Red (Taylor's version) review: Why Red is Taylor Swift's magnum opus

Taylor Swift's re-release of her album Red is evidence of her enduring talent. Photo / Taylor Swift

REVIEW:

A 10-minute version of a previously released song sent fans and the internet into chaos nine years after the track's original release.

In an effort to regain the rights to her intellectual property, Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums. It's her ultimate middle finger to the bureaucracy of the music industry, and it is very telling that even someone of Swift's star power cannot hold on to the rights to her recorded work.

Following the release of Swift's version of Fearless in April, Swift yesterday re-released 2012's Red. It is perhaps one of the most underrated albums in Swift's catalogue. It did not win any Grammy awards and received relatively less critical acclaim than her other work.

But to her fans, Red was always evidence to them of her talent and genre-crossing ability. And how she can write songs that transport listeners back to their most heartbroken chapters.

In 2021, Red takes on a new life with never-before-heard songs. The album is just over two hours long in total, and it is well worth sticking it out until the very last track.

The long-rumoured extended version of one of her most heartbreaking songs ever, All Too Well, was the one fans were anticipating the most. It's widely regarded to be about Jake Gyllenhaal who Swift briefly dated, and also happens to be one of her most devastating break-up ballads.

It was well worth the wait. Lyrics paint a vivid picture of an ill-fated romance that cuts deep and captures the universal language of heartbreak.

There is no better way to illustrate what I mean by that than sharing a few of the most stabbing lines:

"And I was thinking on the drive down, any time now / He's gonna say it's love, you never called it what it was," she sings.

"They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new Hell/ Every time you double-cross my mind / You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine/ And that made me want to die."

Red is an eclectic album, going from the stadium opener of State of Grace to the tongue-in-cheek pop of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Beyond the singles is early evidence of Swift's crossover into pop music stardom. There was speculation Swift wanted Red to be way more pop than it was, but she was directed by her former record company Big Machine to stick to hold on to her country music roots.

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With full creative licence all these years later, Swift's changes speak volumes about what the album means to her. She changes the forgotten bonus track Girl At Home into a pop track that would have been at home on her next album 1989 and elevates her underrated duet with Gary Lightbody to the heights it deserved. The differences are subtle, but meaningful.

She included songs she had given to country artists years later - Better Man and Babe. Hearing Swift's voice sing these songs adds layers to the narrative of who Taylor Swift was in early twenties.

Red (Taylor’s Version) is making me want to put a hex on the guy who broke my heart in 2018

Her collaboration with quickly rising singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers on Nothing New tells us she was hyper aware of falling fast from fame. Swift's decision to release this track now, and shoulder-tapping the music industry's next big star for a duet is evidence Swift has tabs on who is set to follow her in footsteps.

Ed Sheeran, for example, had a fraction of the fans he does now when she invited him to collaborate in the early 2010s. On the song Run we hear glimmers of how they both reflected each other's strengths as honest writers and talented musicians.

Red was always a tangled web of sounds and emotions, and it speaks the ups and downs of losing love. In the context of Swift's later pop albums and switch back to her singer-songwriter roots on last year's Folklore and Evermore, it is a flare of her greatest strengths as an artist.

All Too Well is regarded as Swift's magnum opus - but listening to Red (Taylor's Version), it is abundantly clear the entire album will always be some of her best work. Now, her fans finally get to hear it exactly how she wanted them to.

Artist: Taylor Swift
Album: Red (Taylor's Version)
Label: Republic Records / Taylor Swift
Verdict: A stunning diary of Swift's most heartbreaking lines
Rating: Five stars

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