Amy Love

Opinions Editor

aml7458@psu.edu

On November 19, Taylor Swift finally released her re-recorded version of her album “Red.” In this album, there were nine new songs that were from the Vault, as well as the ten-minute version of “All Too Well.”

These new songs were: “Better Man,” “Nothing New,” “Babe,” “Message in A Bottle,” “I Bet You Think About Me,” “Forever Winter,” “Run,” “The Very First Night” and “All Too Well” the 10 Minute Version. 

The ten minute version of All Too Well was one of the songs that most individuals were waiting for on this album. Swift mentioned that this was the original song she wrote when she was 21. In an interview on “The Tonight Show,” she says: “I showed up for rehearsals, and I was really upset and sad, and everybody could tell–it was like not fun to be around me that day.”

Swift continued, “And so I started playing guitar and just kind of playing the same four chords over and over again, and the band sort of joined in, and I started ad-libbing what I was going through and what I was feeling, and it went on. The song kept building and building and building intensity, and the song just went on for about, you know, 10 to 15 minutes of us doing this.” 

Swift mentions that it’s become her favorite song and that it would be “the new standard of version of what this song is.” 

The song did touch a lot of hearts and shined an even brighter light on Swift’s relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. In the longer version of the song, Swift includes the lyrics: “And he said, ‘It’s supposed to be fun turning twenty-one.’” 

From the lyrics, it seems that Swift’s twenty-first birthday was spent waiting for her boyfriend to come spend time with her, and the fact that the next song on her album is “22” leads to the conclusion that this song was hopeful that her twenty-second birthday was much happier than her previous one. 

A majority of the lyrics were subtle attacks on Gyllenhaal. In the extended version, she includes: “And I was never good at telling jokes, but the punchline goes ‘I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age.’” 

Out of the phrases in the song, this one is the angriest. It is also the most truthful part of Gyllenhall, since fans quickly figured out that his girlfriend right now is 25 while he is 41. 

With the new songs, as well as an extended version of the song, the music seems to be even more personal for Swift. However, many fans found ways to relate to the lyrics and were waiting in anticipation to stream the album as soon as it was released. 

“Red” has already broken two Spotify records. According to a spokesperson from Spotify, “On Friday, November 12th, Taylor’s Swift “Red Taylor’s Version” broke the record for the most streamed album in a day by a female and Taylor broke the record for the most-streamed female in a day in Spotify history.” 

In fact, so many people were waiting to listen to the album that as soon as it dropped that Spotify was struggling. It took a few minutes after the album initially dropped due the Spotify app showing a black square where the album is meant to be, saying “Sorry, something went wrong.” It did work eventually, but it was causing some feelings of frustrations due to the album being already released for those using Apple music. 

“Red” was the second album that Swift has re-released, “Fearless” being the first for the artist to re-record. She has intentions of re-recording all her albums that she does not already own, which include: “reputation,” “1989,” “Speak Now” and “Taylor Swift.” 

There is an ongoing debate of what the next re-recorded album will be and it is between “Speak Now” and “1989.” Swift is known for leaving easter eggs in the majority of her posts, and there seems to be more for “Speak Now” than there are for “1989.”  For instance, on Instagram, she posted a photo regarding her album being released and in the caption included the references “mine” and “ours,” which are song titles on “Speak Now.” 

However, in the “All Too Well” short film, the car that was used is apparently made in 1989. Swift made a comment on Tiktok, saying “Can’t stop won’t stop being cryptic and weird- that’s just the beginning it’s gonna be a fun week.”  

When she was on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon, she said: “If you wanna go down a rabbit hole with us, come along.” This is a reference to her song “Wonderland” on her album “1989.” 

In the short film for her single “All Too Well,” Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink were cast to star in it. O’Brien’s age is 30 and Sink is 19, which were the same ages of Taylor Swift and John Mayer, which is the focus of “Speak Now.” Other theories I have found are that on The Tonight Show, her dress was similar to the style of  Princess Diana’s “revenge dress,” which could be referencing “Better than Revenge” on “Speak Now.”

These two albums seem to be the most likely to be re-released, but there is no given. It is easy to assume that whatever album Swift decides to release next, fans will still just be as excited.