The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Megan Brownell social media editor
Red TV is the second re-recorded album Taylor Swift put out, coming out on November 12, 2021. This 30-track album was her version of the original ‘Red’ album that came out in 2012. This version contains the original 20 tracks, plus 9 from the vault songs.
Quickly the album shot up to number one on the billboard hot 200 list, with 26 of the songs hitting the hot 100 list.
‘State of Grace’ is what begins the album. It has an iconic opening beat, which Swift also used to open her ‘Red Tour’ back in 2013. Though this isn’t one of my favorites on the album, I really enjoy it as an opening track. I feel as if the opening beat eases you into the album, having a steady pace that’s not too fast but not too slow. I love the lyrics too, saying about how she never saw him coming and how now she will never be the same.
During this original era, she released two singles before the album’s release, ‘We are never ever getting back together’ (WANEGBT), and ‘Begin again’. WANEGBT is an iconic single from this era, being a Taylor Swift song a lot of people know with a very recognizable chorus. ‘Begin Again’ isn’t as popular compared to other singles on the album. I love this song though, talking all about starting over with someone she had missed.
‘22’ and ‘I Knew you were trouble’ are two other very popular songs from the red era. ‘22’ is a super fun song, one that makes you want to dance, and it sings all about how exciting it is to be 22. There is some sad backstory to this song though. When Swift turned 22, it was extra important to her because her 21st birthday was ruined. We get to hear all about that moment in her song ‘the moment I knew, which is my favorite on the album. The song tells a story about how she’s looking back and is angry, angry that he didn’t show up to her birthday when he said we would. This was her boyfriend back in 2012, Jake Gyllenhaal. My favorite part of this song is how well Swift spills out her hurt into lyrics, showing anger, sadness, and pain all at once. It’s even more incredible hearing that anger in the re-recording, already hearing her vocals sound even better, and you still get to hear the pain in her voice that resonates with the song.
The extra song on the album is a very special song, ‘Ronan’. This song was written by Swift and Maya Thompson, a mother who lost her three-year-old son to cancer. They wrote this touching song together in honor of her son, after Swift read Maya’s blog. The song follows her perspective, what it was like when he was here, but as well as the hurt that comes with losing a child.
Moving down to the vault tracks, two are recognizable. This is because both ‘Better Man’ and ‘Babe’ were already released by Little Big Town and Sugarland. This is because Swift wrote them originally, but when they did not make the original Red album, she gave them the songs. With her version in 2021, she decided to release her recording of them.
My favorite vault track though, is the highly anticipated ‘All too well (10-minute version). For a few years, fans had speculated about a ten-minute version of the song ‘all too well’, after Swift teased it in an interview. After all those years, Swift released it in her version of Red. It is incredible, 10 full minutes of an already heartbreak filled song sharing even more behind the story.
The album overall has some great songs, but also some just good songs. This gives me an 8/10. The album contains some songs where it depends on my mood if I really enjoy them, but also some songs I absolutely adore. I still love this album though, giving lots of autumn vibes with many good songs to vibe with.