I have a lot of thoughts I need to unpack about All Too Well (both versions, more on that in a sec) but overall this album is fantastic.
- many of the songs match or improve on the originals (Treacherous, Red, Begin Again, State of Grace)
- I'm taking notice of songs (The Last Time, Sad Beautiful Tragic) that I never gave much time to before
- We Are Never Ever... is hilariously off, and I'm not even going to hit play on Trouble (shit song anyway)
- several of the vault tracks are AMAZING? like, so good. Nothing New with Phoebe is lovely, Message in a Bottle is PURE 1989, and Forever Winter is the real revelation —
gorgeous brass
as for All Too Well... the 5 minute version is a bit too clean and lacking the urgency of the original for me. her deeper vocal sounds good but again takes me out of a bit. so I'm keeping the original.
the 10 minute version is... an entirely new song?
they stitched in a couple of verses but they should have called this (Part II) because it's entirely different. I like it, it flies by and the outro is lovely, but it's more of a nice to have than anything essential and Jack's production is oddly muted.
overall — she is insane, her talent is matched only by her hatred for Scooter Braun and the patriarchy, and this is an excellent re-record of an album that I think is WAY stronger than I ever gave it credit for. In fact Red (TV) is possibly her best work.
sorry for the essay but, on a Wednesday, in a cafe... I watched it begin again.
queen!!!