Every ‘From The Vault’ Song Ranked on Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’: Critic’s Picks

In the late 2000s, around the same time Swift was becoming a star in the country world, Hayley Williams’ band Paramore was triumphantly straddling the pop-punk and emo scenes with hits like “Misery Business” and “That’s What You Get”; both artists have existed in the public eye for well over a decade, and both have had to react to various backlashes that are a natural symptom of superstardom. As a meditation on collapsing alliances and irrational behavior, “Castles Crumbling” remains ambiguous rings true, with the production brimming with ethereal voices and Swift and Williams maintaining mournful attitudes as they examine their personal wreckage.

“You know how to keep me waitin’ / I know how to act like I’m fine,” Swift declares on “Foolish One,” a heartbreak tale (Swift herself is the titular character, betting big on the wrong guy) which most closely recalls the refinement of her country-pop sound in the leap from Fearless to Speak Now, but stretches out, filling five minutes and change with warning signs and sorry realizations. The lyrical details, from the early attempts to appear unbothered to the bitter pill of “I’ll get your longing glances, but she’ll get your ring,” are worth getting lost in, and Swift’s vocal take strikes an affecting balance between chastising and hurt.

“Electric Touch” follows a long line of Swift songs in which her painful experiences in love are forcing her to keep her guard up as a new romance begins — but the excitement of the unknown, the fact that “This could either break my heart, or bring it back to life,” keeps her hopeful. Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump joins her cautious optimism, and as they play two souls trying to become intertwined, his jittery soul pairs splendidly with Swift’s more straightforward delivery, especially as his higher register repeats “Just! One! Time!” in the bridge.

An epic love poem that muses on star-crossed romance, harkens back to Swift’s grandparents and declares that soul mates will always collide, circumstances be damned, “Timeless” functions as both a ready-made fan favorite — pity any Swifties who can’t get immersed in this dreamy, destiny-filled atmosphere — as well as a demonstration of Swift’s songwriting gifts. She deftly positions tiny gestures and thoughts within a much greater tapestry of generations-defying emotion, each knickknack in an antique shop just as important as the statement, “I believe that we were supposed to find this.”

A few years after using her duel Folklore/Evermore eras to create new worlds as a narrator instead of the star, Swift returns to this gorgeously rendered character study that centers a captivating girl named Emma, whose considered approach to relationships deepens with each new verse. “She won’t lose herself in love the way that I did,” Swift sings with a tinge of envy, as the production that she co-created with Aaron Dessner oscillates between stately piano balladry and swaying country-pop; “When Emma Falls In Love” whirs with lyrical complexity and sonic detail, as Swift brings her recent song craft back into the vault.

The best “From The Vault” songs exist in conversation with their years-old host albums as well as the most recent innovations in Swift’s career, specifically as a producer — and “I Can See You,” the most thrilling never-before-heard track here, riffs on the chance encounters and flirtations of Speak Now by amplifying the sexual energy, and providing a forward-looking instrumental foundation with plenty of bite. Every choice within “I Can See You,” from that surf-rock guitar riff to Swift’s most delicious innuendos (“You won’t believe half the things I see inside my head,” she deadpans) to the way the pre-chorus leaves the ground and flies to the hook, is deployed with utmost confidence, as Swift and Jack Antonoff understand precisely the tone that the song needs to convey to fully work. “I Can See You” would have been an excellent addition to the original Speak Now, but there’s no doubt that Swift’s current skill set made the song even better for Taylor’s Version.