ALBUM REVIEW: Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor's Version) (2023)

 What's up guys, welcome back to Fire's Flaming Hot Takes, and it’s the return of album reviews!! So, what album are we taking a look at?

Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023)

Genre(s): Pop Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Yes, I know I did mention that I’d be taking a break from making articles until my 2023 lists at the end of the year, but quite frankly I’ve been dying to write another one of these album reviews, so let’s do it! So the original Speak Now is an album I consider one of Taylor’s best. That said, I’ve had mixed opinions on some of the rerecorded songs she’s done. “All Too Well”, for instance, despite having some better lyrics that improve on what are already some of the best lyrics of Swift’s career has a far worse production to make it more of a slow burn to fit the 10-minute runtime, I mean, on the strength of the lyrics alone I’d still consider it one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, but still. Or take “Love Story”, which may have a better production, but Taylor’s more mature vocals don’t really match the innocent vibe of the OG. But what did Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) deliver?

I’ll be fully honest, I think this album as a whole works better with the rerecorded version. The album already felt very retrospective, which I find allows Swift’s more mature vocals to fit way better. There were tracks on the OG Speak Now that I initially found only decent at best that really surprised me with how much I liked the rerecorded versions - like “Mean”, “Long Live”, and “Mine” - and even some that while I’ve always really liked, upon listening to the rerecorded versions, I found myself outright loving; “Enchanted” comes to mind.

But now, how cohesive is this album? It’s literally just as cohesive as the original album and I didn’t have much to complain about the flow there either. Literally, the track listings are exactly the same, just this one has a few Vault tracks at the very end.

But honestly, my favorite aspect of the album is the production, which is country with 2000s pop-rock influences and that results in quite a few very strong cuts like “Enchanted”, just to name one example. And going back to tracks that I felt improved upon the originals, my biggest problem with the OG “Back To December” was the backing vocals which just never sounded all that good to me (“Back To December” is still a great song for the record), but on this rerecorded version, they strangely didn’t bother me all that much? I’m not sure as to why to be quite honest haha.

So if you want my final thoughts...well, let me put it this way: this album isn’t significantly better than the OG Speak Now, but it is maybe very slightly better, final verdict...8/10, definitely worth a listen. And Taylor is a queen. As for the best track on the album, god, there are so many options to choose from, but I’ll go with “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)” for the best with a tie for honorable mention between “Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)” and “Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version)”. Now for the “worst”..kinda tricky because I think every song here is at least good, but I guess I’ll go with “Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” with Hayley Williams just for being kinda underwhelming if anything? No dishonorable mention.

So that's that, thank you guys so much for reading! Don’t expect there to be any schedule to these album reviews, I’ll just be making them at my own pace, I know I’m probably terrible at them but I enjoyed doing this and to me that’s all that matters.