Red (Taylor’s Version) Review
This past June when Taylor Swift announced she would be re-recording Red in an effort to take full ownership over her past albums, I was cautiously elated. I was thrilled because Red has always placed first in my ever changing ranking of Taylor’s discography, yet apprehensive of how Taylor would be able to recreate the magic of the Red era while simultaneously making enough changes so that the album is new again.
Writing this a week after the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), I know I had no reason to worry. In a once 19- now 30 track- masterpiece, Taylor manges not only to pick at the scab of old wounds, but draw the same visceral pain from new ones.
Red (Taylor’s Version) comes out of the gate strong with “State of Grace”, objectively one of her best songs and by far her best album opener, and continues to tug on all the heartstrings as she makes her way through re-recording her critically acclaimed album.
Revamped versions of her classic hits like “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, and “22” are as dynamic as they were the first time around, while less acclaimed favorites like “The Lucky One” are sung with more passion and vengeance, especially considering how Taylor has grown to know even more about the ‘dark side’ of the music industry than she did at 21.
I, personally, am hoping and praying that songs like “The Last Time” (featuring Gary Lightbody) and “Sad Beautiful Tragic” are given the proper attention that they deserve this time around, but with such a strong cohesive album, it is natural that even the strongest of tracks may be ignored in favor of more “exciting” fan favorites like “Being Again” and “Treacherous”.
As a rabid Phoebe Bridgers fan, I may be biased, but “Nothing New” (featuring Phoebe Bridgers), is the absolute high point of Red (Taylor’s Version). The lyrics are guttural, as is the delivery, and Phoebe was the perfect choice for the feature, in tone, pitch, and in her position as a rising star.
Two highlights, “Better Man” and “Babe”, songs Taylor had written and given away, are also included, along with six other “From the Vault” songs that never made it on an album. For some of these “vault” songs, like “Run” and “Message In A Bottle”, it is clear why they were left out of the original album, yet others like, “Nothing New” and “I Bet You Think About Me”, make me incredibly grateful that we are getting to hear hidden masterpieces.
It would be remiss to write a review on Red (Taylor’s Version) and not mention “All Too Well” (10 Minute Version). Five minutes longer than the original with extra verses, and of course, a longer bridge, “All Too Well” (10 Minute Version)” has evolved from one of Taylor’s saddest songs, to one of her angriest. Particularly strong new lyrics include “any time now, he’s gonna say it’s love, you never called it what it was”, “you said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would have been fine”, “And I was never good at telling jokes, nut the punch line goes ‘I’ll get older, but your lovers stay by age’”, and “The idea you had of me, who was she? A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel, whose shine reflects on you”.
Taylor also demonstrated her multifaceted talent as she directed and released her first short film starring Sadie Sink, Dylan O’brien, and herself as a supplement to “All Too Well” (10 Minute Version). The film itself deserves a whole review, but what struck me the most was the extremely deliberate casting. Taylor Swift was 20 when she dated 30 year old Jake Gyhenaall, who it is widely assumed inspired Red as a whole and more specifically “All Too Well”. This is a highly problematic age gap and looking back, this seems clear to Taylor now. Sadie Sink is 19 years old while Dylan O’Brien is 30 and though these are almost the exact same ages Taylor and Jake were, it goes even deeper. Sadie is a more recent star, well-known for playing a teenager on the hit show Stranger Things, and Dylan has been a household name for more than a decade after his run on Teen Wolf. Our established relationships with the actors, seeing Sadie as a child, despite her age, and Dylan as a fully grown adult, is crucial to the viewing of this film. It is clearly constructed to make the viewer deeply uncomfortable and this goal is easily met. It is genius casting and truly lends to dig the knife a little deeper on an already painful track.
Particularly satisfying to me were the new lyrics that reference other Taylor songs, including “They say all’s well that ends well but I’m in a new hell”, a perfect paradox to the line “All’s well that ends well to end up with you” from title track Lover, the first album she’s ever fully owned, released in 2019. Other lines referred back to other tracks on Red, like the line “But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willing you to come, and he said ‘It’s supposed to be fun, turning 21”. Taylor quotes her father from the night of her 21st birthday, referencing “The Moment I Knew”, a devastating song detailing the disappointment of having a partner skip your own birthday party. Lyrics from opening track “State of Grace '' are also called out in the new outro to “All Too Well” as Taylor brings back the imagery of twin flames.
As only the second in Taylor’s catalogue to be re-recorded, Red (Taylor’s Version), was executed perfectly and made me ever the more excited to hear what else Taylor will do next, particularly for the re-recording of 1989, her seminal pop album.
(As a final thought, please, please update your playlists! To help Spotify users, I have found a website that will automatically go through your playlists and update all songs that have been re-recorded to Taylor’s Version.)
by Eliora Abramson