In 2023, any Taylor Swift song can become a hit. “Cruel Summer” was released four years ago, but the Lover standout has morphed into one of the biggest hits of this season, simply because her fans willed it to happen. “Karma” kept climbing the Hot 100 before it received an official video or remix, and has quickly become one of the biggest moments from Midnights. A 10-minute version of the 2012 song “All Too Well”? That one topped the Hot 100 in 2021. Swift has become so ubiquitous, her connection to her fans so omnipresent, that her smashes are defying time and space — and now, we have six more tracks that could potentially join that hit parade.
Of course, the “From The Vault” songs from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the newly released re-recording of Swift’s 2010 album, should foremost be considered within the framework of her third studio album, a country-pop masterpiece solely written by Swift as her teens gave way to her twenties. Speak Now showcased Swift’s aesthetic command and solidifying point of view during a period of personal growth, and the six “From The Vault” songs on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) are of a piece with that growth.
Some of the songs from the Speak Now sessions that Swift has revived for its re-recording focus on the windswept romance and callous betrayal that we’ve played back for years, and fit neatly next to tracks like “Mine,” “Sparks Fly,” “Dear John” and “Enchanted.” Yet Swift — who worked with regular collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner on the “Vault” songs — also gave them a modern sensibility, both by bringing in new voices like Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and Paramore’s Hayley Williams as well as delivering the musical dexterity of her most recent projects to a group of songs that were formed years ago.
All six of these “From The Vault” songs sound like they could become hits in 2023 — hell, the best track here should become a hit in 2023. Such is the scope of Swift’s commercial might, and the enduring artistic power of her Speak Now era.
Although all six “From The Vault” songs are worth enjoying, here is our preliminary ranking of the new goodies from Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
