"The 10-minute version-which Swift clearly wrote in 2012, along with the rest of Red -works as a masterpiece in part because it contradicts most people's intuitions about how long pop songs can be. Many rock, funk, and R&B tracks last this long or longer, but they're not constructed like pop songs; they've got multiple parts like classical music suites, lengthy instrumental passages and solos, or improvisational sections."
"but they repeat themselves, with musically identical verses and choruses and nothing in between, as in Bob Dylan's almost nine-minute "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts." "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" does none of those things. Instead it stretches out a whole pop structure-verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridges, instrumental interludes-until it justifies its 10-minute length. It's not so much an alternative to the original as its fulfillment, the long and exciting drive from start to finish that the 2012 version should have become."
The 10-minute version of "All Too Well," written around 2012 and recorded for Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021, functions as a pop-music masterpiece that showcases Taylor Swift's command of language and songcraft. The track defies expectations about pop-song length by stretching a conventional pop structure—verses, pre-choruses, choruses, bridges, and instrumental interludes—into a sustained narrative without relying on repetition, long solos, or improvisation. Comparable long tracks in rock and neo-folk rely on multiple parts, instrumental passages, or repeated sections; by contrast, "All Too Well" fulfills and expands the original shorter version, delivering an extended, coherent emotional arc.
Read at Slate Magazine
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