Speak Now is the third studio album released by Taylor Swift. After listening to her first two albums (Taylor Swift and Fearless – Taylor’s Version), I think we can all agree that Taylor knows a thing or two about songwriting. I bring this point up because I think it is important to note that Taylor Swift wrote ALL of the songs on this album by herself – no co-writers or concept writers, it was just Taylor Swift and her guitar (or in some cases a piano) writing this album. She also was a co-producer on this album as well along with Nathan Chapman who did the majority of the production on her previous albums. Unlike the previous two albums, Taylor designed this album as a loose concept album, which means that the album as a whole holds more meaning as a whole than the individual tracks while listening. Taylor said that each of the songs on the album are a confession to someone – both positive and negative confessions. While the previous album dabbles in pop/punk rock, Taylor Swift fully dives into the genre with a majority of the songs on this album, which is why I love this album very much. I truly believe this album has at least one song that fits everybody’s taste. 

     Some of my absolute favorite songs from this album are: Back to December, Speak Now, The Story of Us, Mean (classic), Never Grow Up, Enchanted, Dear John, and Better than Revenge. Today I will be talking about Back to December, Speak Now, Dear John, Enchanted, and Better than Revenge. 

     In Back to December, we see a completely different side of Taylor that we have not yet seen before. Whereas we often see Taylor unapologetically lash out at the boys who have wronged her, in this track, Taylor apologizes to an ex-lover for ending their relationship and realizing too late that she should have stayed. I can only describe listening to this song as reading a captivating book in the sense that after Taylor sings the first verse you automatically think “and then what happened?” One of my favorite parts of the song is how Taylor employs the use of different seasons to equate the stages of the relationship that she is talking about in this song. She says “Then I think about summer, all the beautiful times/ I watched you laughin’ from the passenger’s side/ And realized I loved you in the fall/ And then the cold came, the dark days/ When fear crept into my mind/ You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye. Every time I listen to this song, I am able to imagine the different scenes with the different moods set by the seasons. 

     Speak Now, the title track song is another one of my favorites for a similar reason to Back to December being one of my favorites. This song is about a girl interrupting an ex-lovers wedding when the officiant says the phrase “speak now or forever hold your peace”. The lyrics to this song genuinely make me laugh because I think Taylor perfectly encapsulates the feelings felt by someone attending their ex-lover’s wedding. She says “I sneak in and see your friends/ And her snotty little family all dressed in pastel/ And she is yelling at a bridesmaid/Somewhere back inside a room/ Wearing a gown shaped like a pastry”. I think that the petty tone, childish insults, and the obvious judgemental voice she uses is the perfect trifecta to creating the character of a jealous ex-lover. 

     To this day, Dear John is the longest song Taylor Swift has released. The song clocks in at six minutes and thirty two seconds, so even before you hear the song, you already know she has a long list of grievances about “John”. Something really interesting about the song that I figured out recently was that “Dear John” letters were commonly used in World War II and after the war when wives or girlfriends wanted to end their relationship. True to the title, this song explains why Taylor thinks their relationship ended and calls out her ex-lover for his manipulation that she was subjected to at such a young age. Even if you do not listen to the song, I strongly recommend just reading the lyrics, as they are so powerful. My favorite lyric from this song is “you paint me a blue sky/ And go back and turn it to rain/ And I lived in your chess game,/ But you changed the rules every day.” I think these lyrics show exactly what it feels like to be manipulated. The whiplashes of emotions and the feeling of helplessness of  living inside a game that someone would change the rules to everyday shows how Taylor felt like she was really suffering in this relationship.

     Enchanted is one of my favorite songs that Taylor has ever released. This song is about Taylor meeting a man in New York and feeling like they had instant chemistry. Taylor intentionally added the word “wonderstruck” in this song because she had received an email from this man where he used this word, and she wanted the man to know that this song was about him. What I love about this song is that Taylor was able to take such a fleeting yet emotion packed moment and write an ENTIRE song about it. I think this song perfectly describes people you meet in your life that even from the first moment you are just awestruck by their personality and who they are. I also love that this song is a power ballad, which I think was the perfect way to produce this song because it gives the song an exciting and romantic feel. 

     Saving the best for last, Better Than Revenge is definitely the song that I would choose if I could only listen to one song from Speak Now – (well maybe one of two, because I LOVE enchanted as well). I am the last person to encourage women tearing other women down, but if Better than Revenge comes on anywhere, I will most definitely be singing it at the top of my lungs – because yes, it is just that good of a song. Better than Revenge is one of two pop punk songs on this album and in this song, she is talking to an ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend who allegedly stole Taylor’s boyfriend from her. From the very first verse, Taylor makes it clear that she has no intention of letting this girl off the hook. My favorite lyrics from verse two are: “Sophistication isn’t what you wear, or who you know/ Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go/ Oh they didn’t teach you that in prep school/ So it’s up to me/ But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity”. I think it’s really funny how brutal and ruthless Taylor is through these lyrics. However, the best thing about this verse, and this song in general are the small quips that Taylor includes in between certain lyrics in the song such as small judgemental laughs interspersed through the entire song. If you choose to listen to any songs from Speak Now after reading this blog post, I highly highly recommend Better than Revenge (and then enchanted).