In 2023, any Taylor Swift song can become a hit. “Cruel Summer” was released four years ago, but the Lover standout has morphed into one of the biggest hits of this season, simply because her fans willed it to happen. “Karma” kept climbing the Hot 100 before it received an official video or remix, and has quickly become one of the biggest moments from Midnights. A 10-minute version of the 2012 song “All Too Well”? That one topped the Hot 100 in 2021. Swift has become so ubiquitous, her connection to her fans so omnipresent, that her smashes are defying time and space — and now, we have six more tracks that could potentially join that hit parade.
Of course, the “From The Vault” songs from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the newly released re-recording of Swift’s 2010 album, should foremost be considered within the framework of her third studio album, a country-pop masterpiece solely written by Swift as her teens gave way to her twenties. Speak Now showcased Swift’s aesthetic command and solidifying point of view during a period of personal growth, and the six “From The Vault” songs on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) are of a piece with that growth.
Some of the songs from the Speak Now sessions that Swift has revived for its re-recording focus on the windswept romance and callous betrayal that we’ve played back for years, and fit neatly next to tracks like “Mine,” “Sparks Fly,” “Dear John” and “Enchanted.” Yet Swift — who worked with regular collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner on the “Vault” songs — also gave them a modern sensibility, both by bringing in new voices like Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and Paramore’s Hayley Williams as well as delivering the musical dexterity of her most recent projects to a group of songs that were formed years ago.
All six of these “From The Vault” songs sound like they could become hits in 2023 — hell, the best track here should become a hit in 2023. Such is the scope of Swift’s commercial might, and the enduring artistic power of her Speak Now era.
Although all six “From The Vault” songs are worth enjoying, here is our preliminary ranking of the new goodies from Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
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“Castles Crumbling” feat. Hayley Williams
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.
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“Foolish One”
“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.
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“Electric Touch” feat. Fall Out Boy
“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.
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“Timeless”
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.”
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“When Emma Falls In Love”
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.
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“I Can See You”
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.
