Speak Now (Taylor's Version) based on Speak Now
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is the third re-recorded album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on July 7, 2023, via Republic Records. It is a re-recording of Swift's third studio album, Speak Now (2010), and follows her 2021 re-recorded albums Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version). The re-recording is a part of Swift's counteraction to her 2019 masters dispute. The album was announced on May 5, 2023, at a Nashville show of her ongoing concert tour, the Eras Tour.
Containing 22 tracks, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) was written solely by Swift. It includes re-recorded versions of 16 songs from the deluxe edition of Speak Now and six previously unreleased "From the Vault" songs. Swift and Christopher Rowe produced the re-recorded songs, with new input from Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff on the vault tracks. American rock acts Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams of Paramore contributed guest vocals.
Strongly influenced by rock and pop-punk music, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) blends Swift's trademark country pop sound with emo, pop rock, and gothic rock styles. It is mainly driven by dynamic compositions of electric guitars, heavy drums, cinematic strings and acoustic instruments. Lyrically, it is a loose concept album about unspoken confessions, documenting the volatile emotions of Swift's adolescence. The album received acclaim from music critics, who complimented the emotionally engaging songwriting and strong vocal performance.
Commercially, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) broke the global Spotify record for the most single-day streams for an album in 2023. It reached number one in Australia, Canada, Flanders, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States, where it marked Swift's 12th album to top the Billboard 200 chart, breaking Barbra Streisand's all-time record for the most number-one albums by a female artist. All 22 of its tracks debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, including "I Can See You" at number five.Background
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.
Taylor Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, on October 25, 2010, under Big Machine Records. A predominantly pop rock and country pop album, Speak Now was entirely self-written by Swift. It received positive reviews from music journalists, who have since praised it for being a self-written Swift album about "dismissals of exploitative male characters and poetic embrace of girlhood." It sold over 1,047,000 copies within its opening week in the United States—the largest first week in history for a female country artist, and the first million-selling week of Swift's career, a feat she would go on to repeat four more times. Speak Now achieved the Guinness World Record as the fastest selling album in the US by a female country act. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards (2012), its single "Mean" won Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song.Swift released three more studio albums under Big Machine, as per her recording contract, which expired in November 2018. She hence withdrew from Big Machine and signed a new deal with Republic Records, which secured her the rights to own the masters of any new music she would release. In 2019, American businessman Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine; the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six studio albums, including Speak Now, transferred to him. In August 2019, Swift denounced Braun's purchase and announced that she would re-record her first six studio albums so as to own their masters herself. Swift began the re-recording process in November 2020. Fearless (Taylor's Version), the first of her six re-recorded albums, was released on April 9, 2021, followed by Red (Taylor's Version) on November 12, 2021; both achieved critical and commercial success, debuting atop the US Billboard 200 chart.Speculations about Swift's next re-recorded album being Speak Now dated back as far as November 2021, when she released Red (Taylor's Version), referencing key words of the 2010 era in social media posts. The music videos for "Bejeweled" (2022) and "Lavender Haze" (2023) contained numerous Easter eggs referencing Speak Now. Fan theories intensified after Swift's 2023 concert tour, the Eras Tour, began; the multi-colored wristbands that attendees received flashed purple at the end of a concert. Swift hinted at a re-release during the performance of "Speak Now", and used a purple heart emoji on social media days before the announcement.On May 5, 2023, at the first Nashville date of the Eras Tour, Swift announced Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and its release date on July 7. The announcement acted as a lead-in to one of her "surprise songs", an acoustic version of the album's second track "Sparks Fly"; lights along the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge turned purple. She subsequently revealed in social media posts, "I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing ... and living to speak about it". Swift emphasized the hardships she faced in her life during the time she wrote the record, noting the lyrics as containing "brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness".