Before the album release during the Thursday Night Football game on the 21st, it was announced that Taylor Swift would be releasing something during the third quarter. That something was a trailer for her album with clips from a few music videos. I was disappointed. The hype that came with this third quarter surprise was a let down just to see snippets of something I would be getting within the next week during her other video releases.

Another thing that disappointed me about this album was the lack of singles released early. I had hoped for a little taste of what we were getting early and that song never came. Some of the songs on this album such as Bejeweled, Karma, Lavender Haze, or Maroon would have been amazing as singles. While I understand the suspense of the whole album being released at the same time, I believe that Taylor would make more money and get more listeners if a sneak peak was revealed.

Before the release, Swift had released a day by day breakdown for the week after her album release. Fans had noticed that there was a “3am Surprised” on the calendar breakdown. This surprise was seven extra songs on top of the other 13. These songs were a nice mix of slower ballads and more pop songs. My favorite from these extra songs was Paris and my least favorite was The Great War.

Swifties have been theorizing about different aspects of this album. People have been analyzing things Swift was wearing in music videos that went along with the album or lyrics to see if anything was pointing at what she was going to release next. The biggest theory as of right now is that Swift will be re-releasing her album “Speak Now” due to similar imagery and hinting to the color purple that is associated with that album.

Even with this album's few faults, it is still great. While the 7 rating comes from slightly repetitive backing tracks for some songs and a few songs with similar lyrics, I still feel it is a strong album. With the hype that came with Red (Taylor’s Version), I was not surprised with the amount of immense support this album is receiving and I can’t wait to see what Taylor Swift does next.