Taylor Swift Re-releases Speak Now
On Oct. 25, 2010 Taylor Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, which at just nine years old became a staple in my childhood. Songs like Mine and Back to December were songs I had been singing along to for the last 13 years. Now, in 2023 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) has brought back all those memories, with a refreshing maturity that still allows the music to hit as hard as it did years ago.
For some background, Swift is rerecording her older albums as a clapback at former management who sold her master recordings of these albums without her consent or permission, which has now led to the re-recording’s of Fearless, Red and most recently Speak Now. While the situation is unfortunate, I am happy to say that through these re-releases it allows me and the rest of her longtime fans to enjoy albums for the first time all over again, and hearing the music as an adult after first hearing it as a kid is a feeling that is really indescribable. Listening to songs like Never Grow Up and Last Kiss, which I can heavily relate to more now than when I was nine, is something so special to me.
My top three songs from the album did not change, those being Last Kiss, Haunted and Back to December, and with the re-recording these songs only got better. With her mature voice and a beautiful redo of the instrumentals and production it allowed her music to really shine in a way only Taylor Swift can do.
I would recommend this album not to just fans of Taylor Swift, but to anyone in search of music that can be hopeful, heartbreaking and relatable as Speak Now captures these themes in a meaningful way only few artists can.