Okay but like…I’ve been so hyped about the release of Taylor’s new album of Red. You probably already know most of the details on all of the drama that went down between Taylor and her old managers/ record owners of her ORIGINAL original album of Red, so I’ll spare you the details. However, I WILL give you the best songs on the album that you have to revisit.

Soph’s top favorite songs from Red (Taylor’s Version)

1. State of Grace
2.  Sad Beautiful Tragic
3.  All Too Well
4.  Red
5.  Girl At Home

1- State of Grace

OMG! I LOVE State of Grace. It’s probably my favorite song on the album. Taylor tells the story of never expecting a specific individual to enter her life, and never being the same after that specific person has now been in her life. While most of the song is Taylor singing about how she never saw a special person coming and how she’s forever grateful for that person, Taylor also sings how love can be a double-sided sword. Taylor lyrically warns the audience that love can be so beautiful and can make a person grow in unexpected ways, but how love can be ruthless and devastating.

I feel like I’m very cliché when it comes to love. I love Taylor Swift and grew up listening to any love song written by her; I love writing love letters and cute little notes; I love doing activities like looking a cute Christmas lights and putting locks on the bridge going over the Missouri River. However, I know how much love can hurt and be so hard to not only give, but to also receive. I think that’s why I love State of Grace so much! Taylor acknowledges that love can make a person grow in beautiful, unexpected ways, love can feel like fate and the purest luck, but love can be hurtful and hard in the end.

2. Sad Beautiful Tragic

As we all know, I love a good depressing song. Literally anything that makes me cry or tear up while going 80 on the highway, and I’m set for life. Sad Beautiful Tragic, makes me throw up from crying so hard. I LOVE this song. Taylor wrote this song after a tour of Speak Now, and wrote about a relationship she missed desperately, and all of the emotions she was going through while realizing that the relationship wasn’t just rainbows and butterflies, but it was sad and hard and tragic to end.

This song is speculated to be about Taylor Lautner. I think it’s a little bad of me, but I really don’t care who Taylor writes a song about, as long as I’m able to scream with her about failed relationships and people while driving my little car home after school. Taylor recounts for most of the song of long lost memories of love letters and lockets, but in the end resentment is all that is left between the two individuals of the relationship. I love Sad Beautiful Tragic because it makes my heart HURT. It sucks to see lockets and old letters and feel the hurt of time after a relationship just doesn’t work out, and Taylor sings about that beautiful BUT tragic processes in an amazing way. Also, this song is very calming! It kind of reminds me of something that might be played in Hobby Lobby. But like, the acoustic version.

3. All Too Well 

Okay, but here’s my opinion on the song everyone who has been ranting and raving about: I miss the old version 🙁

Taylor’s version, is really, really good. I love it. However, the old version (on the old Red album that ultimately didn’t give her any credit for her songwriting and singing), just had some SPECIAL spice added to it. When listening to All Too Well, I chose to listen to baby Taylor. All Too Well, is such a good SCREAMING song! Taylor sings of going through all of the broken memories between her and her ex. All of the negative memories ranging from her ex calling her up to make her feel broken from the sound of their voice, to making broken promises. Taylor recounts all of the good memories, from dancing around a kitchen together, and almost running red lights while driving in the car. I really love the lyrics of All Too Well. We all have that person that we’ve been in a relationship who keeps calling and tying to stick around, and their words sting almost just as much as the memories that you’ve shared with them. I love the story telling that Taylor incorporates into this song, and you can almost hear the progression of a relationship feeling perfect in the moment, but then it fails and all that is left is the feeling of being lost again.

4. Red

Taylor Swift is a lyrical goddess. Absolutely in love with her, but also every song she produces. The stories she tells throughout her songs are so detailed and beautiful and heartbreaking and relatable, and I think that’s why Taylor is so amazing in a very underrated way. Red, encompasses Taylor’s true talent of building off not only relationships and life experiences, but also emotional roller coasters that people go through when going through the hard relationships and life experiences. Taylor recounted that she wrote Red about a past relationship that failed, and the emotions that came with the relationship. Taylor placed those emotions into a color that took over the relationship; Red. Taylor correlated the typical strong feelings of rage, jealousy, disappointment with the color red, but also correlated the feelings of intense love, romance, and nostalgia with the color red. I love this concept that Taylor wrote a song about! I think I definitely can correlate my relationships with specific colors, and the use of red in 2 opposite, distinctive ways is so cool. Taylor’s voice is absolutely beautiful, 10/10.

(An amazing song to scream as well)

5. Girl At Home 

YUH. Fire. This song, literally FIRE. I really have enjoyed all of Taylor’s original Red songs up to this point, but Girl At Home, is FIRE. I think it’s so GOOD because it’s very, very relatable. Taylor sings about feeling conflicted in forming a relationship with a man, because he has a girl “at home.” Taylor sings about not knowing her, but feeling like she has a responsibility to do the ‘right thing’. One of my favorite verses from the song includes

“I just want to make sure

you understand perfectly

you’re the kind of man that makes me sad

While she waits up

You chase down the newest thing

And take for granted what you have”

I think (sterotyping here), girls go through this A LOT. I’ve been through this A LOT. You find a boy, think he’s sweet and nice and you feel like you really, really like him, and then BAM, you find out he is like… talking to other girls or he doesn’t want a relationship and he’s just bored or the WORST: finding out he literally is dating someone as he’s talking to you. Taylor captures what the inner conflict can be when going through this situation perfectly. While you feel so sick and upset about loving or being so interested in someone else, they are cheating? on their significant other with you. Taylor ends the song with saying that she denies the person who is trying to get close to her, because she has once “been a girl like her.” I think this is a perfect way to end the song because once being in this situation, you eventually learn that you aren’t just hurting yourself, but also contributing to hurting the other person being cheated on. A sucky situation, but happens more than people think. Great song though! I wish it was filled with more rage, I really wish I had the urge to scream this song but I just end up singing it 🙁