By Will Slater

The album cover of Red (Taylor’s Version). Image courtesy of Republic Records.

Thirty-one year old American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift recently released her newest album, Red (Taylor’s Version). The original album Red by Swift was released in 2012. The new version and the old version have similarities and differences. The original version only contains sixteen songs, while the new version contains 30 total. The new album contains music from a variety of Taylor’s old albums, along with a few new songs, including a ten-minute long song named “All Too Well (10 minute version).”

In June 2019, music manager Scooter Braun became the leader of Swift’s old recording company, called the Big Machine label. This also came along with the rights to Swift’s first six albums. At this point, Braun owned Swift’s music. Swift had been a member of Big Machine Records since she was 16. When she left for Republic Records in 2018, she was required to leave behind her first five albums. Swift’s work was sold by Scooter for over 300 million dollars. November 2020 rolled around, and Taylor said she was going to go back and re-record the albums.

The two Red albums side-by-side. Image credit: StyleCaster.

The new version of Red was released on Nov. 12, and I enjoyed the 30-song album thoroughly. I felt that in her original five albums, she did a splendid job of being passionate and into her music in a way that made the songs more impactful for the listener. I was impressed with her ability to replicate the same energy and passion that her songs had over ten years ago. 

The first song that I really liked was “22.” For one, this song is quite iconic, and I have vivid memories of listening to many Swift songs as a child. This is certainly a song that I found myself playing quite constantly. I think this song depicts life as a young adult and teenager beautifully. Warner Lewis (’24), another avid Swift fan, says, “I especially liked this song because of the free flowing lifestyle she sings about.” It does a extraordinary job of getting across the point that these years can be so many different things, but I took away from it to prosper and enjoy the life you have and live stress-free, especially when Swift says, “Tonight’s the night when we forget about the deadlines.”        

Another song I enjoyed was “I Knew You Were Trouble.” I listened to this song while on the way home from the baseball field, and I was quickly reminded that this is a phenomenal song. But I don’t think it matched the vibe of what I was trying to accomplish at the baseball field. Hartley Rahman (’24) also enjoyed the song, and after the song concluded, Rahman said, “I very much enjoyed this song and felt that it was a great song for a nice enjoyable car ride. It is a very good song and also quite catchy.” I thought that this song, along with the rest of the album’s songs, all sounded very similar to the original song when it comes to her general sound. 

I found myself in quite the experience while listening to “All Too Well (10 minute version).” I was torn trying to decide whether or not I liked it. I am still on the fence, because it is a phenomenal song and impeccable for when you find yourself in the car. However, ten minutes is a very long time to be listening to just one song. I think that the song could have been shortened and made more enjoyable, because most people do not want to listen to one song for ten minutes.

Overall, this album was great and I had a blast listening to it, given the Swift fan I consider myself.