Taylor Swift celebrates release of re-recorded third album Speak Now with personal note
Taylor Swift penned a heartfelt messages to her devout fanbase on Thursday to celebrate the release of the re-recording of her third studio album Speak Now.
The multi-Grammy Award-winner said it felt nostalgic to revisit the songs she wrote while on the cusp of womanhood and how 'proud' she is to share tracks that didn't make the original album.
'It's here. It's yours, it's mine, it's ours. It's an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20,' captioned Swift, 33, on Instagram.
She included a new image of herself laying on the flower-covered ground under a cherry blossom tree in denim jeans and a striped T-shirt.
'I remember making tracklist after tracklist, obsessing over the right way to tell the story,' the hitmaker recalled.
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Reflecting: Taylor Swift penned a heartfelt messages to her devout fanbase on Thursday to celebrate the release of the re-recording of her third studio album Speak Now
'I had to be ruthless with my choices, and I left behind some songs I am still unfailingly proud of now.'
She let fans know that the re-recorded album features six previously unreleased songs, which she calls 'From The Vault tracks.'
'I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and the memories it brought back filled me with nostalgia and appreciation.
'For life, for you, for the fact that I get to reclaim my work. Thank you a million times, for the memories that break our fall. Speak Now (MY VERSION!) is out now,' concluded Swift.
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) features a total of 22 songs, including fan-favorites Dear John and Never Grow Up.
The new songs are: Timeless, When Emma Falls In Love, Foolish One, Electric Touch, I Can See Your and Castles Crumbling.
In the midst of her legal battle with Scooter Braun over her original masters, Swift decided years ago to re-record all of her old albums, releasing new 'Taylor's Versions' to which she would own the rights.
The latest release features a softened version of a vicious old lyric she penned about her ex's latest girlfriend on the track Better Than Revenge, which was featured on the 2010 edition of Speak Now.
The old lyric - which has now been discarded in favor of a more politically correct line - went: 'She's not a saint and she's not what you think. She's an actress, whoa. she's better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa.'
The multi-Grammy Award-winner said it felt nostalgic to revisit the songs she wrote while on the cusp of womanhood and how 'proud' she is to share tracks that didn't make the original album
'It's here. It's yours, it's mine, it's ours. It's an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20,' captioned Swift, 33, on Instagram; seen in May
The 'mattress' jab has been replaced with: 'He was a moth to the flame. She was holding the matches, whoa.'
At the time of its first release in 2010, Better Than Revenge was widely presumed to be about Taylor's ex Joe Jonas and his subsequent flame Camilla Belle.
Over the course of the intervening decade, however, Taylor developed a friendly rapport with Joe, who is currently married to Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner.
Taylor has also, in recent years, vented her frustration about being on the business end of 'slut-shaming' during her 20s.
'I was 23 and people were… making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I'd sat next to at a party once and deciding that my songwriting was a trick rather than a skill and a craft,' she told Apple Music's Zane Lowe.
'It's a way to take a woman who's doing her job and succeeding at doing her job… [and] completely minimize that skill by slut-shaming her.'
She noted that she was absorbing the remarks 'at a very young age, so that was a bit hard. That was one of the first times I was like: 'Wow, this is not fair.''
In 2021, Taylor's fans were flew into a rage when a character on the Netflix sitcom Ginny & Georgia joked: 'You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.'
Softened: The latest release features a softened version of a vicious old lyric she penned about her ex's latest girlfriend on the track Better Than Revenge, which was featured on the 2010 edition of Speak Now
Throwback: Better Than Revenge was presumed to be about Taylor's ex Joe Jonas and his subsequent flame Camilla Belle; Taylor and Joe are pictured in 2008
The way they were: Joe, who is now married to Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner, is pictured out with Camilla in West Hollywood in 2009
'Swifties,' as her admirers are affectionately known, raked the show over the coals on the internet for 'slut-shaming' their idol.
Taylor herself fumed on Twitter: 'Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse s**t as FuNnY.'
The new version of Speak Now also includes a re-record of the song Dear John, which Taylor performed onstage live last month for the first time in 11 years.
Dear John, with its scathing lyrics about an ex's 'sick need to give love then take it away,' was overwhelmingly regarded as being about John Mayer.
After the song reentered the public eye last month, Taylor begged her fans not to 'defend' her against John, but they ignored her pleas and began denouncing him online as a 'groomer' because he was 33 and she was 19 when they dated.
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