Taylor Swift update on Speak Now Studio Album Speak Now is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, through Big Machine Records. Swift wrote it in a two-year period while she was promoting her second studio album Fearless (2008). Inspired by Swift’s transition from adolescence into adulthood, Speak Now is a loose concept album about her confessions regarding love and heartache, with some songs about her public image. Produced by Swift and Nathan Chapman, the album combines country pop, pop rock, and power pop with rock sensibilities and melodies characterized by acoustic instruments, dynamic electric guitars, strings, and drums.

After the album’s release, Swift embarked on the Speak Now World Tour, which visited Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania from February 2011 to March 2012. The album was supported by six singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles “Mine” and “Back to December”, and the US Hot Country Songs number ones “Sparks Fly” and “Ours”. Speak Now peaked atop charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia (double platinum) and Canada (triple platinum).

In the US, it sold one million copies within its first release week, spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and was certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Speak Now received generally positive reviews from music critics for offering emotional engagement and radio-friendly songs. Some critics complimented Swift’s grown-up perspective, but others took issue with the songs about vengeance and heartbreak as shallow. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Speak Now was nominated for Best Country Album, and its third single “Mean” won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. The album appeared in 2010s decade-end lists by Billboard and Spin, and on Rolling Stone’s 2012 list of the “50 Best Female Albums of All Time”. Critics have retrospectively considered Speak Now’s songs about Swift’s public experience a precedent to her songwriting on subsequent albums.