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As the story goes, Taylor Swift<\/a> originally wanted to name her third studio album Enchanted. The track of the same name<\/a>\u2014with its crescendoing guitars and aching lyrics about meeting someone for the first time\u2014still made it onto the record, and it has become one of her most quintessential, and beloved songs. But, after the success of singles like \u201cLove Story\u201d and \u201cWhite Horse,\u201d Swift did not want to be associated with castles and fairytales anymore. (She would end up cutting a song called \u201cCastles Crumbling\u201d for the same reason.) She knew this album was much more grown up, more grounded in reality. \u201cI\u2019ve been obsessing over the new record to the point where it\u2019s all I can focus on,\u201d Swift wrote in her journal<\/a> in April 2010. \u201cScott [Borchetta] and I had lunch the other day. We were talking about the record, and I had this epiphany\u2026 I\u2019ve been silent about so much that I\u2019m saying on this album. It\u2019s time to speak<\/u> now<\/u>. Scott freaked out. He loved it. We have a title, ladies and gentlemen!\u201d<\/p>\n When Speak Now was released on October 25, 2010, it stood\u2014and still stands\u2014as the only record that Swift had written entirely herself. \u201cI’d get my best ideas at 3:00 a.m. in Arkansas, and I didn’t have a co-writer around so I would just finish it,\u201d she told Songwriter Universe<\/u><\/a>. \u201cThat would happen again in New York and then again in Boston and that would happen again in Nashville.\u201d Some theorize that Swift purposefully wrote the album all herself, as a way to prove her chops in the wake of unsubstantiated claims that she wasn\u2019t the one actually writing her lyrics. Of course, her knack for generating a whip-smart line and a catchy hook has always been shockingly impressive, and at the time of her third album\u2019s release, she was only 20 years old. Call it her \u201cI\u2019m not a girl, not yet a woman\u201d era.<\/p>\n Like another woman<\/a> who navigated the spotlight at such a crossroads age<\/a>, Swift began exploring different sounds and songwriting techniques. Yet, this record wasn\u2019t so much a sexual awakening as it was an emotional one\u2014and as a lifelong Swiftie, it still stands as my favorite.<\/p>\n Absent of any co-writers, Speak Now is arguably the most uninhibited, the most frank, and the most messy we’ve seen of the pop superstar. As some might say, it is her most Swiftian record. All the hallmarks are present\u2014from songs about wrenching heartbreak<\/a> (\u201cLast Kiss\u201d) and clapping back at your haters (\u201cMean\u201d) to tracks about knowing you were in the wrong (\u201cBack to December\u201d) and relishing in the first feelings of love<\/a> (\u201cSparks Fly\u201d). Here, Swift even begins to explore the narrative songwriting that she would later hone on folklore (\u201cSpeak Now\u201d) and the sometimes-problematic relationships<\/a> she has with other women (\u201cBetter Than Revenge\u201d).<\/p>\n Speak Now is often overlooked amongst the Swift canon. 1989 has the pop juggernauts and folk-more has the sophistication. Reputation has the controversy and Red has \u201cAll Too Well.\u201d Recently, in the wake of The Life of a Showgirl<\/a>\u2019s release, fans have been engaging with a social media trend, where they rank Swift\u2019s albums<\/a> according to how they think she would rank them. Many of these lists put Speak Now at the bottom (in part because, during her record-breaking Eras Tour<\/a>, this album received the shortest slice of time, minus her debut, of course).<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case. Swift must surely be proud of this record, but I think it also must be hard for her to revisit. Like an old Instagram post or a diary entry from years past, Speak Now captures the growing pains of a woman at a turning point in her life. But these imperfections, all these learning moments are exactly what make it so beautiful. Yes, these 14 songs capture a very specific moment in Swift\u2019s life, but they also\u2014like so much of her best work\u2014have a universality to them.<\/p>\n I was 13 years old when I first heard \u201cNever Grow Up,\u201d and I remember being struck with a shocking fear of my own maturation. As a queer teenager, I was scared of what the future held, and I longed for the ease and the joy of my youth. Now, as a twenty-something living in New York City, I can relate to the final verse, where Swift switches the story to her own narrative: \u201cSo here I am in my new apartment \/ In a big city, they just dropped me off \/ It\u2019s so much colder than I thought it would be \/ So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on.\u201d I remember my mother crying every time she heard the same song, as she thought about the struggle of having to watch her own kids grow up right before her.<\/p>\n The other tracks work similar magic, evolving as you revisit them. \u201cThe Story of Us\u201d feels very of-the-moment, throwing you into a scene where you run into an ex soon after a breakup. \u201cNow I\u2019m standing alone in a crowded room \/ And we\u2019re not speaking \/ And I\u2019m dying to know \/ Is it killing you like it\u2019s killing me?\u201d Swift sings. But the track also serves as a reflection on a relationship you never realized was doomed to fail.<\/p>\n One of her most controversial songs, \u201cBetter Than Revenge,\u201d might have sounded like a fun takedown to many upon first listen. In retrospect, it\u2019s been regarded as one of Swift\u2019s arguably un-feminist songs (and she even reworked one of the lyrics<\/a> on her Taylor\u2019s Version re-release in 2023). Yet, hearing it now, listeners can relate to the ways in which they might have compared themselves to others at 19 years old, and even tried to tear someone down. Is it chaotic? Yes, but it\u2019s also brutally honest.<\/p>\n Here, Swift also began to play with her voice like never before, whether it\u2019s the quiver in the final verse of \u201cLast Kiss,\u201d as if she\u2019s about to start crying, or the full-on belt she delivers on the more rock-heavy tracks. She hadn\u2019t fully come into her vocals quite yet, but there\u2019s a gusto to her delivery that is admirable. As for the music, Speak Now is also one of her most varied releases, from the Evanescence-style gothic rock of \u201cHaunted\u201d to the folksy pluckings of \u201cInnocent\u201d and the sparse echoes of \u201cDear John.\u201d<\/p>\n All this being said, any Swiftie knows that it\u2019s futile to try to argue which album of hers is best. Critics<\/a> and fans alike<\/a> have tried, but her various eras will always resonate with some over others. Our perception of these songs change over time, and there will be certain lines, or moments when we first heard them, that will stick with us forever. Swift\u2019s music speaks to everyone in different ways.<\/p>\n Fifteen years ago, on the day that Speak Now came out, I remember making my dad drive me to the store at five in the morning, so that I could buy the CD before I had to go to school. I only had time to listen to half of the tracklist before I needed to catch the bus, but I remember thinking about those few songs I\u2019d heard throughout the entire day. All these years later, I\u2019m still thinking about Speak Now. I still cry when I hear the line: \u201cSo I\u2019ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep \/ And I\u2019ll feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe.\u201d I still get butterflies when the final chorus of \u201cEnchanted\u201d comes roaring in. I will always think of my mom when I hear \u201cNever Grow Up.\u201d<\/p>\n Although it was just the thesis for this album, I think Swift\u2019s whole career can be defined by a dedication to speaking up. Her discography is all about those feelings and thoughts that can\u2019t be held in\u2014the crushes she must confess, the injustices she won\u2019t let pass, the tender moments she wants to commemorate. Here, and forever, she has turned those small bits of life into lasting art. Long live, Speak Now.<\/p>\n You Might Also Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n