Listen to Taylor Swift’s new ‘Old Timey Version’ of ‘Christmas Tree Farm’

Taylor Swift has continued to reimagine even the most obscure corners of her back-catalogue, sharing a suave, swing-inspired redux of her 2019 holiday song ‘Christmas Tree Farm’.

Dubbed the ‘Old Timey Version’, Swift’s new take on the song – released as an Amazon Original – dials back the bubbly youthfulness of the original in favour of warm, smoky horns and grandiose strings. She recorded it in London’s epochal Abbey Road Studios, joined by a 70-piece orchestra.

“This new version is amazing because it feels like it’s that more… sort of laidback Christmas feel of doing all your shopping and relaxing by a fire,” Swift said in an accompanying behind-the-scenes video. “Y’know, it’s definitely a little bit more of that old-school Christmas song feel.”

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Have a listen to ‘Christmas Tree Farm (Old Timey Version)’ below, then check out the making-of video:

Earlier this week, Swift scored her eighth consecutive UK Number One album with ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’. The new LP came out last Friday (November 12) and features the entirety of 2012’s ‘Red’ re-recorded – including collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and more – along with a host of ‘vault’ tracks and rarities.

Swift is remaking her first six studio albums – up to and including 2017’s ‘Reputation’ – following the controversial sale of her masters in recent years. The star released ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ in April before sharing a re-recording of ‘1989’ single ‘Wildest Dreams’ last month.

In a four-star review of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, NME’s Hannah Mylrea said: “It’s not an exercise of rethinking and tweaking old songs, but to take back ownership of her own music. The production here is a little sharper, with the instrumentation being brought further into focus: the opening percussion of ‘State Of Grace’ is crisper, the soft-rock guitar of the title track a little brighter and the mandolin of ‘Stay Stay Stay’ lifted.”

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Swift also made Spotify history with ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, racking up the biggest number of first-day streams by a female artist in history. In the first 24 hours since their release, songs from ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ were streamed 90.8million times, according to Billboard.

The new record breaks a previous top-spot also held by Swift, whose first 2020 lockdown album, ‘Folklore’, was streamed 80.6million times in its first day.






Immediately following the release of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, Swift shared a new reimagining of ‘All Too Well’ labelled the ‘Sad Girl Autumn’ version. Recorded at Aaron Dessner‘s Long Pond Studios, the song takes on a much more sombre mood, with moody piano replacing the original’s twangy acoustic guitar.