Highway Don't Care". Swift was the opening act during Urban's 2009 Escape Together World Tour. When initially looking back through her unreleased songs, Swift believed the song would work better as a duet and could only imagine Urban as the duet partner. Urban told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that he was doing his Christmas shopping when Swift texted him requesting he contribute to "That's When" and " We Were Happy," another vault track: "I'm sitting in the food court at the shopping centre listening to these two unreleased Taylor Swift songs. ..It was an unusual place to be hearing unreleased Taylor Swift music but I love the songs and luckily got to put a vocal on both of those."

On April 2, Swift uploaded a cryptic, golden-hued video to her social media accounts depicting a vault releasing scrambled words from it. Fans and new outlets decoded the scrambled letters to reveal the titles of the vault tracks. Swift uploaded the official track list to her social media accounts, including the names of the five remaining "from the Vault" tracks, the next day. ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' was released on April 9, 2021. Lyric videos of each song on the album were released to Swift's YouTube channel; "That's When" has since garnered over 2.5 million views as of July 2021. In the video, the lyrics appear over a foggy, rural landscape. "That's When" was also included in ''Fearless (Taylor's Version): The From the Vault Chapter'', a streaming compilation released by Swift on May 26, 2021, alongside the five other vault songs from ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)''.

Composition and lyrics

Swift originally penned "That's When" with Brett and Brad Warren, members of country music duo The Warren Brothers, when she was 14 years old. Swift and Jack Antonoff produced the song; Antonoff collaborated with Swift on her last five studio albums, dating back to her 2014 album '' 1989'', and produced three of the other vault tracks with Swift. "That's When" is a country pop track narrating the storyline of two former lovers contemplating reuniting and contemplating how to repair their relationship. Swift sings the first verse and Urban the second, with the two harmonizing during the chorus. The song is set in the key of F major with a tempo of 90 beats per minute (BPM). Swift and Urban's vocals span from F₃ to B♭₄.

Critical reception

"That's When" received positive reviews from music critics, who acclaimed the collaboration between Swift and Urban. Saloni Gajjar of ''The A.V. Club'' wrote that the collaboration "hits all the right soothing notes." Writing for ''The Nash News'', Jena Fowler wrote that "one of the best things Swift could've done [on ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)''] was add country features", applauding the choruses where Swift and Urban Harmonization, harmonize. In a review of ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' published for ''Rolling Stone'', Jonathan Bernstein opined that the song was one of the many vault tracks that were "revelatory glimpses into Swift's working process." Bernstein additionally highlighted the choice of Jack Antonoff as a producer on a song Swift wrote in 2006. Also writing for ''Rolling Stone'', Joseph Hudak described "That's When" as "an introspective retelling of romance at the brink". Writing for ''Spin'', Bobby Olivier designated "That's When" as an album highlight, describing it as a "hooky acoustic duet" that gives a glimpse into Swift's earlier career in country music. Hannah Mylrea of ''NME'' similarly designated the song as a highlight on ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'', praising its "euphoric layered vocals" and Antonoff's '' 1989''-style production. Poulomi Das also favorably compared the song's "sleek" production to that of ''1989'' in a review published in ''Firstpost''.

''Gigwise'''s Kelsey Barnes wrote that the song "fit perfectly alongside wift'sother collaborations." Heather Taylor-Singh of ''Exclaim!'' selected "That's When" as exemplary of the vault tracks as "a fun treat for fans who can't get chose of Swift's vivid storytelling". ''Billboard'''s Jason Lipshutz opined that in spite of being a breakup song, "That's When" "offers a dose of levity". On the contrary, Jackson Langford of MTV ranked the song fifth of the six vault tracks, praising Urban's presence on the track but writing that the song "still falls just short of greatness." In a mixed review, Chris Willman of ''Variety'' wrote that "it's lovely to hear wift and Urbantogether", but that the song doesn't feel sufficiently immersive in comparison to the other songs that made it to the original album. Willman commended Swift's decision to leave it off the original album, dubbing the song and its chords as "a slightly more balladic version of the superior 'You Belong with Me'". Jon Pareles similarly pointed out the similarities between the melodies of "That's When" and "You Belong with Me" in a ''New York Times'' critics roundtable.

Commercial performance

Following the release of ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'', "That's When" debuted at number 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart, one of 18 songs from the album to chart simultaneously. It additionally entered at 21 on the Country Streaming Songs chart (one of 12 songs from the album to chart) and 23 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, each component charts for Hot Country Songs. Though it did not enter the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, it charted at number 3 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, a quasi-extension to the Hot 100. On the ''Rolling Stone'' Top 100 it debuted at number 76, alongside 11 other songs on the album, selling 44,100 units and garnering 5.1 million streams. Internationally, it charted at number 63 on the Canadian Hot 100 and 81 in Australia.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

* Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriting, production
* Keith Urban – vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar
* Brad Warren – songwriting
* Brett Warren – songwriting
* Jack Antonoff – production, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, electric guitar, record engineering, keyboards, percussion
* Mike Freedom Hart – bass, celesta, drums, electric guitar, Hammond B3, keyboards, pedal steel, piano
* Evan Smith — flute, saxophone
* John Rooney – assistant record engineering
* Jon Sher – assistant record engineering
* Sean Hutchinson – drums
* John Hanes – engineering
* Randy Merrill — master engineering
* Serban Ghenea — mixing
* Michael Riddleberger — percussion
* David Hart – record engineering
* Laura Sisk – record engineering
* Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering
* Nick Rowse – vocal engineering

Chart performance

Notes

References

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2021 songs
Country ballads
Taylor Swift songs
Keith Urban songs
Songs written by Taylor Swift
Songs written by the Warren Brothers
Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift
Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff
Male–female vocal duets
Country pop songs