In this VOX ATL podcast, we are going over Taylor Swift’s album, “Speak Now.” Ethan Ford and guest, Jennie, will be going over the album, as a whole.
Listen on Soundcloud:
Listen on Spotify:
Transcript of this episode:
Ethan
This is Swiftly Unraveled, a Taylor Swift deep dive podcast, and I hope you’re ready for it, because today we will be going over Taylor Swift’s third studio album, Speak Now.
I’m Ethan, I’m 15, and I go by he/ him pronouns, and today we have special guest Jennie
Jennie
Hi Everyone, I’m Jennie.
Ethan
Today we are going over Taylor Swift’s third studio album, Speak Now. It was released on October 25th, 2010, with Big Machine Records. The album is her first and only album entirely written by Taylor Swift, with 14 tracks and 3 deluxe tracks.
Speak Now came after the Grammy Album of the Year winning album, Fearless, and the infamous Kanye West incident at the 2009 MTV Music Video Rewards. The album has a main theme of maturing, becoming more in the public eye and speaking out against people who have wronged you. Okay, so, when you first listened to this album, how did it make you feel?
Jennie
Honestly, I feel like it showed me a side of Taylor. Like I got to see teenage girl Taylor, and I know this is like her coming of age album, but like. You get to see kind of the similar feeling I had when I listened to Sour for the first time, like I feel like she understands like all the kind of angstiness of being a teenager and growing up and like I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life and I’m happy and I’m mad and I’m trying to figure out my life and figure out who I am and what my voice might be and I know that’s a lot to get out of one album but it’s Like, it’s very, like, it’s a mixed bag of emotions, and I think that’s what really makes it kind of stick out from a lot of her albums because she tends to focus on, like, just themes of, like, love and loss and stuff like that, but she really focuses also on, like, trying to find her place in the world, feeling kind of remorse for those who have wronged her, and also just kind of figuring out how to deal with the complex emotions of just growing up and growing into that next chapter of your life.
Ethan
That’s great. I would also sort of agree with that. This album was the first album I fully listened to of Taylor Swift, and that made me a Swiftie. And so it always has a dear place to my heart, and the songs are very different from Fearless and coming of age , as you said. Yes. Okay, so, what are your top three favorite songs and why?
Jennie
This is hard. Okay, number one, Better Than Revenge . I am obsessed with this song. It’s probably like one of my favorite songs she’s ever made. I think she has such a good voice for like rock music and like the 2000s pop punk and for her to kind of like fully leaning lean into that but also like make it her own just makes it such a standout track for me and I know like it has its critics it’s kind of aged badly I can’t like argue with that but I think you get peak angsty Taylor because this was like way before Reputation, way before Folklore, and you kind of get to see the roots of that kind of like growing and like that idea is there and it’s kind of like treading water and like kind of getting an idea of what an angsty Taylor Swift album could look like.
The Story Of Us. Love that song. I maybe I like the faster tempo like kind of rock sounding music but it’s cute. I like the lyrics. I think the story is really cute and it’s kind of like a revenge kind of hat that similar idea is Better Than Revenge but it’s a lot more sweet. It’s a lot more fearless.
She was just testing the waters of like how far she could go to make Like an angry song or like a remorseful song and I’d also like how it’s like it’s bittersweet like yes you’re letting go you’re moving on but also you’re still like a little bit bitter but also like you’re happy and ready to move on.
Maybe this is because I just graduated, but I’m gonna go Never Grow Up. That song makes me cry every single time I listen to it. And I think it’s because I’m, finally, I get it now. I’ve hit kind of a similar point in my life as Taylor was in that song. I’m graduating. I’m going into adulthood. And I know she didn’t write it about herself. Like, she kind of wrote it about like, I think it was like her godchild or something like that. And I feel like just, I get it now. It’s one of those songs, like, when I was little, I thought it was like, cute and sentimental, like a commercial song, kind of. But now that I’m like, 18, growing up, becoming an adult, I get it, finally.
And that was three, right? Yes. Perfect.
Ethan
Okay, what’s my favorite? Castle’s Crumbling.
Jennie
I didn’t know if we can do a Taylor’s version songs.
Ethan
Yeah. I love this song, and I know people say Hayley Williams sounds bad on this song, that’s what I’ve heard, but I totally disagree. I think she sounds great. I love that this song really stands out on the album, because it’s more, I guess, acoustic than the other songs.
Let’s see. , Better Than Revenge as you said. I love that song. I love the Rock. Yeah. Rockish feel it really gets you going. Yeah, and probably, let’s see Mine .
Jennie
Okay. Yeah.
Ethan
Love that song. I don’t know what it is about it. I just, I love it.
Jennie
It’s a sweet song.
Ethan
As a part of a plan to re record her first six studio albums with Republic Records, she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) her third re -record, on July 7, 2023, with six newly released songs “from the vault” that weren’t released with the original album.
These songs include collaborators such as Hayley Williams from Paramore and Fall Out Boy. Okay, so, how do you think these vault tracks affected the album as a whole?
Jennie
Honestly, it made it into my top five Taylor Swift albums. I think the rerecordings kind of I liked the re recording. Like, some of them can be kind of like hit or miss for me.
Like, for me, Fearless, the re recordings were a bit hit or miss for me. But for me, Speak Now, you kind of got even more of an idea into the mind of, like, who she was at the time, her musical influences. I love to see when she does, like, features and seeing who were the musical influences. And it was really great to see that, like, Paramore and Fall Out Boy and, like, those 2000s pop punk bands were, like, her inspiration for a very, like, coming of age album.
I thought that was really great to see. And I just like, I love the songs . I think the songs really add to them. And I also think they help the album age a little bit more gracefully. Like you kind of get to see like the more like, you know, she’s maturing a little bit, you can see, I can see you like she’s growing up a little bit.
And then also you can kind of see like just the ideas of like the child is like immaturity, like you foolish ones and timeless. And you get those songs really kind of give you an idea. Like she was still very much. Growing into who she was, like, she was still kind of a child, like, she was figuring out her own way in the world.
I really like that. I feel like the songs add to that album more than any of the re recording.
Ethan
Okay. I agree with, like, everything you said. And the vault tracks did help it age great. Because, I feel like people forget about Speak Now since it was came out right after Fearless and it was overshadowed.
And now that it came out in this modern time of like, more streaming, it really gets the credit it needs. Okay, so, what do you think of Taylor Swift changing the lyrics in the song Better Than Revenge from, She’s Better Known for the Things That She Does on the Mattress, to,” He was a moth to the flame she was holding the matches.”
Jennie
Um, okay, I was not happy at first, cause I personally, like, that was my one thing with the re recordings, I was like, I love the original one, and I really don’t want to stream the illegal version, but like, I don’t know, I think like, a great thing about songs from, like, that time is like, You get to see I don’t really like when people like artists try to do like revision history and it’s like if it was something like really really really really really problematic I would get it and I really would be an advocate of like changing it But I do think that lyric kind of shows her immaturity as an artist and I think that’s a good thing because like it’s good To see her evolution as like a person and an artist and I didn’t think it was too bad.
It’s fine now the like Okay, I don’t know too well, but I get why she did it. I think she wanted to like help the album like kind of stay kind of Timely and not feel like very 2000s kind of album, but I do think it was a little like At first I was like, I don’t know how I feel about this too well. But then, you know, it grew on me.
It’s fine. Now, when I listened to it, I used to still have the old one on my phone because I just, I liked it. It just like it made, I love like seeing an artist’s evolution. And for me that also comes with like their immaturity. Like if you start off really young as an artist and kind of seeing how you grow over time and like you’re changing viewpoints, but it is what it is.
I get you, girl, you got to do what you got to do. But. I’m fine with it now, but at first I was like iffy.
Ethan
Yeah, it took a while to grow on me with that being like my favorite song, one of my favorites off the album. It, at first, I didn’t really like it just because I felt it didn’t flow as well with the lyrics.
And then, you know, as you said, it grew on me and I’m glad that she did it because it’s women supporting women, feminism, it’s great that she did it.
Taylor Swift has been on her record breaking Eras Tour, which includes 46 songs from 10 of her 11 albums. Speak Now really gets no glory in this in the set list with only one song that is Enchanted whereas The Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department eras have seven songs.
Why do you think Speak Now is so overshadowed by the other albums in the Eras Tour?
Jennie
I think it’s because we have to remember, like, yes, The Eras tours for the Swifties , but also, this is just a tour for a lot of people, and she’s still touring new albums. Like, she didn’t tour for Lover, she didn’t tour for Folkmore, Evermore, and she didn’t tour for Midnights , and she’s basically touring for Tortured Poets.
So I think she does want to give those newer songs that haven’t been performed live a chance. Like, a chance to shine a little bit. Like, you never, we didn’t get Cardigan , or like, you never got to see any of the really, the Lover songs. Like, a lot of them were made to be sang in stadiums, and a lot of them you’d never heard in stadiums.
And I think, like, the reason, like, for Red and 1989, she just performs, like, the hits. It’s because those are like the big stadium songs. It’s like to kind of get in like that mainstream audience. Cause like, yes, she’s trying to give her tour for the Swifties, but also casual listeners are going as well. And I don’t feel like Speak Now gets a lot of love in terms of like those, like big albums.
Cause like when you ask somebody who doesn’t really listen to Taylor Swift, what their favorite Taylor Swift song is, they’re going to be like, Shake It Off . 22, Wildest Dreams.
Anti-Hero .
Anti-Hero, those are the songs they’re thinking of. So yes, I think, and that’s why I think the surprise song portion is really, like, the section for the Swifties , because she’s giving them that chance to hear, like, the deep cuts and whatnot.
And even, like, The Tortured Poets Department , that was, like, interesting, because a lot of those songs were, like, Not the big song like yes, she sang Fortnight But like I don’t think like But Daddy I Love Him not like a huge song So I do think like there’s some songs she lets shine like Don’t Blame Me and like stuff like that But I think she’s trying to highlight like I think this is probably just because she’s doing a huge tour She’s trying to highlight the songs that like sound great in stadiums and like are a bit more popular And it is a little frustrating like it’s like for her early music people are automatically going to go to Fearless or like Our Song You I rarely hear about, like, Speak Now songs in, like, the conversation when it comes to just, like, casual listeners.
Like, yes, Enchanted pretty big and was having, like, a TikTok moment, but, like, in terms of, like, her, like, big, huge, memorable, like, mainstream albums, I rarely hear Speak Now in conversation just because, like, everything happening, like, at that time in her life.
Ethan
Yes, yes. I, I would also say that It, it was very overshadowed by Fearless, with it winning, , album of the year, the year prior, and then, I guess, all the Kanye West drama, that also put her down a little.
And, so, And I think Also Speak Now was more for the fans, because I saw that there’s only about three songs that are under four minutes in the whole album. So, they aren’t really, I guess, the best for performing live, but more for like, not casual listening, but
Jennie
Just sit down, vibe with it.
Ethan
Yes, that. That’s a wrap of Swiftly Unraveled’s episode on Speak Now.
Thank you for listening to Swiftly Unraveled. For more teen created podcasts like this one, please subscribe to VoxATL on SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Also be sure to check us out at voxatl. org.
