A “Red”-Evaluation: Red (Taylor’s Version) Review

(The Swiftening Series: 1. folklore | 2. Lover | 3. reputation | 4. 1989 | 5. Red | 6. Speak Now | 7. Fearless | 8. Taylor Swift | Bonus: Red TV)

This spring, I embarked on what was a surprisingly monumental quest through the discography of international singer-songwriter superstar Taylor Swift. What started as a purely scientific exploration of a musician who interested me turned into a full-on obsession.

In my defense, it’s a fun time to be a Swiftie. After the surprise drop of not one but two albums – the extremely solid folklore and evermore – Swift began the process of re-recording her first six albums in an effort to regain ownership of their recordings after her former record label sold the rights. So, not only are Swift fans being drenched in new recordings, there’s also the fun of speculating which album will get the next rerelease and how and when. (My money’s on Speak Now, if you’re curious).

With that in mind though, I knew that quite a few of the reviews in my original Swiftening series would likely have to be revisited once those albums received their Taylor’s Versions. Though possibly a little awkward in the moment, looking back on it now I’m sort of glad I get a chance to take another swing at these albums. I was in a pretty different frame of mind during many of these original reviews, and with time my opinion on Swift’s work has changed pretty significantly, not even taking into account the changes and improvements made in the new versions.

My original review of Red was quite honestly baffled. Even now, with a few months of enjoying Swift’s work under my belt, I still feel Red is a sort of baffling album. In the awkward middle stages between Country and Pop Taylor, it features an artist clearly hitting up against the constraints of her record label as she tries to majorly experiment with her sound for the first time. This gives the original album a scattered, inconsistent quality. Some songs are acoustic and stripped down, while others are production-heavy and even dubstep inspired.

In the marketing surrounding the release of Taylor’s Version, I came to learn that this quality is somewhat intentional, something I missed in my first review. It’s an album about heartbreak, and as such Swift has stated on many occasions that the mixed emotions and sounds are meant to evoke the volatile experience of a person processing the end of a relationship. I’ll… hand it to them on this one, though it doesn’t change the fact that listening to the album in order can be a jarring experience that, in my opinion, weakens the songs individually in some cases.

Regardless, Red is a fan favorite and is massively beloved by the Swift fans who grew up with it. And it has some of Swift’s greatest songwriting work even now, including the jewel of the album, “All Too Well.” I have a couple of favorites from the album too, particularly “State of Grace” and “Holy Ground.”

My mixed feelings on the album, I think, made my interest in the new version of it even more heightened. Though rougher than some of her other albums, Red had a ton of promise to become something really great with hindsight and a more experienced Swift at the helm.

So how did it live up to my expectations? Quite well, I would say.

Overall, what makes Red (Taylor’s Version) work so much more cohesively than the album it is a remake is the control Swift has over it. Rumor has it that Swift faced considerable pushback from her label when she began moving her sound toward pop in this era. Still wanting the album to count as “Country,” Big Machine Records insisted Swift have a certain number of “country” songs on the album to make sure it stayed in its lane. Clearly, this is not how Swift would have preferred many of these songs, and it shows when she’s given the reins in this new version.

The most stark difference can be found in the rerecording of “Girl at Home.” Long considered the weakest song on the album, if not one of the weakest songs in Swift’s career, the song has been transformed completely. It was a real “aha” moment for me at least, because it revealed what I think must have been the issue in the first place with this song. The song is so clearly meant to be a poppy dance number, with its repetitive chorus (complete with “ah-ah!”), that was forced into a country mold by the constraints placed on Swift. No wonder it was such a strange song in its first iteration. While I wouldn’t call Taylor’s Version of the song her best, it does make the song fun and enjoyable when it was previously kind of awkward and plodding.

A couple of songs I previously disliked have been improved by a more mature approach. I’m still not wild about the simplistic imagery in the title track “Red,” but I appreciate the depth and emotion lent to the words by Swift’s improved vocal delivery. I can imagine this song worming its way into my heart in the coming weeks as I continue to listen to this album. The song following it, “Treacherous,” has also been massively improved by Swift’s mature vocals, pushing it from an “eh” to a “on my Taylor Swift playlist”. There was something charming about the rough, plaintive quality of the original, but I really prefer this smooth and confident delivery.

The songs I loved from the original Red are still intact, and in most cases improved. While it has been unfairly maligned in the past, “Stay Stay Stay” is resplendent in poppy happiness, adorable and joyful as always. “State of Grace” takes my breath away just as it always does, with an extra polished and crisp production that only adds to the broad majesty of it all. “22” is heightened by the extra punch added to the chorus, almost making up for the fact that Swift waited until after I turned 23 to release it.

Over the months with Red, I’ve grown to really love “The Last Time,” and the new version really does it justice. I’m so glad Gary Lightbody returned for this collaboration. His voice is just so distinctive and nostalgic for me. Even if I didn’t have Red back in 2012, I absolutely had a bunch of melodramatic Snow Patrol tracks. The duet I prefer a bit less, “Everything Has Changed”, nonetheless sounds nice here. I’m not the biggest Sheeran fan but I can’t complain when his vocals sound so nice next to Swift’s.

Probably the most emotional moment amongst the remade tracks, though, is “Come Back… Be Here.” We’ll just say that this track landed at a particularly meaningful moment for me and leave it at that.

The only track I feel really wasn’t done justice is “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” What… happened here? What is with the weird pitching on “we-EE!” Even the verses sound robotic and stilted in a way I don’t think suits the track. I’m… really not sure with this one. I want to believe that Swift is just out of practice with the talk-y, “silly voice” style she used to lean on a lot more and believe this is just a sign of her maturity as a songwriter but… it feels optimistic.

One last comment on the remade tracks (well… except one) – my conflicted feelings on “Holy Ground.” I talked up how beneficial Swift’s improved vocals have been to many of the tracks. I think it’s a solid remake of the song, but I feel like some of the roughness in the original was charming, particularly in the bridge. Maybe I just need a little more time to warm up to this new version of a song I absolutely love.

The real draw of the album, though, is the extremely solid collection of vault tracks. I enjoyed many of the Fearless vault tracks, don’t get me wrong, but Swift’s improved songwriting ability is so clear here.

I can’t physically bring myself to listen to “Ronan” more than once because it dissolves me into a blubbering mess. It feels altogether too real to evaluate in the same way I’m evaluating the other songs, because it’s a song written to honor the death of Ronan, an actual 3-year-old boy, of neuroblastoma. His mother, Maya Thompson, wrote a blog chronicling the experience, and many of the lyrics of this song are lifted directly from the blog. Swift and Thompson have maintained a relationship since then, with Thompson tweeting her support and excitement for the inclusion of this song on the rerecording. It’s wonderful to see this really heartwrenching song find a home on an album at last, even if I’m probably going to have to skip it most of the time (I don’t usually want to sob).

Hands down, my favorite vault track is “Nothing New,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers. When Swift announced her collaboration with the indie darling, the internet collectively lost its mind, so it’s wonderful to see how incredible the end product was. It’s a really gorgeous melding of the two artists’ styles, showing off how much Bridgers’ voice compliments the mellow, sad vibe of Red. The beauty in this song comes in the quietly devastating lyrics about growing older, mixed with a healthy helping of pressure to remain young and appealing to a judgmental society. Another morose favorite is “Forever Winter,” a pleading and beautiful track about a partnership strained by mental illness.

A slightly more surprising favorite of mine is “I Bet You Think About Me,” featuring Chris Stapleton. I’m a casual fan of Stapleton, and I figured their collaboration would bring a more country-styled sound. I was right, but I didn’t realize how charming it would be. It reminds me a lot of “Mean,” actually, using a more classic country style to create a tongue-in-cheek diss track. Good clean fun. Also surprisingly, the upbeat “Message in a Bottle” also became a big favorite. It’s very different from anything else I’ve heard from Swift before, and I’m not sure I necessarily need more from her in this style, but the one track is really fun.

But of course, the most anticipated of the vault tracks is the 10-minute version of “All Too Well.” Ever beloved, legend had it that the heartbroken breakup song was originally 10-15 minutes long before it was cut down for the album version. So, when Swift announced Red TV would include a 10-minute cut of the song, people were understandably excited. Still, I felt like this track would exist more as a novelty than anything else. Something fun to hear, a wonderful little nugget of Swift history, but not good enough to replace the original.

So… shockingly, the 10-minute version almost stands alone as its own track. The emotions within are just so… different from the original, it’s impossible to ignore. Where the original was bittersweet and fond of a relationship lost, the 10-minute version is scathing and brutal. It also absolutely flies by. You really don’t feel like it’s a 10-minute track. It’s honestly an emotional experience, and I found myself feeling the barbs of hatred in the lyrics. It takes a hell of a songwriter to transfer such feelings, and I really commend Swift for doing it.

Red TV is exactly what a remake of this album needed to be. More in line with Swift’s vision, many of the snarls of the original are smoothed into something cohesive and powerful. Truly a triumph.

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