Taylor Swift's Red (Taylor's Version) Has A Song For Every Mood
By Carson Mlnarik
Grab your scarves — and the Kleenex! Today (November 12),
Taylor Swift dropped
Red (Taylor’s Version), the latest album she has re-recorded in efforts to increase control of her masters. While April’s
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was special, the re-release of her fourth studio album
Red, a sonic patchwork serious about detailing heartbreak in each last excruciating detail, somehow feels greater. Its arrival marks the begin of Sad Girl Autumn (
we’ll visualize you next week, Adele), while also offering an interesting reflection point as she revisits some of her most candid and raw songwriting that skyrocketed her career into pop superstardom.
As she sings on anthemic opener “State of Grace,” “Love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right.” The mantra defined the complete record in 2012, plus it still rings true for the 30-track new edition, which also features her take on tunes she gifted to nation acts like Sugarland and Little Big Town, collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers and Chris Stapleton, and the storied 10-minute long version of “All Also Well.” Swift sounds older, wiser, and bolder on
Red (Taylor’s Version), giving off an aura of confidence she didn’t have at 22. She’s not only lived by way of the impossible heartache; she’s aware of the millions of fans who remember their damaged romances in the same jagged hues of red.
The record’s new additions take the LP’s devastated storytelling to a new level, pulling back the curtain on the ecstatic moments that preceded the fall (“Message in a Bottle”), the kiss-offs that she was perhaps also afraid to give at the time (“I Bet You Think About Me”), along with because the reconciliations Swift was having between her professional and personalized images and future as a musician (“Nothing New”).
With 10 new songs, Taylor has made it clear there’s more to the story than she originally let on, and we’re here to guide you through each new tune, mood-by-mood.
"Ronan"
Listen to it any time you’re feeling: like bawling your eyes out.
Key lyric: “Flowers pile up in the worst way / No one understands what to mention / About a pretty boy who died / And it’s about to be Halloween / you can would be anything wanted / in case you were still here”
Swift has
described Red because the one album she penned “specifically about pure, absolute, to the core, heartbreak,” and this painful deep cut — which she wrote about a 4-year-old boy who died of cancer in 2011 — highlights a different sort of heartbreak: unbearable grief and loss. Taylor released the track, inspired by poignant blog posts written by the boy’s mother, Maya Thompson, as a charity single soon after performing it at a Stand Up to Cancer event in 2012, and it’s hard to get through its four minutes without getting teary-eyed. It seems Swift’s choice to re-record this track came out of love and protection for the perspective she sings from:
Mama Maya, who is also credited as a songwriter. “I will never have the ability to thank you enough for keeping Ronan safe with you,” Thompson
tweeted. Spin this anytime you’re missing someone a little bit extra.
"Better Man"
Listen to it any time you’re feeling: like you deserved a hell of a lot better.
Key lyric: “I wonder what we would’ve become / in case you were a higher end man”
It’s hard to believe a track as heartbreakingly raw as “Better Man” had a life outdoors of Swift’s brutally straightforward efficiency, nevertheless nation quartet Little Big Town picked up both a CMA Song of the Year and Grammy award for their efficiency of the track, which Swift originally gave them in 2016. The From The Vault version, produced by Aaron Dessner, takes its time to find its power, basking in sorrowful harmonies as Taylor recounts a toxic relationship and its “permanent damage.” The track’s powerful chorus generally seems to flawlessly explain the late-night yearning we feel for things that are bad for us: “I know why we had to mention goodbye like the back of my hand / Yet I just miss you and I just wish you were a higher class of man.”
"Nothing New" (ft. Phoebe Bridgers)
Listen to it any time you’re feeling: reflective about where life has taken you.
Key lyric: “I know someday I’m gonna meet her / It’s a fever dream / The sort of radiance you only have at 17 / She’ll know the way and then / She’ll mention she got the map from me / I’ll mention I’m happy for her / Then I’ll cry myself to sleep”
Taylor celebrated the turbulence of her twenties with “22,” and if those years are characterized by their miserable and magical moments, then that song describes the latter, while this
Phoebe Bridgers collab documents the former. With painstaking honesty, Swift turns her microscope on herself as she takes on her more self-deprecating side: “I’ve had also much to drink tonight / And I know it’s sad however this is what I think about.” Though Swift’s star would only continue to rise soon following the release of
Red, it’s especially poignant to hear her mirror on her numbered years (“How can you know everything at 18 / And nothing at 22?”) Alongside Bridgers, because the duo thrive indoor an industry obsessed with
not letting its female stars grow up. This is a tears-in-my-beers song — and an album highlight.
"Babe"
Listen to it once you’re feeling: exceedingly scorned.
Key lyric: “What a shame, didn’t aspire to be the one that got away / How could you do this, babe?”
Immediately after not making the cut for
Red, this catchy ditty was gifted to nation duo Sugarland, who recorded it for their sixth album
Bigger in 2018. Nevertheless, in the fine hands of producer
Jack Antonoff, you wouldn’t have the ability to guess it lived any other life. Swift wrote it with Pat Monahan of Train, and Antonoff finds the folksy pop in Taylor’s sound, infusing in trumpets and also a sneaky refrain of “what about your promises” that serves as a synthy haunting reminder. This is a come-to-Jesus moment about infidelity in a damaged relationship, as unanswered calls and kitchen-floor whines stack up. No one anticipates the last time you’ll ever call someone “babe.”
"Message in a Bottle"
Listen to it once you’re feeling: hopelessly infatuated in back of reason.
Key lyric: “You would be the one that I keep / And I might would be the reason you can’t sleep at night / Message in the bottle is all can do / Standing here hoping it gets to you”
Swift’s other two Red-era collaborations with Max Martin and Shellback (“22” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”) may have been massive hits, nevertheless this shiny gem was initially shelved. In a new light, it’s all about the high that comes at the begin of a relationship, any time another’s freckles sparkle, their laughter is music, and every kiss is effervescent. It’s a dance-floor anthem at its core, also it should be treated as such, whether you’re attempting to play it cool with telepathic signals, or you’ve given into ecstasy.
"I Bet You Think About Me" (ft. Chris Stapleton)
Listen to it as soon as you’re feeling: like you won the relationship.
Key lyric: “Now that we’re done and it’s over, I bet you couldn’t believe / whenever you realized I’m harder to forget than I was to leave / And I bet you think about me”
Just once we were getting lost in the synths, Swift dusted off this yee-haw throwback, written alongside songwriting icon and singer Lori McKenna, to remind us
Red is a nation album at its core. You could imagine Taylor spitting this slow-swaying revenge track at an ex from across a bar or onstage in a stadium, with each line cutting deeper and deeper. The track symbolizes some of her most unhinged songwriting in the ideal way, comparing an old lover’s silver-spoon pedigree and “upper-crust friends” to her childhood on a farm, knowing the realest he ever felt was once they were with each other. This is a scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs moment, its deafening blows heightened by
Chris Stapleton’s soulful voice, especially given Swift’s triumphant outro, rife with digs at “cool indie-music concerts,” “organic shoes,” and that insane girl who “wrote a song about me.”
"Forever Winter"
Listen to it once you’re feeling: desperately hopeful.
Key lyric: “Too young to know it’s gets better / I’ll be summer sun for you forever / Forever winter in case you go”
What does a co-write between Mark Foster (of
Foster the People) and Taylor Swift sound like? Hopelessly optimistic. On this guitar-driven, mid-tempo ballad, Swift tries to take the weight off a lover who’s going through darkness, prepared to sacrifice her own happiness to give him a little bit shine. Perhaps his caustic cynicism and her brimming positivity don’t add up on paper, although there’s a chemistry that’s worth fighting for and she’ll do anything to keep it alive. Because the winter months creep in, turn to this one for a reminder that even on our most depressing days, we can find a bit of sun.
"Run" (ft. Ed Sheeran)
Listen to it once you’re feeling: willing to leave it all behind.
Key lyric: “There’s a heart on your sleeve / I’ll take it once you leave / And hold it for you / And run, like you’d run from the law / Darling, let’s run, run from it all”
“Everything Has Changed” may have a spot in the upper echelon of Swiftian collabs, although it wasn’t the only track she penned with
Ed Sheeran while in the
Red sessions. “Run” is even more understated and solemn than its sister track, evoking desperation, hope, and romance all at once. As soon as the pressures of work, companions, and life feel like also much, there’s routinely the dream of running away. This track finds the duo imagining the very act of it, without destination or expectation of what lies on the other side. It’s a pretty daydream, and the two seem to recognize it’s entirely unfeasible, however any time you’re riding shotgun with the person you love, anything seems possible.
"The Very First Night"
Listen to it as soon as you’re feeling: nostalgic.
Key lyric: “I wish that I might fly / I’d pick you up and we’d go back in time / I’d write this in the sky / ‘I miss you like it was the very first night’”
What do you do as soon as you’re somewhere between heartbroken and willing to move on? Dance. This bumping and hopeful country-pop tune is Taylor down to every detail — from the diaristic retelling of “the night in the hotel,” to the “note on the Polaroid picture,” and a unexpected zinger: “We broke the status quo then we broke each other’s hearts.” Even if it wasn’t built to last, there’s something about that first date magic that feels like a untouchable, out-of-body experience whenever all you had was hope for what would be.
"All Also Well" (10 Minute Version)
Listen to it any time you’re feeling: like you must remember it all also well to move on.
Key lyric: “And I was never good at telling jokes, nevertheless the punch line goes, ‘I’ll get older nevertheless your lovers stay my age’ / From once your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones / I’m a soldier who’s returning half her weight / And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? / Just between us, did the passion affair maim you too?”
“All Also Well” may arguably be the ideal song Swift has ever written, and it’s definitely the glue that holds the heartbroken threads of Red with each other. How do you elevate a ballad that’s already so crammed with pain, loss, and detail? You give them the entire story. Alongside haunting production from Antonoff, “All Also Well (10 Minute Version)” resembles a sonic fusion between the synthy and understated styles she’s explored on her most recent records Lover, Folklore, and Evermore, and she follows through on her promise to reveal every last detail. We knew he almost ran the red, however we didn’t know he had a “fuck the patriarchy” keychain, and the hurt from omissions like “I was thinking on the drive down, once right now / He’s gonna mention it’s love, you never called it what it was” still ache. It’s the third verse, yet, that ties the story of Red with each other, as Swift recounts the birthday party where it fell apart (her dad instructed her “It’s supposed to be fun turning 21”) — a story previously explored on album track “The Moment I Knew” — and absolves herself of this heartbreak. Its haunting outro appears to find a new sense of peace in the relationship’s end, like she’s exhausted herself retelling it. She seems stronger from the heartbreak as she repeats, “It was rare, you remember it” before fading into silence at, you guessed it, 10 minutes and exactly 13 seconds.
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