After the painful aftermath from the sale of her original master recordings in 2020, Swift decided to rerelease the album as "Taylor's Version," making it the third in her repertoire to do so.
The album's standout tracks, such as "Back to December," "Mine," "Sparks Fly," and "Mean," keep their integrity while sporting a more polished gloss and Swift's consistently assured vocals.
Additionally, the line "She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress" has been changed in the song "Better Than Revenge" to "He was a moth to a flame, she was holding the matches."
The six new "vault" tracks, two of which include Fall Out Boy (on the anthem "Electric Touch") and Hayley Williams of Paramore (on the swooping ballad "Castles Crumbling"), are the real treat for fans.
At her June 24 concert in Minneapolis, Swift teased the rerelease of the album by performing “Dear John” as one of the two “surprise” songs she plays at each show.
She prefaced the nearly seven-minute scathing musical summary of her relationship with John Mayer when she was 19 by asking her devotees not to harass Mayer online.
You shouldn't feel the need to defend me online against someone you believe I may have written a song about since I'm not releasing this album, she said.
Taylor Swift's beautiful melodies and vivid storytelling lyrics are present in many tracks.
“When Emma Falls in Love” is likely about longtime friend, actress Emma Stone, whom Swift has been close to since the late 2000s - roughly the same period she was writing songs for “Speak Now.”