The Swiftie fatigue should’ve set in by now. The pop star, 33, is everywhere: she is re-recording old albums and releasing them periodically while also on a very sold-out, very publicised world tour, clips of which circulate hourly on social media. And yet, still fans awaited Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with the same heady anticipation as if it were a release from an elusive artist who seldom puts out music, not pop’s hardest-working star.
It’s the third of six albums that Swift is re-recording in order to take legal control of her back catalogue. Originally released in 2010, Speak Now arrived sandwiched between 2008’s Fearless and 2012’s Red (the two records, in fact, that Swift has already remade). To listen to Speak Now, written entirely by a then 20-year-old Swift, is to hear an artist in transition – both in her music (Swift cleaves closer to pop here than she had ever done previously) and her profile, which was rising rapidly and dizzyingly.
