Taylor Swift’s original ‘All Too Well’ will always get turned up in the car. Her lackluster new version will probably get skipped.
“All Too Well” has been Taylor Swift’s greatest song ever since its release on her “Red” album in 2012. It’s always been the best—even when most fans were too busy dressing up like hipsters, making fun of their exes, and vowing never ever to get back together to recognize the genius of the understated deep cut. On Friday, Taylor re-released a longer version of the 2012 masterpiece and in 10 minutes destroyed the best song of all time. The remake derails early with a sharp “f-ck the patriarchy,” but never recovers. Despite what Federalist readers might assume, the biggest problem is hardly its not-so-subtle political jab and profanity. The real problem is what it symbolizes: the death of a pure and relatable coming-of-age heartbreak song and the precocious girl who invited us to relate to it. The beauty of the original is manifold. Its simple acoustics allow the song to adopt the raw emotion of the song without getting in the way, leading to two separate and gut-wrenching climaxes near the end. Just when you think the song is falling, it rises and grips you again. Though Taylor is known for being a brilliant lyricist, the words in “All Too Well” are her crown jewel. With phrases like, “I might be okay but I’m not fine at all,” “I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to,” and “You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest,” the songwriter put poignant words to some of the most universal feelings of heartbreak and longing.
