Speak Now Reviews Thread | Metacritic — 81 (=)

[Taylor fanboy]

Metacritic Score:

Debut: 74 (4 reviews)

Updates:

            78 (6 reviews)

            80 (10 reviews)

            81 (11 reviews)

            81 (12 reviews)

 

 

The last review from its 10th Anniversary:

 

 

STEREOGUM

Spoiler

It finds Swift between two worlds and it sees her using this in-between period to seek perspective and empathy. So much of Speak Now is Swift acting wise beyond her years, all while fixated on a time when those years were just beginning. She returns to the idea of childhood a lot, a simpler time that she recognizes was never all that simple, really.

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

<Reviewer> - Score

The Line of Best Fit - 7/10

The Independent - 4/5

SPIN - 80/100

Guardian - 3/5

Rolling Stone - 80/100

The Telegraph - 4/5

Clash Music - 80/100

SLANT - 80/100

American Songwriter - 90/100

Variety - 92/100

Pitchfork - 75/100

 

 

Taylor’s Discography MC scores:

Spoiler

Midnights (2022) 85

Red (2021) 91

Fearless (2021) 82

evermore (2020) 85

folklore (2020) 88

Lover (2019) 79

reputation (2017) 71

1989 (2014) 76

Red (2012) 77

Speak Now (2010) 77

Fearless (2008) 73

Taylor Swift (2006) 67

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Taylor fanboy

[KatyPrismSpirit]

i fear pitchfork will drag this some way

[FolkLover1989]

14 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

i fear pitchfork will drag this some way

It's getting panned

 

She changed BTR 

[FolkLover1989]

This will be her first album to get panned by p4k. Less than 6 incoming

[Born to Run]

113 albums higher than 80/100 on MC this year, no way this is getting panned 

[NEX]

Red 77 vs Red TV 91 💀

 

The extra tracks certainly didn't improve the overall quality. Taylor is the literal proof of poptimism's existence. 

[byzantium]

She better only get bad reviews for changing the lyrics to better than revenge.  

[Dear Reader]

coming for that 95 

[Mezik]

46 minutes ago, =NEX= said:

Red 77 vs Red TV 91 💀

 

The extra tracks certainly didn't improve the overall quality. Taylor is the literal proof of poptimism's existence. 

I think it's more so proof that for the longest time critics were unnecessary hard on her, and her work. Had she used an entire production team to make her albums and had little input, then I would say yes - proof of poptimism, but critics unfairly targeted her songwriting for the longest time as if she would write at a Grade 2 English level. The only thing I think these rereleases are doing now are showcasing how brilliant of a songwriter she has always been and how her songwriting prowess has always been ignored.

[BtDecember]

It will be higher than Red TV

[gustavothehuman]

She changed Better Than Revenge so I hope it gets panned 

[Monster Queen]

1 hour ago, =NEX= said:

Red 77 vs Red TV 91 💀

 

The extra tracks certainly didn't improve the overall quality. Taylor is the literal proof of poptimism's existence. 

Cause the initial score underestimated the record, so many publications admit that

Some of them drag her about the genre, saying it was chaos

Red TV is just a chance for them to correct their mistake, so as the decade-end list. Now Red is considered as Taylor's magnum opus

Edited July 6, 2023 by Monster Queen

[Klein]

1 hour ago, =NEX= said:

Red 77 vs Red TV 91 💀

 

The extra tracks certainly didn't improve the overall quality. Taylor is the literal proof of poptimism's existence. 

Not when the vault tracks includes masterpieces like Nothing New, Forever Winter, ATW10 ; and excellent songs like IBYTAM and TVFN. Hell, even MIAB is a fun song. 

[Taylor fanboy]

NYLON commentary

 

Spoiler

Now, at 33, Swift no longer feels like an outsider. And like her fans who feel her music and emo music have been the soundtrack of their lives, Swift can celebrate the artists that she leaned on when she did. For Swemos, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and its vault tracks represent the ultimate manifestation of Swift’s subtle nods to and lifelong flirtations with emo music: she’s finally bringing together her love of creating with her love of emo music.

 

 

[Taylor fanboy]

The Line of Best Fit commentary

 

Spoiler

While Swift was at a crossroads — a girl turning into a woman in the public eye — Speak Now turned her diary entries of thoughts she never said into an album that gave her her own voice, sans co-writers. For the first time she was forced to reckon with the concept of celebrity post-Fearless and how turning into one, whether she wanted it or not, informed her own writing and perception of herself. Through her statement on the re-recorded Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), naturally she says it best: “It tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing… and living to speak about it.”

 

[Taylor fanboy]

Rolling Stone commentaries

 

Better Than Revenge

Spoiler

Laying these tracks down once more is Swift’s way of preserving history rather than rewriting it — always adding more rather than taking away, at least not lyrically. Her voice has noticeably changed on the re-recordings fans have already heard, but she hasn’t yet tampered with the memories themselves. And if the goal is to recapture the emotional minefield the originals were created within, it’s unlikely that she would start now. In 2023, “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)” won’t align with Taylor Swift: Global Superstar, but at a point in time, “Better Than Revenge” did align with Taylor Swift: Pissed Off Teenager Who Hasn’t Fully Developed an Understanding of Feminism.

Haunted

Spoiler

Long before she traded in country music for unstoppable pop stardom, there was a moment in time when Taylor Swift decided to go full emo. And it really was just a moment, particularly the mid-point of NBC‘s Thanksgiving Special: Taylor Swift – Speak Now in 2010, just one month after she released her third studio album Speak Now. Her nine-song setlist could have soundtracked a fairytale: There were dreamy renditions of “Sparks Fly” and “Enchanted,” but when she reached “Haunted,” Swift let the teenage angst that inspired it consume her completely. 

This was nearly 13 years ago at this point, so most of the footage from the performance scattered across YouTube does in fact look like it was recorded using a microwave. But the emotion in Swift’s vocals, soaked in pure devastation at the loss of a love that was supposed to last forever, still cuts deep.

 

[Danes]

I'm expecting 85-90 

[Steve Johnson]

I smell 5.5 from Pitchfork 

[RobynYoBank]

7 hours ago, =NEX= said:

Red 77 vs Red TV 91 💀

 

The extra tracks certainly didn't improve the overall quality. Taylor is the literal proof of poptimism's existence. 

Not really. Most culturally significant albums reviewed in a retrospective have much better reviews, not just pop albums or this re-recording.

Edited July 6, 2023 by RobynYoBank

[Cloröx]

 

The Line of Best Fit : 7/10

 

Metacritic : TBD

AOTY: TBD

Edited July 7, 2023 by Cloröx

[Poxy]

Electric Cross get this album a 90 

[Laura Palmer]

Even The Line of Best Fit being butthurt that she’s changed BTR lyrics. The power that has 

[shookspeare]

PANNED! that's what she gets for ruining BTR

[Taylor fanboy]

You are not stealing MY thread sis

[Taylor fanboy]

Line of Best Fit - 7/10

Kelsey Barnes

 

Spoiler

Despite that blemish, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is a cathartic release of pent-up frustrations of things she never had the confidence to say at 19 that are now stated proudly at 33. 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Taylor fanboy