POP/ROCK

Taylor Swift, "Better Than Revenge (Taylor's Version)"

"Speak Now," from 2010, was Swift's third album, and it is now the third to be rereleased as a rerecorded "Taylor's Version." But all along, the album was a declaration of independence: It was the first she wrote entirely on her own, as a rebuttal to critics who suggested that Swift's co-writers had a bigger hand in her previous successes than she'd let on. "Speak Now" remains one of Swift's best and most sharply penned albums.

But "Speak Now" is an album of excesses, too; some of them are glorious — like the epic kiss-off "Dear John" or the romantic grandiosity of "Enchanted" — and some of them are the authentic artifacts of a 19-year-old's somewhat myopic sensibility. "Mean," which punches down, is guilty of that, and so is the acidic rocker "Better Than Revenge," which has the most significantly revised lyrics in a "Taylor's Version."

"He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches," Swift sings on this 2023 update, a clumsier and less direct lyric than the original: "She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress." The change is unfortunate, and perhaps the beginning of a slippery slope of self-editing. The previous lyric was sanctimonious and nasty, yes, but it was also a historical document of Swift's point of view at 19, and that of many young women who, being raised in a misogynistic society, are taught to blame the other girl before they learn how to curse "the patriarchy."

LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times

Prince, "All a Share Together Now"

The latest find from Prince's vault is a song he recorded in 2006 but never released in any form. Prince sings about generational responsibilities — "the debt of the ones before us must be paid" — in a taut, bare-bones funk workout built around a jumpy bass riff. Live drums kick the beat around and a note-bending guitar teases out terse licks that are simultaneously lead and rhythm. It's a homily disguised as a jam.

JON PARELES, New York Times

New releases

  • Rita Ora, "You & I"
  • Palehound, "Eye on the Bat"
  • Colter Wall, "Little Songs"
  • Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, "Sticks and Stones"
  • Kool & the Gang, "People Just Wanna Have Fun"