Review: Why You Should Listen to Red (Taylor’s Version)

Listening to the songs on the Red album again, almost 10 years after its original release, is a real pleasure for the followers of this music star, as it allows you to discover one by one the changes and improvements to several songs. 

The album Red (Taylor's Version) is the second album that the singer has re-recorded, after Fearless, and was released on November 12 with Republic Records. The original was released in 2012 and it was very significant because it marked one of the highest points in her career, and a transition for the artist to expand her country music style to pop.

The reason Taylor Swift is in the process of re-recording her albums is that in June 2018 her former manager, Scooter Braun, bought the rights to her first six studio albums for $ 300 million. In other words, he took ownership of the recordings of her songs from the artist, with several disadvantageous legal and economic implications for her.

However, the songs remain her property, and for this reason, she has decided to re-launch her albums. “It would never have been possible to go back and redo my previous work, discovering lost art and forgotten gems along the way if you hadn't emboldened me. Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Now we start again ”, was the emotional message that the artist left on Twitter with this launch.

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What's new in Taylor's version of Red?

If one thing is true, it's that Taylor Swift never ceases to amaze her fans! On the one hand, the recording of the songs is very faithful to the essence of the original album and to this “red” aesthetic. However, new sounds like subtle cymbals, more electric sounds, and of course a more mature voice are also included.

Also, the big surprise of this album is that it has 10 new songs, for a total of 30 songs. In fact, its disk version will have to come out on 4 vinyls due to its size. This means that she has practically released another album, with 7 songs that were totally unknown to his audience. In the 3 that were already known is Roben, which was written to collect donations to fight cancer in children. Additionally, the album includes collaborations with Ed Sheeran, Phoebe Bridgers, and Chris Stapleton.

On the other hand, on October 15, a new video of the song “I Bet You Think About Me” was released on YouTube, which this time was directed by her friend the actress Blake Lively and starring Miles Teller. The video narrates, with a certain humor and irony, the love breakup of a couple. Some have interpreted the video as an act of small revenge by the artist towards Conor Kennedy, grandson of Bobby Kennedy, with whom she had a small romance in 2012 and is believed to have inspired the song.

The album has been so highly praised and well-received by critics that it has broken records. On release day, Red (Taylor's Version) was the most-streamed woman's album in Spotify history with over 90 million views. In addition, listening to the records in the artist's version has become a moral commitment from her fans to do justice for the singer.