Taylor Swift is ready to re-introduce another era with the release of her re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” of her album Speak Now.
The 22-track album dropped Thursday evening with Swift taking to social media to celebrate, writing, “It’s here. It’s yours, it’s mine, it’s ours. It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20.”
“I remember making tracklist after tracklist, obsessing over the right way to tell the story,” her post continued. “I had to be ruthless with my choices, and I left behind some songs I am still unfailingly proud of now. Therefore, you have 6 From The Vault tracks! I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and the memories it brought back filled me with nostalgia and appreciation. For life, for you, for the fact that I get to reclaim my work. Thank you a million times, for the memories that break our fall.”
In May, Swift first announced that her 2010 album would be the next album in the revival lineup during the first of her three Eras Tour shows in Nashville, before later announcing the news on social media.
“My version of Speak Now will be out July 7 (just in time for July 9th, iykyk),” she wrote on social media at the time, giving a nod to the lyrics of her song “Last Kiss.” “I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness.”
“I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing… and living to speak about it. With six extra songs I’ve sprung loose from the vault, I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with you,” she added.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) marks the next re-recorded album from the singer-songwriter, following Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), both released in 2021. The singer first confirmed in 2019 that she would rerecord her songbook to own her masters, with her albums Taylor Swift (2006), 1989 (2014) and 2017’s Reputation still yet to be released.
The Speak Now album, which originally featured 14 songs on the standard version and 20 songs on the deluxe edition, was home to her singles “Mine,” “Mean,” “Back to December” and “Ours.” In addition to the original tracklist, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) features songs “from the vault,” which includes collaborations with Fall Out Boy and Paramore. Paramore was recently announced as the opening act for the European leg of her Eras Tour.
Though the album features original tracks, Swift notably changed a lyric in her song “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)” amid controversy that the original lyric was “slut shaming.”
The song originally featured the lyric, “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress,” with the re-recorded version now featuring the lyric, “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches,” in its place.
Swift’s original Speak Now album was nominated for the Grammy for best country album and took home best country solo performance and best country song for the track “Mean.”
In lieu of the album’s release, Swift teased a preview of “Back to December (Taylor’s Version)” in the season two trailer of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. Then during an Eras Tour show in Minneapolis last month, Swift asked fans to spread kindness ahead of the release instead of hate online on her behalf given the album features the notable song “Dear John,” which has long been speculated to be about her relationship with John Mayer at the time.
“I’m 33 years old,” she told the crowd. “I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19, except the songs I wrote. So what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”
