Swiftmas Review: Red (Taylor's Version)

Welcome Back to my Swiftmas series where I review every Taylor Swift album. We continue with Red (Taylor’s Version) which I believe was a major evolution for Taylor. This post will also contain minor spoilers from The End of An Era docuseries, so if you haven’t watched the first two episodes, go watch them now on Disney Plus and come back to this post!

Taylor Swift’s fourth album, Red was released on October 22, 2012 by Big Machine Records at 22 years old, hence the name of one of the songs being called, “22.” This album is known for Taylor’s experimentation with new music genres such as pop, dubstep, and heartland rock. That’s right, you will hardly hear any bit of the country music genre starting with this album. The “Taylor’s Version” of this album was released on November 12, 2021 by Republic Records. The album title was inspired by the “semi-toxic relationships” that she experienced during the making of this album. She felt these emotions as “red emotion” due to the intense nature. The color red normally symbolizes many powerful and emotional concepts from romantic love and physical passion to anger, aggression, and danger which is where “red flag” comes from. Going off of that, the album touches on themes of love and heartbreak from a mature perspective. Yes, I know that was the theme of Speak Now, but this album conveys them in stronger emotions. There are also other themes that include fame, and pressure of being in the spotlight.

Red debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200 chart, making it the third consecutive chart topper in the US for Taylor Swift. Its first week sales of 1.21 million became the third biggest debut in history for a female, along with becoming the fastest selling album in over a decade. It received Grammy nominations for “Album of the Year,” “Best Country Album,” “Record of the Year” (We are Never Getting Back Together”), and “Best Country Song,” (Begin Again) but sadly did not win any of them. It did win Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV VMAs for “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and it made Taylor win Best Female Country Artist at 2012s AMAs and Artist of the Year in 2013. It also won her the Nashville Songwriters Association’s “Songwriter/Artist Award” for the 5^th and 6^th consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. She was even honored with a special “Pinnacle Award” from the association, making her the second recipient after Garth Brooks. The album also got two Guinness World Records for the first female to have two-million selling album openings, and the song, “We are Never Getting Back Together” for fastest selling single in digital history after it reached the top slot on iTunes chart 50 minutes after release. The “Taylor’s Version” re-record also received some accolades a decade after the original version was released. It won a Grammy award for Best Music Video for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” won “Favorite Pop/Rock Album”, “Favorite Country Album”, “Artist of the Year”, “Favorite Female Pop Artist”, and “Favorite Female Country Artist” at the 2022 AMAs, and “Top Country Artist,” “Top Country Album,” “Top Country Female Artist”, and “Top Billboard 200 Artist” at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. It even broke a 2022 Guinness World Record for most day-one streams of an album of Spotify by a female. This album also marked Taylor Swift’s third tour of the same name which made over $150 million dollars.

There are a total of 21 songs in this album which are listed below, including 8 songs from the hidden vault making this album currently have the most hidden vault songs in a re-recorded version.

1.    State of Grace (Taylor’s Version)

2.    Red (Taylor’s Version)

3.    Treacherous (Taylor’s Version)

4.    I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor’s Version)

5.    All too Well (Taylor’s Version)

6.    22 (Taylor’s Version)

7.    I Almost Do (Taylor’s Version)

8.    We are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor’s Version)

9.    Stay Stay Stay (Taylor’s Version)

10. The Last Time (Taylor’s Version) ft. Gary Lightbody

11. Holy Ground (Taylor’s Version)

12. Sad Beautiful Tragic (Taylor’s Version)

13. The Lucky One (Taylor’s Version)

14. Everything Has Changed (Taylor’s Version) ft. Ed Sheeran

15. Starlight (Taylor’s Version)

16. Begin Again (Taylor’s Version)

17. The Moment I Knew (Taylor’s Version)

18. Come Back…Be Here (Taylor’s Version)

19. Girl At Home (Taylor’s Version)

20. State of Grace (Acoustic Version) (Taylor’s Version)

21. Ronan (Taylor’s Version)

22. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Better Man

23. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Nothing New ft. Phoebe Bridgers

24. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Babe

25. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Message in a Bottle

26. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK I Bet You Think About Me ft. Chris Stapleton

27. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Forever Winter

28. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK Run ft. Ed Sheeran

29. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK The Very First Night

30. HIDDEN VAULT TRACK All Too Well (10 Minute Version)

Since Red: Taylor’s Version is less of a country album (in my opinion), you won’t hear as much of the usual instrument elements of country music. Instead, you will hear more of the elements heard in pop music such as synthesizers and digital sounds. There is also a bit of rock music mixed so you will hear the usual electric guitars and drums. I believe Taylor Swift did this genre change to not only keep up with the current pop artists at the time, but to also convey the strong emotions of this album to add to the strong lyrics. Even in the re-recorded version, one of the songs was changed so you hear less of the country banjos and fiddles and more of the pop music element. This change in genre for this album will be the trendsetter for several of Taylor’s albums.

This album continues the trend of 5^th song being the most vulnerable and emotional. That song happens to be “All Too Well” which now has a 10-minute version. It just so happens to be one of the hidden vault songs, and also one of my favorites of this entire album. I love how this expanded version brings out the strong emotions that Taylor wanted to convey originally. Basically, it is about reflecting on bad memories of your ex through time which was inspired by Taylor’s relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. The music video vividly displays those lyrics and emotion in the form of a short film, and it deserved that Grammy after her original version was snubbed a decade ago. It also reminds me of that time during my study abroad in Japan when I had a strained relationship with my cultural studies professor that ultimately ruined my Thanksgiving. This is the version you should actually listen to in this album, and it is one she performed during the Eras tour. Taylor Swift also said this was one of her favorite songs in her entire catalogue in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert.

There are so many good songs on this album that I love, but the other two songs I love are the title track, “Red,” and “Everything has Changed.” The one thing I enjoy about “Red (Taylor’s Version) is how every single lyric is written as different metaphors to describe the different types of love toward this person, and how colors are incorporated as well. The instrumentals in this re-recorded version have been changed so to signify the genre change and the strong emotions which ties back to the theme of this album. I think “Red” is such an underrated song and does not get as much appreciation compared to the other popular songs on the album. For “Everything has Changed (Taylor’s Version), it feels so heartfelt and warm when it is sung between two people. Yes, this song features Ed Sheeran who has dueted with Taylor in a few of her songs, but also has been her biggest supporter. In episode 1 of the Taylor Swift: End of An Era docuseries, it is pretty evident that they have a strong bond when they were having a conversation backstage and performing during the show which is what makes this song even better. Overall, the song isn’t about a serious relationship but more of a friendship evolving over time.

My personal thoughts are that this album is a major improvement from the previous one. Right from the very first track, it lets listeners know that this Taylor Swift album is not going to be a country one. I know it is very risky for a singer to change genres, but it totally paid off for Taylor. I also love how all of the songs are mix of happy and energetic to emotional and powerful. There is even clever songwriting for some of the songs making it almost poetic. If you are a diehard Swiftie, you will get through this album quickly while listening because you are feeling all these different emotions. I know this album won awards for the country music album, but to me it doesn’t sound like a country album (and that isn’t a bad thing). Overall, this album is a great transition for Taylor Swift into the iconic pop artist she truly is today.

My overall rating of this album is an 10/10! Yes, I really enjoyed this album with so many great songs mixed with good instrumentals and songwriting. I am glad it got the Grammy win it deserved originally, and I wished it won even more for its re-recorded version. Once again, thank goodness for Taylor Swift doing the re-records on her original albums. Here is the final ranking below:

Ranking of Taylor Swift Albums:

1.    Red (Taylor’s Version)

2.    Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

3.    Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

4. Taylor Swift (Debut)

I will end this Swiftmas review as always with a crochet of a symbol of each album. For Red (Taylor’s Version), it is of course the iconic red scarf that is referenced in “All Too Well” that was left at her ex’s sister’s house that was NEVER RETURNED! But, this scarf isn’t going anywhere as it now belongs to my Snoopy amigurumi who is starting to become an honorary Swiftie.

Snoopy wearing the "Red" scarf

And that concludes another review in the Swiftmas series. If you have made it this far, I want to say a huge thank you for supporting this blog as it takes a lot of hard work to make this series. I do want to add one more thing for this series, if you may or may not know I am trying to do a student loan challenge based on engagement on this blog, and on my IG page, @pressure.shock. Based on those engagements, I contribute my own expenses to my student loans until I am debt free. For this challenge, every view, like, and comment in this entire series, I will pay 13 cents each to my student loans. The number 13 is Taylor Swift’s lucky number, and let’s hope I get lucky with this challenge. Again, please DO NOT send me any money as this is all based on overall engagement. Okay, tune in to the next post in the Swiftmas series, and remember “love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right.”