Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version) (2021)

Reason for Listening:
Saw it announced on Spotify.


Released 20211112.
16 songs. 65:09. Red (2012)
16+14 songs. 65:08+65:18. Red (Taylor's Version) (2021)
16+14+1 songs. 65:08+65:18+00:25. Red (Taylor's Version) (Apple Music) (2021)
Wikipedia
Notes:
--20211113--
First listen.
--20211115--
Continue with track 11 ("Holy Ground")
--20211125--
Continue with track 22 ("Better Man" (From the Vault))
Reading the lyrics for "Ronan" while listening to the song.

All songs have "(Taylor's Version)" appended. Songs in bold additionally have "(From the Vault)" appended.
3: "I Knew You Were Trouble"; "22"; "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together";
2: "Red"; "Starlight"; "Message in a Bottle";
1: "State of Grace"; "I Almost Do"; "Stay Stay Stay"; "Holy Ground"; "The Lucky One"; "Girl At Home"; "Ronan"; "Better Man"; "I Bet You Think About Me" (ft. Chris Stapleton);
0: "Treacherous"; "All Too Well"; "The Last Time" (ft. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol); "Sad Beautiful Tragic"; "Everything Has Changed" (ft. Ed Sheeran); "Begin Again"; "The Moment I Knew"; "Come Back... Be Here"; "State of Grace" (Acoustic Version); "Nothing New" (ft. Phoebe Bridgers); "Babe"; "Forever Winter"; "Run" (ft. Ed Sheeran); "All Too Well" (10 Minute Version);

Summary:
Thinking of the album as a whole, I feel as if the length is great for fans, but the album with all the extra content is just too much. I think a theoretical two-disc layout would make a difference here with at least two possible variations. The first would be tracks 1-16 (tracks on the standard release of Red) on the first disc then tracks 17-30 on the second disc (everything else). The second would be tracks 1-20 (tracks from the deluxe release of Red) on the first disc then tracks 22-30 (which are all "From the Vault") capped with track 21 ("Ronan"). In any case, I would give the entire album a 4.0 and a slightly higher score for just the first sixteen tracks.

Overall Rating: 4.0/5
Overall Rating (first 16 tracks): 4.4/5
Favorite Song: "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

#1 on the Billboard 200 (Week of 20211127).
Last Week: - | Peak: 1 | Weeks on Chart: 1
20211125 Comment:
A breakdown of how my ratings changed from my listening to Red and Red (Taylor's Version). The listening's are only two months apart, and while Taylor's Version will likely sound better, I imagine the relative ratings should stay the same.

First twenty tracks of Taylor's Version:
Increased by 1: "I Knew You Were Trouble"; "I Almost Do"; "Holy Ground"; "Girl at Home";
Remained the same: "State of Grace"; "Red"; "Treacherous"; "All Too Well"; "22"; "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"; "Stay Stay Stay"; "The Last Time" (ft. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol); "Sad Beautiful Tragic"; "The Lucky One"; "Starlight";
Decreased by 1: "Everything Has Changed" (ft. Ed Sheeran); "Begin Again"; "The Moment I Knew"; "Come Back... Be Here"; "State of Grace" (Acoustic Version);

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