Taylor Swift - Taylor's Versions (Re-Recordings Official Thread) Album • Page 125

"castles crumbling" and "i can see you" are astonishing

 

really emphasizing that Mine and Back to December not being on the eras setlist is fucking preposterous

 

This version of Sparks Fly is vastly inferior to the original, but through Better Than Revenge, the quality is good. Excited to get to the vault as my workload allows me to listen to the next songs.

 

"Back to December" is a big improvement. I've never had much love for that song, but this version sounds pristine.

 

Hm. Idk.

I’m torn between this being my least favorite album of hers (a take that’s being validated with this listen), and it being a deeply nostalgic album (this is the only album cycle I saw her live). And, also torn between the moments that sound sharp in this new version and the moments that feel off, sometimes in the same track. Lots of rediscovery and appreciation, very high highs, cut with a feeling that it doesn’t coalesce into a really good album.

Haven’t gotten to the vault tracks outside of the ones with features yet, looking forward to that. And, I’m gonna spend more time with this whole thing. But, Fearless is still the only true “Taylor’s Version” home run for me so far.

 

I'm so, so fascinated by fans who don't care for this album. In my mind, it's the purest and most unfiltered version of Taylor Swift. I feel like if I didn't like this one, I probably just wouldn't like her as an artist at all? So many of her trademarks and songwriting habits come into focus on this album and then never really go away.

 

listening to this made me realize how much i love every song on the record lol. even "innocent," which i used to say the album could do without, but it sounds really great here

album also ends with THE TWO BEST TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS OF ALL TIME

 

I mean some of these songs could be cut down. I'm not a producer so I can't necessarily say where it could be done.

I love Enchanted but we don't really need the back-to-back bridges. Choose one and GO with it!

 

(my favorite swift songs are "treacherous," "enchanted," and "ivy," but somehow "last kiss" and "long live" are really and truly the best taylor swift songs of all time)

 

wrong!!! cf. "ivy"

 

Long live Long Live tbh

 

only a couple tracks into this, and while her vocals have definitely matured beyond the youthful sound of the original recording, this version immediately feels more vibrant in instrumentation and harmonies.

 

Maybe it's my lukewarm feelings on the 10-minute "All Too Well," but I've really been coming around on the view that "Last Kiss" is her GOAT.

Yeah, I need both of those bridges!

The hall-of-fame "why are these songs so long?" album is Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience Part 2.

 

I've said it before. I feel she's at her best when there is a second name on the songwriting credits. From my perspective, it's that person reigning in all her feelings to be concise.

I LOVE both bridges in Enchanted but like c'mon its a damn pop song there's not a need for it.

 

Idk, to me it’s a raw version of her trademarks. It’s an important, essential landmark in her development as an artist, and it’s a great display of her talent as a songwriter (I support her choice to keep that as the focus in the “Taylor’s Version”). But, as good a creative exercise as it is, it’s rarely the best version of what she does.

I sometimes like raw versions of creative’s work in other mediums, especially comics, so I’ll probably spend a decent amount of time with this from that perspective. But, I dunno… Every artist needs a worst album, and this is hers for me!

 

Oh, “I Can See You” kicked on and I was immediately like, “oh shit.” Like that guitar a lot.

 

Speak Now sits with Red for me as filled with a good chunk of her absolute best songs but also very inconsistent with a bunch of stuff I never want to listen to.

 

And part 1. I want a re-release where every song is reined in so badly.

 

Speak Now has some of my favorites taylor songs and some of my least fave which is why I kinda love it. She's sorta all over the place figuring it out. I also remember it being the first album cycle she felt overexposed.

The album came out while I was in college and I wrote a paper about Taylor Swifts "slut shaming" vs Christina aguilera's liberating brand of feminism which is probably the most on brand nonsense I've ever written and it was also probably the worst paper of all time and I'm glad it's lost on an old broken laptop somewhere

 

Speak Now is the direct spiritual forerunner to Folklore and Evermore between storytelling and exploring all the soundscapes within one genre (whereas Red breaks the genre thing).

 

Listening to “Electric Touch” again, and yeah, this song is good. Don’t understand the idea that Patrick and Taylor sound like they’re on different songs or whatever; not the first time I’ve seen that said about something and disagreed. The whole selling point for me is the fun of them sharing space in a track they both work in!

 

I was too lazy to do it but I had the basis for the genre hopping on Red. It was needed from a millennial writing a break up album at 21/22

 

she knocked it out of the park again with this version, it hit me way harder than the original ever has personally (although goddamn listening from front to back starting at midnight I felt every bit of its length). I fucking love Electric Touch and I Can See You, as far as vault songs go; my jaw literally dropped when the latter started bc I didn’t expect anything quite like that from her.

 

For all you other people that want the other 3 songs included:

Speak Now TV (Extended)

 

Oh, it's not a complaint re: Red at all. And yeah, I needed that album greatly at 22/23 as well.