Red (Taylor's version) by Taylor Swift

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Red (Taylor's Version) is the second re-recorded album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on November 12, 2021, through Republic Records. It is a re-recording of Swift's fourth studio album, Red (2012), following her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor's Version), which was released in April 2021. The re-recording venture is Swift's countermeasure against the changed ownership of the masters to her first six studio albums. The album encompasses re-recorded versions of 20 songs from the Red deluxe edition and Swift's 2012 charity single "Ronan"; the 10-minute-long, unabridged version of "All Too Well"; Swift's own recordings of "Better Man" (2016) and "Babe" (2018), both of which she wrote but gave away to other country artists; and six new "From the Vault" tracks that were intended for the 2012 album. Swift and Christopher Rowe produced most of Red (Taylor's Version), while Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, Paul Mirkovich, Espionage, Tim Blacksmith, Danny D, and Elvira Anderfjärd handled the rest. Shellback, Dan Wilson, Jeff Bhasker, Jacknife Lee, and Butch Walker also returned to produce the re-recordings of tracks they had worked on in 2012. Phoebe Bridgers and Chris Stapleton joined the album as guest vocalists alongside original features from Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran. Red (Taylor's Version) was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, who admired Swift's vocal performances, the production quality, and the new tracks. Reviews described it a classic pop record expanding from Swift's country roots into electronic, synth-pop and rock flairs, whilst chronicling various dynamics of love, life, loss and heartache. The album broke a string of commercial records, such as the Spotify feat for the largest single-day streams for an album by a female artist and the biggest vinyl sales week in MRC Data history. It topped the charts in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States where Swift surpassed Elton John's 46-year-old record to become the fastest soloist in Billboard 200 history to collect four number-one albums, doing so in under 16 months. Swift promoted the album with televised appearances on NBC. The songs "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)", "Message in a Bottle" and "I Bet You Think About Me" were released as hot adult contemporary, pop radio and country singles, respectively. "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" became Swift's eighth number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the longest number-one song of all time; 25 other tracks from the album also charted on the Hot 100 the same week, setting the record for the most single-week new entries ever by an artist. Swift wrote and directed All Too Well: The Short Film, a romantic drama starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien, released on November 12 as well. Various publications have identified the release of Red (Taylor's Version) as a key pop-culture moment of 2021.

After re-recording her 2008 album <i>Fearless</i> as part of a sweeping effort to regain control of her master tapes—or at least create new ones—Taylor Swift presents <i>Red (Taylor’s Version)</i>, an expanded take on her 2012 blockbuster that features nine never-before-released songs written in the same era as the original.<br /> “Musically and lyrically, <i>Red</i> resembled a heartbroken person,” she wrote in a letter to fans. “It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. Happy, free, confused, lonely, devastated, euphoric, wild, and tortured by memories past. Like trying on pieces of a new life, I went into the studio and experimented with different sounds and collaborators. And I’m not sure if it was pouring my thoughts into this album, hearing thousands of your voices sing the lyrics back to me in passionate solidarity, or if it was simply time, but something was healed along the way.”<br /> The hot-blooded breakup anthems you know and love are still there (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” are two), but the new, full collection paints an even richer portrait of heartbreak. She wrestles with change on “Nothing New”, an alt-rock duet with Phoebe Bridgers; contemplates fate on a wistful pop song produced by Max Martin and Shellback (“Message in a Bottle”); and gets the final, piercing word on “I Bet You Think About Me” featuring Chris Stapleton, penned after a high-profile breakup in 2011. Long-time fans will be especially glad to see an extended cut of “All Too Well”, the project’s emotional centrepiece. It features new production from hitmaker Jack Antonoff, but Swift’s original lyrical genius is still remarkable. “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of being honest,” she sings. It’s the line she’s always said she’s most proud of from this album and era. Ten years on, it still cuts deep.