O.M.G!!!! Guy’s it’s finally here! Of course, I was counting down the days, but it still felt like the SNTV release snuck up on me. Taylor’s big releases always do and I am always mind-blown by listening to them like I haven’t been given time to adjust. I’m writing this about a week and a half after the album has come out (it feels unreal to say that!).
I should start by confirming that this album has knocked my socks off and I love it forever & always. To me, that’s a given for any TS album, but it’s especially true here because Speak Now is my fave album and I’m devastated to learn that some people…don’t like it? Can that be true?! Anyway, it’s not my job to force people to appreciate a banger album when they hear one. I’m actually kind of happy SNTV hasn’t been “TikTok-ified” or popularized by the media; it means I can enjoy it without fake Swiftie trying to make small talk with me about the album. Ugh!
The album came out while I was away at camp, and leading up to the release, I did a mini countdown, as well as set up a plan for a listening party with some fellow Swifties I had discovered in the wild. It was so fun and exciting getting to camp and noticing Tay merch on some of the other students there—it immediately made us notice each other and start talking about all things TS! I’ve never really had intense Swiftie friends and it was so much fun!
We planned in advance to set up a small listening party, but a minor problem occurred. You see, we had night classes almost every day, and on the day of the release date, we were going to be in class when the album dropped at 9 PM (the camp was in LA). So, while in class, I kept sneaking looks at my phone, counting down the minutes until 9…and then had to wait another half hour before I was let out and could race back to the dorms!
Thankfully, though, my Swiftie besties and I raced back to the dorms listening to the stolen version for the last time *sniffle* and then set up camp in the communal hallway in our dorm in front of the vending machines. We listened to the first 6 or 7 tracks there before we were kicked out of the way and had to move into an empty conference room.
I will never forget listening to those first few notes of Mine and hearing her old woman vocals….agh! It was perfection and with every slight change, we freaked the frick out!! I filmed the whole thing and will include snippets of it in my podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAorbv8M26I6NOgkWrDIQLw) so check that out!!
To set the record straight, I highly approve of the BTR lyric change. Taylor realized soon after releasing the OG version of the song in 2010 that the song carried the wrong message. It’s a banging song, and whenever it comes on, my feminism immediately turns off, but that one line in the chorus just isn’t the feminist queen we know Blondie is. So, I approve and support her mature decision to change it—isn’t that a perk of re-recording, that she gets to re-do things she messed up when she was younger?
Anyway, our listening party was a total bop…until we had to head back to our rooms for bed checks at 11 PM. Ugh! By that time, we had only managed to listen to the whole original tracklist and didn’t have time for the vault tracks, which sucked! But we promised to listen to them first thing tomorrow by ourselves—and that’s exactly what I did! I remember, the next morning I was so excited to listen to them, I forgot to film my reactions. But, my roommate was there watching me and I couldn’t hide how much I loved each one. They were all the exact opposite of what I expected. I totally thought Electric Touch and Castles Crumbling would be pop-rock, grungy bangers—and they were absolutely stunning, but weren’t those styles I was expecting. I Can See You on the other hand….I freaking gasped! I loved it—it gave me such hard reputation-core, I couldn’t do it. And the music video?? Per.Fec.Tion!! We love an ex-bf cameo (stan Taylor Lautner or die). I’m obsessed with Emma Falls In Love and Foolish One (they own my soul now), and Timeless is just perfect and I can’t wait to listen to it more. I can’t wait to listen to them all more!
I love that the vault tracks absolutely fit the Speak Now vibe check. Like, they’re all different from each other (some are pop, some rock, some country), but that’s exactly what the rest of SN is as well. And, the important theme of the album is storytelling—which is carried on in the vault tracks! Absolute perfection and my heart is captured by how enchanting the album is. 10000/10