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Taylor Swift - Taylor's Versions (Re-Recordings Official Thread) Album • Page 6

Discussion in 'Music Forum' started by bradsonemanband, Feb 11, 2021.

  1. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    Pretty much what I expected. New version sounds great, but won’t replace the original for me. Part of what makes Fearless so special is how young she sounds, and how you can hear that entire technicolor sugar rush of emotions that you experience as a teenager in her voice. The emotion of the new one is different. It’s like the nostalgia of walking through the halls of your old high school. I love hearing her revisit her roots (and sing this type of straight-down-the-middle radio-ready pop-country again), and it’s close enough to the original that a lot of people probably won’t notice if this one gets played on the radio or licensed for a movie. But it doesn’t quite recapture the magic of the original.

    Still, excited to hear the rest!
     
  2. radiodead

    Trusted

    This song was played constantly at parties in college, right around when my future wife and I met. This morning I played the Taylor version in bed with my wife and our 2 kids.
     
  3. jorbjorb

    7 rings

    Wow this smokes the original
     
    GrantCloud and Gianni28 like this.
  4. Clockwork

    Regular

    It’s good. Her voice is a lot smoother (and no accent lmao), which is good for listening but does lose some of the charm. Also, I understand why she would keep the hits similar to the originals, but I hope she’s not afraid to change up the deep cuts a little.
     
    radiodead likes this.
  5. MJForumPoster

    Regular

    I was saying almost exactly this to a friend earlier. This version is great, and I love it, but I think the younger, rawer sound of her voice on the original enhances the lyrical content and overall feel. It's someone who is living through it and spilling their guts versus someone looking back on previous events in their life. I think this will really be evident on a song like Fifteen.

    Having said that, I think this will be less and less of a thing as she moves forward in the catalog, except for a few songs like 22.
     
    Craig Manning likes this.
  6. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    I feel like "Fifteen" could actually be more interesting than this one, because she wrote it as a "look back" even though she was still so young at the time. There's probably going to be this nice new sense of knowing wisdom when it's 31-year-old Taylor singing about "when you're fifteen."

    But that song is also already perfect, so it's hard to improve upon that.
     
    Orla, Gianni28 and bradsonemanband like this.
  7. chhholly123

    i’ve been meaning to tell you

    i’m into it. the drums sound like actual drums, and the arrangement sounds fuller. i like the mix. obviously her vocals sound different, but the only part that stood out to me markedly were the “oh, oh”s.
     
  8. love the vocals
     
    DrAlanGrant likes this.
  9. shea

    RIP Supporter

    Didn’t realize there was a thread and was wondering why nobody was talking about it in the evermore thread lol.

    I love it. Much prefer her current voice on it.
     
  10. dropped that $50 on the vinyl lol
     
  11. youll be fine

    Trusted Supporter

    Love the old version. Love the new version. So excited for this whole project.
     
    Garrett and Gianni28 like this.
  12. radiodead

    Trusted

    I’m glad she’s at least making the purchase worth it with the bonus tracks otherwise I’d be crapping my pants with buyers remorse for a $50 vinyl.
     
  13. Gianni

    Trusted

    Wow. I’m guessing I just experienced the feeling that fans of Taylor / pop-country in general felt in ‘08 when this song first came out.

    For perspective, in ‘08 I was a 23 year old stubborn as shit music fan firmly rooted in alt/emo/indie world. Taylor’s style was about as far removed from my radar as could be, I didn’t listen to the radio AT ALL, and I didn’t exactly hang out with the types of people that would play her music at parties in college. So my knowledge of this song is/was no more than hearing short clips of it or perhaps it playing in the background in a store.

    Like I mentioned in the Folklore/Evermore threads, I’ve finally warmed up to her music. Shame on me but I’ll fully admit it’s because of the Antonoff, Dessner, and Vernon collabs.

    Listening to this on headphones this morning I truly got chills, that magical feeling when you’re hearing an incredible song and really GET it for the first time. The production is fantastic, the performances sincere, and the songwriting... I mean come on.

    TL;DR - this fucking rules and I am stoked to take this ride through the rest of her catalog as the re-recordings are released.
     
  14. Tim

    grateful all the fucking time Supporter

    See, the entirety of Fearless has always contextually felt like a look back anyways, at least to me personally. Not a long look back (a lot of it feels like she could’ve written it into her diary the night before), but when taken as a whole thing, it feels very reflective.

    “The Best Day” & “Fifteen” are the most overtly nostalgic, of course. And, the bookend songs sound pretty forward-looking. And, some moments, particularly “Hey Stephen,” feel more conversational or stream of consciousness than journal-y.

    But, I tend to get at least as much meaning from how the parts relate to each other as how each part works on its own. And, when I listen from that flawless opening track (which sounds like a look back at looking forward, describing a feeling so well that I relate deeply instead of having very different specifics to my experiences)... through the teenager’s nostalgia of “Fifteen,” through the back-to-back alternating love songs & heartbreak songs, through the song in the back half where things finally are perfect & it’s still not right... culminating in the surprisingly nostalgic & heartfelt “The Best Day” & the more directly, presently forward-looking “Change”...

    As I believe I’ve said a couple times in another thread, it’s just always felt like an album about being young as much as an album by someone who’s young. And, hearing a Taylor in her early 30s sing “we were both young when I first saw you,” & use the kind of messy literature analogies a teen at the time totally would’ve used on her MySpace page, really hammered that feeling the album always had for me, just like I expected it would.
     
    Garrett likes this.
  15. Garrett

    i tore a hole in the fabric of time Moderator

    Getting a post-"Soon You'll Get Better" vocal performance of "The Best Day" will probably be the latest reason I need therapy.
     
  16. radiodead

    Trusted

    “We were both young when I first saw you
    I close my eyes and the flashbacks start
    I’m standing there on the balcony in summer air”

    So simple, so evocative. Truly great stuff.
     
    Tim likes this.
  17. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    Leading with Fearless and this song in particular is a super savvy move. I feel like the impact wouldn’t be quite the same if it were self-titled.
     
    Aregala, radiodead, Garrett and 5 others like this.
  18. Exactly - fearless is when she became a cross over super star
     
    Craig Manning likes this.
  19. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    Listening to Fearless this morning. "White Horse" is underrated. What a beauty.
     
    Orla and Aregala like this.
  20. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    The first half of this album is basically perfect. Tracks 1-7 are bulletproof.
     
  21. Surfwax

    bring on the major leagues

    As a non diehard fan of anything prior to 1989 this sounds the exact same but w/ better vocals to me. Which while slightly less interesting from a listener perspective makes it almost a bigger power move and fuck you to Scooter.
     
    Gianni28 likes this.
  22. radiodead

    Trusted

    He sold the songs already though (I think). Unfortunately I think he profited quite a bit in the sale. Anyone care to chime in on more specifics?
     
  23. Surfwax

    bring on the major leagues

    I'm a borderline antonoff stan but i think i feel about out of the woods the way a lot of people here seem to about bad blood
     
  24. irthesteve

    formerly irthesteve Prestigious

    I can't agree with that, at all, possibly my favorite song on there
     
  25. Kiana

    Goddamn, man child Prestigious

    Out of the woods is great. Savage garden vibes tbh