First impressions are it’s her weakest album of those I’ve heard (haven’t listened to her debut).
Still very listenable but the songs aren’t as strong for me as Fearless. The Story of Us is the main standout so far after a couple of listens.
I think this possibly sits 9th on the list for me in terms of favourite albums of hers but there’s some gems that have always been in my absolute top/favourite songs.
I can see why it feels less mature but she was 19-20 when she wrote a lot of this. And the theme was wanting to speak about things she felt she couldn’t speak about at the time for whatever reason. Fearless had a lot of fairytale and make believe themes but there was a sense of maturity about it. Speak Now feels like it had no filter so I understand why people can feel some elements lack maturity. This is also entirely self-written too. Every track. So it was quite groundbreaking for a young artist to do this - she still battles the weirdos who think she doesn’t write her own songs, so this album was a bit of a f-you to those doubters too.
I enjoyed the release - I really like this album start to finish. I don’t think the vault songs stand out on first listens like the Red or Fearless tracks. Was pleased she kept some of the country elements - especially in tracks like Mine - that feels really authentic. Delighted with the lyric change too - don’t think it detracts from the song at all - the new lyric is quite clever and flows. The standard original album is a no skip for me - I really love it. Long Live, Last Kiss, Enchanted, Back to December, Dear John are all top tier songs for me. Lots of nostalgia in there too - if I was new to all of those songs now I’m not sure if that’s be different but I adore them. My birthday is immortalised in Last Kiss too - July 9th - which is today! That’s a real buzz for me haha!
