Taylor Swift is here to tell you her story, her way.
Back in 2010, Swift released her album Speak Now through Big Machine Records. Since then, her relationship with the record label took a real dive. After she parted ways with Big Machine, she vowed to re-release all of the albums she originally recorded under her Big Machine contract, but this time under her own label.
And so she has, little by little, with each one being tagged with the label Taylor’s Version.
Which brings us to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the third album Swift has re-recorded. Here, you will find the same 14 songs that were released back in 2010. But Swifties will also find six new and previously unreleased tracks from that era.
And I’m here to let you know what’s going on in those new, added tracks from the Taylor Swift vault.
Swift wants to cast aside cynicism and believe in love again in “Electric Touch.” Similarly sweet thoughts can be heard in “Timeless.”
“When Emma Falls in Love” is a heartfelt song about a captivating young woman who finds love and stays in love (something that Swift realizes she hasn’t learned how to do yet).
Swift realizes that she’s not the same person she used to be, and life doesn’t look like it once did in “Castles Crumbling.”
In the previously released track, “Better Than Revenge” Swift changes the lyric, “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress,” to, “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”
Swift learns to pick the one she loves better in “Foolish One.”
There’s a bit of innuendo in “Electric Touch” as Swift sings, “And I want you now, wanna need you forever … /I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping alone.” Similarly suggestive lines show up in “I Can See You,” as Swift imagines (a bit more graphically) having sex with a guy (“I can see you up against the wall with me/… You won’t believe half the things I said inside my head/Wait ‘til you see half the things that haven’t happened yet”).
A man leads Swift on in “Foolish One.”
For the most part, the original Speak Now is one of Swift’s sweetest albums in many ways. It felt like her last album before things started to turn to revenge and heartbreak and emotional warfare. Sure, there are still songs that deal with all of those topics, but they’re not so tainted and jaded as much of what she’s sung about since then.
Some of her new songs here are just as sweet and include big names like Fall Out Boy and Haley Williams. These songs deal with a complex inner dialogue, contemplation and the desire for true love.
What’s not so sweet on Taylor’s Version of Speak Now are some songs that add that dollop of sexual innuendo and find swift daydreaming about sexual encounters with young men.
So, while there’s still cause for some caution here, overall the six new vault releases are more positive than negative. And they recall Swift in her earlier, more innocent days.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
