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Top 8 Best Taylor Swift Songs To Listen From The Vault Series So Far Feat. I Can See You, Is It Over Now? And More
Taylor Swift is hell bent on gaining her music back. With the re-recorded album comes a slew of songs from the series From the Vault. Here are our top 8 picks from Swift’s new releases.
Taylor Swift is the artist who has a bigger impact today than anyone else. She is at the pinnacle of her success. In 2019, in order to be such a legendary artist, she announced she would be re-recording her past six albums to gain their rights back. This decision came following her very publicized controversy with Scooter Braun, who now owns Swift’s past six music albums.
When Swift made the surprising announcement, fans thought they would just get those albums re-recorded. But Swift went above and beyond, re-releasing songs from her previous albums as well as songs that almost made the cut. The tracks, dubbed From the Vault, comprise duets with musicians Swift has long respected, including Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, and Phoebe Bridgers.
Taylor Swift has reissued four albums so far: Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989. Between them, there are 26 From the Vault songs, including a 10-minute version of her heartache anthem All Too Well. These are songs about love and desire, regret and vengeance, and the excitement of finding someone who could transform your life. They all provided a new perspective on Swift at the time she was working on them. However, some stand out more than others. Here are our top 8 picks from Taylor Swift’s new releases so far.
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Nothing New feat. Phoebe Bridgers from Red (Taylor’s Version)
Between Folklore and Evermore, Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift delivered some of the most sharp and moving songwriting of 2020. Whereas Swift is the sole songwriter of Nothing New, the revitalized tune works well. As a showcase for both artists' lyrical sensibilities. Swift and Bridgers' commercial tearing lines and provocative inquiries about unfair social expectations on young women ("How did I go from growing up to breaking down?”) is a knockout punch. Before they contemplate a meeting with the next generation, "She'll know the way, then she'll say she got the map from me / I'll say I'm happy for her, then I'll cry myself to sleep."
When Emma Falls In Love from Speak Now (Taylor's Version)
Taylor Swift returns to this brilliantly depicted character study centered on a compelling girl named Emma, whose deliberate approach to relationships deepens with each successive verse, a few years after using her duel Folklore/Evermore eras to build new worlds as a narrator instead of the star. Swift sings with a tinge of envy, "She won't lose herself in love the way that I did," as the production she co-created with Aaron Dessner oscillates between stately piano balladry and swaying country-pop. When Emma Falls in Love whirls with lyrical complexity and sonic detail as Swift brings her recent song craft back into the vault.
Message in a Bottle from Red (Taylor's Version)
Taylor Swift collaborated with Max Martin for the first time on Red, and the collaboration resulted in hits like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble. Martin's only credit in the From the Vault tracks on Red (Taylor's Version) comes as a co-writer on Message in a Bottle, a compact, propulsive dance track that belatedly became a radio hit and carries the same energy (and crackling charm) as the singles that pushed Swift's sound toward mainstream pop before 2014's 1989.
Is It Over Now? from 1989 (Taylor's Version)
When does a relationship pass the point of no return? Swift pokes at the question throughout Is It Over Now? a close-up of a shattered love that may still have a pulse despite the wreckage: the production yelps and chatters as she rattles off betrayals committed by both parties, post-breakup dates that don't lead anywhere, and feelings of unfinished business running up against the brick wall of a complicated past. Is It Over Now? shines as a storytelling exercise, with the relationship living in a gray region that she attempts to convert into a fairytale romance; the characters and their situations are instantly accessible, and the resolution feels deserved.
Don't You from Fearless (Taylor's Version)
If you came to Fearless (Taylor's Version) looking for a synthesis of Swift's early albums' country-pop writing charm and her most recent works' ultra-confident song construction, Don't You, an unreleased Fearless track given a modern facelift by Swift and Jack Antonoff, is the most satisfying version of that amalgam. While the running-into-an-ex storytelling and clever lyricism fit snugly into Swift's breakout project, the sonic landscape—keyboards, electric guitars, and drums that stack upon each other—and Swift's yearning, dazzlingly sophisticated performance elevate Don't You more than a decade later.
Say Don't Go from 1989 (Taylor's Version)
One of Swift's From the Vault concept's most appealing parts is how it's allowed her to weave sounds and ideas from different eras of her career, as songs from years past are revived with a modern touch. With its high-drama romance and major-key hooks, Say Don't Go would have fit in with Swift's country-pop days (“Why'd you have to twist the knife? Walk away and leave me bleeding', bleedin'!”), and the post-chorus harmonies recall her midnight period. The result is yet another brilliant example of a song that belongs in one place yet pulls on all of Swift's experiences to completely arrive.
I Can See You from Speak Now (Taylor's Version)
The best From The Vault songs exist in conversation with their host albums as well as Swift's most recent innovations, particularly as a producer, and I Can See You, the most thrilling never-before-heard track here, riffs on Speak Now's chance encounters and flirtations by amplifying the sexual energy and providing a forward-thinking instrumental foundation with plenty of bite.
Every choice in I Can See You, from the 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 made with confidence, as Swift and Jack Antonoff understand exactly the tone that the song needs to convey. I Can See You would have been a fantastic addition to the original Speak Now, but Swift's present skill set improved the song for Speak Now (Taylor's Version).
All Too Well (10 Minute Version) from Red (Taylor's Version)
The lyrics are surely worth poring over—a profane keychain? A 21st birthday missed? Who was this actress?—of this super-sized version of what was already a magnum opus on the Red track list, and rightly so; Swift knew her fans would love and analyze every element of one of her most renowned breakup songs at the same time. However, the 10-minute All Too Well deserves to be recognized not only for the Easter eggs it contains but also for the story it tells.
The extended All Too Well, like the original version published in 2012, is a towering songwriting feat, made even more amazing now that its tale of misbegotten love never slacks or sounds overstuffed during its massive run time. Swift is at her most commanding, with the production humming along and each lyric piercing skin—she handed the mainstream an impossibly long Hot 100 chart-topper and her most ardent admirers her whole, unadorned truth.
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