Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version) [Oct 27] + Re-Recordings

I’ve been stanning Taylor and Paramore for years but I never heard about their friendship… is this just a PR move?

Definitely not a PR move, and it makes sense to have her on this album because Speak Now (the song) is (allegedly, but most certainly) about Hayley, and Josh Farro's wedding, which Taylor was at:

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It’s like Taylor knew I was starting to lose interest in her again, so she included the Fall Out Boy feature just for me. No, but seriously it’s nice to see some features that match her inspirations at the time. Reminds me of Keith Urban showing up on Fearless TV.
If you’ve lost interest I think it’s time to check out, 2020-2023 is a fever dream fandom.
 
Oh dddd um are you sure it's Josh? I've never heard of Taylor having any interest in him, especially since he and Hayley did date for a bit in 2006 or 2007.

No, the song is about Hayley and Josh. Not Taylor and Josh. This explains it:

The song was inspired by the story of one of her friends and her high school boyfriend. That friend is rumored to be Hayley Williams of Paramore, who attended the wedding of her ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Josh Farro in April 2010. The couple went their separate ways after high school – with the idea that they would get back together. One day, Taylor’s friend informed her that her high school boyfriend would soon wed. “He had met this girl who’s just this horrible, mean person who made him completely stop talking to all of his friends, cut off his family. She had him so completely isolated,” said Taylor. She asked her friend if she would “speak now.” Perplexed, her friend asked for an explanation, and she answered, “You know, storm the church. ‘Speak now or forever hold your peace.’ I’ll go with you. I’ll play guitar. It’d be great.” Taylor’s friend found this to be humorous, laughing at the idea:

“One of my friends, the guy she had been in love with since childhood was marrying this other girl. And my first inclination was to say, ‘Well, are you gonna speak now?’ And then I started thinking about what I would do if I was still in love with someone who was marrying someone who they shouldn’t be marrying. And so I wrote this song about exactly what my game plan would be”
 

I love them so much.

Oh what the fuck?? I’m tearing up. Both Hayley and Taylor were such fundamental figures for me growing up, even still today. I’ve turned to their work repeatedly over the years as we’ve grown and they’re both so dear to me and now getting to hear them together officially feels a bit surreal.

On the topic of Speak Now - I’ve been re-listening a lot lately because I went years without diving into it as a whole due to playing it into the ground for so long and it’s truly such a special album. It came out right at the age where I was starting to know what it felt like to see Sparks Fly when someone smiled and to daydream about what Mine would look like someday for me. I struggle to say it’s quintessential Taylor only because it doesn’t have the huge capital P pop moments that she’d go on to cement as career classic shortly after, but it really is the perfect summation and introduction into the Taylor that so many of us fell in love with from the very start. It’s a lyrical behemoth and such a leap forward from what she mastered with Fearless. I honestly didn’t realize how much of this album had colored my life until diving back in - my school playing Never Grow up in the auditorium while us high school seniors said goodbye to our teachers and to each other, Last Kiss on many a late night drive, too broken hearted to sleep, Better Than Revenge every time I was so pitifully jealous I couldn’t see straight, Enchanted embarrassingly dedicated to far too many people…it’s an album that’s always been there with me.

All this to say, it’s been incredible to grow from a little girl to a woman with an artist like this. It’s so crazy that two years ago we got the first re-recording and now it’s this whole…thing. I really can’t wait. This next month can’t go by fast enough.
 
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