ALBUM REVIEW: Red (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift

We review the new release of Red (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift, out everywhere today, including the hugely anticipated 10 minute version of All Too Well. 

 

When Taylor Swift announced that the second instalment of her re-recording project would be Red (Taylor’s Version) – first released in 2012 – she wrote ‘I’ve always said that the world is a different place for the heartbroken. It moves on a different axis, at a different speed. Time skips backwards and forwards fleetingly… Musically and lyrically, Red resembled a heartbroken person. It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feeling that somehow all fit together in the end.’ Over the course of 30 songs on Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift paints a picture of heartbreak like no other. It’s an honest and devastating portrayal of first love lost and was the first time that Swift showed her true intention to move across into pop, infusing elements of rock and pop into Red. Taylor’s Version lays testament to that crossover path with collaborations with major country artist Chris Stapleton but also with longtime friend and pop icon Ed Sheeran, alongside Phoebe Bridges. 

Taylor’s Version of Red, much like her version of Fearless does not change up much of the original record, but then the re-recording project was never intended to. Instead, Red (Taylor’s Version) is more polished, her vocal is stronger and richer (most notably on ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’ and ’22’) and crisper and the entirety of the project – all 30 songs, including that 10 minute version of All Too Well – feels utterly compelling, a full portrayal of heartache and heartbreak.

It is the ‘From the Vault’ songs though that hold the most excitement for Swift fans today – 10 brand new tracks to add to Red, to round out the full picture. Of course, a few have already seen the light of day – ‘Ronan’ was released as a charity single, Little Big Town recorded a version of ‘Better Man’ and Sugarland a version of ‘Babe,’ the former winning a Grammy – and it is small wonder that they weren’t included in the original version, giving so much more gravitas and emotion when sung by the original songwriter. Beginning the unheard string of tracks is ‘Nothing New,’ a stunningly vulnerable collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, co-produced with Aaron Dessner. ‘I’ve had too much to drink tonight / And I know it’s sad but this is what I think about / And I wake up in the middle of the night / It’s like I can feel time moving / How can a person know everything at eighteen / But nothing at twenty-two? / And will you still want me when I’m nothing new?’ It’s a plucking, dazzlingly lyrical moment, as is later track ‘Forever Winter’ – a beautifully relatable track about the highs and lows of youth, accompanied by a wondrous brass section rounding out the instrumentation. ‘Too young to know it gets better / I’ll be summer sun for you forever / Forever winter if you go.’

The From the Vault tracks more than anything round out the picture of heartbreak but also of Swift’s crossover to pop, so ‘Message In a Bottle’ is a slick pop track, more in the line of ’22,’ as Swift sends a love song out into the universe. ‘‘Cause you could be the one that I love / I could be the one that you dream of / Message in a bottle is all I can do / Standin’ here, hopin’ it gets to you.’ It’s a memorable, well-done pop anthem, complete with a heavier instrumentation – as is later track ‘The Very First Night.’ In the theme of Red, Swift follows this poppier track with a turn back to her country roots on a country-infused duet with the legendary vocalist, Chris Stapleton – ‘I Bet You Think About Me.’ It’s a lingering, revenge-tinged track about being hard to move on from, ‘But now that we’re done and it’s over / I bet you couldn’t believe / When you realised I’m harder to forget than I was to leave / And I bet you think about me.’ Sheeran also returns to the fold on the beautiful track ‘Run,’ about getting away from the noise with a lover – the two have been friends for years and their voices fuse effortlessly together – and feels more country than pop in feel, a touching acoustic moment.

Of course, the most anticipated moment of the record comes at the end with the 10 minute version of ‘All Too Well’ that has been a perennial fan favourite. The track does not disappoint, diving layers deeper than its originally released shorter version, and shows even more clearly why it is arguably her most beloved track. It’s a masterpiece that showcases her lyricism and is without a doubt her signature track. Red (Taylor’s Version) is without a doubt worth the wait, it is an artist truly owing the title ‘superstar’ that can infuse new life into these tracks and pull out even more hits ‘From the Vault.’