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Jul 11, 2023The duet with Williams, “Castles Crumbling,” is particularly pungent, as a lament that just about could have been an outtake from the more recent “Folklore” or “Evermore” instead of an album that came out a full decade before those. As for the FOB-aided track, it’s the farthest thing from a Swift classic. But — having been written, like the rest of these tracks, when the artist was 18 or 19 — the number does hark back to an era when girls (and Fall Out Boys) could just wanna have fun.
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Jul 10, 2023They [vault songs] offer something completely new, which is what many people expect from an album release, but they aren’t the most interesting thing about Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), in my opinion. .... That matured, time-honed voice coming out of Swift in her latest re-recording is a mirror image of a fan base who has weathered the storm and come out the other end with her.
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Jul 17, 2023This understated makeover casts Speak Now not as the final Taylor country record but as the first pop album from the singer/songwriter, a revision that offers its own gentle revisions.
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Jul 13, 2023Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is a nod to one of life’s central truths: you can’t go back in time, and you can never perfectly replicate your youth, but there are always new paths forward.
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Jul 10, 2023Although fans are nostalgically pining for the innocent, youthful sound of her voice from her early albums, there’s no questioning that she has a more controlled and comfortable vocal ability now.
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Jul 10, 2023If the original Speak Now highlighted what Swift needed to do to refine her artistry, Taylor’s Version proves that she’s actually done it.
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Jul 10, 2023It may not contain anything that the casual Swift listener or average radio-goer will be breaking down doors to hear, but with Speak Now (Taylor's Version), she delivers an admirable and very intimate effort that will be extremely rewarding to her most devoted fans.
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Jul 7, 2023It ["I Can See You"] and "When Emma Falls In Love," a glittery ballad about an alluring older-sister figure, are perhaps the best summations of the Taylor's Version project, bridging the years between Swift's youth and her present with the sort of tenderness that comes from paging through dog-eared scrapbooks and dusty photo albums.
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Jul 7, 2023Fans who pass this latest test of commitment will find another studied and resolute replica of one of Swift’s most compelling and formative albums.
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Jul 7, 2023The past typically isn’t the most comfortable place to inhabit, but Swift embodies her younger self fully, imbuing these tracks with the same immediacy and emotional heft as she did all those years ago. Country twang or not.
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Jul 7, 2023Amid all the delightful nostalgia comes one glaring disappointment. When Swift committed to the re-recordings, she promised they wouldn’t lose the heart of the original – and the lyrics would stay the same. But on Better Than Revenge, a bitter rebuke to a love rival, she’s done just that.
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Jul 12, 2023Throughout Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Swift sometimes mutes the messy adolescent impulses that gave these songs their spark. But elsewhere, she divests from fantasy archetypes—the knight on a white horse, the helpless child—that once limited her. Think of the new Speak Now as a call and response between who she was and who she is.
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Jul 6, 2023Despite that blemish [changing a lyric in “Better Than Revenge”], Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is a cathartic release of pent-up frustrations of things she never had the confidence to say at 19 that are now stated proudly at 33.
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Jul 7, 2023Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) dilutes some of the original’s acid. One issue with Swift revisiting her older work is that her voice has changed with age. Now 33, she’s a much richer and more skilled singer than she was then, but their piercing, youthful twang was what made these songs kick harder in all their dressing-downs and rabid desires, emphasising the sense of a girl wading into adult waters.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 574 out of 626
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Mixed: 13 out of 626
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Negative: 39 out of 626
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Jul 7, 2023
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Jul 7, 2023This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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Jul 7, 2023