Taylor Swift has debuted a snippet of her re-recorded back catalogue, using a new dating app ad to premiere a new take on Love Story.
Taking to social media Thursday morning, Swift revealed her reworked 2008 hit appears in a fresh Match.com commercial.
The commercial itself comes from Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, who has stretched his talents into writing and production, and Swift said it was Reynolds who actually asked to use her new (old) tune.
“Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend [Reynolds] asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote,” Swift said.
“So…here’s a sneak peak of Love Story! Working hard to get the music to you soon!!”
As for the song itself: I won’t claim to have forensic knowledge of Swift’s music, but I reckon the re-recorded Love Story has slightly less Nashville sheen than the original. Her voice, twelve years removed, also lends some new maturity to the tune.
Is it total reimagining, as if Love Story had to fit on folklore? No. But it is maybe 10% less saccharine than the OG.
Despite the ad, Swift’s battle over the rights to her back catalogue has been deadly serious.
The abridged version is that pop mega-manager Scooter Braun acquired Swift’s original label, Big Machine Records, back in 2019.
Swift objected to the deal, owing to personal grievances against Braun. More than that, though, Swift lost the rights to many of her master recordings in the deal, meaning she kinda didn’t own her own music any more.
She vowed to re-record her biggest hits as a ‘fuck you’ to Braun. Today, we learned what the first chords of that ‘fuck you’ sound like.
Last month, upon hearing that Braun had offloaded the masters to a separate investment fund, Swift said re-recording her hits has been “exciting and creatively fulfilling.”
Swift added that she has “plenty of surprises in store,” and I suppose a guest soundtrack appearance in an ad for Match.com counts as a surprise.
We’ll let you know when Swift reveals further banjo plucks in the quest to reclaim her tunes.
