"Forever Winter" is a song by the American singer-songwriter

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

from her second

re-recorded A re-recording is a recording produced following a new performance of a work of music. This is most commonly, but not exclusively, by a popular artist or group. It differs from a reissue, which involves a second or subsequent release of a previousl ...

album, ''

Red (Taylor's Version) ''Red (Taylor's Version)'' is the second re-recorded album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on November 12, 2021, by Republic Records, as part of Swift's re-recording project following the Taylor Swift masters d ...

'' (2021). She wrote the track with Mark Foster and produced it with

Jack Antonoff Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Bleachers, and previously the guitarist and drummer for the pop band Fun and the lead vocalist of t ...

. It was intended for but excluded from Swift's fourth studio album, ''Red'' (2012). "Forever Winter" is a

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, ...

track that incorporates

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s, and guitars in its

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...

. The lyrics find Swift worrying about her friend's mental health challenges and suicidal tendencies. Music critics praised the song for its complex production and Swift's diverse vocals. "Forever Winter" peaked at number 87 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 and reached the national charts of Canada and the United States.

Background and release

After ending her 13-year contract with

Big Machine Records Big Machine Records is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta and ...

and signing a new deal with

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

in 2018,

began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020. The decision followed a public 2019 dispute between Swift and the talent manager

Scooter Braun Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun ( ; born June 18, 1981) is an American businessman, investor, and record executive. Since 2023 he has served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Hybe America, the North American subsidiary of South Korean entertain ...

, who had acquired Big Machine, including the masters of her albums which the label had released. By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for

commercial use Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

and therefore substitute the Big Machine–owned masters. In April 2021, Swift released her first re-recorded album, ''

Fearless (Taylor's Version) ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' is the first re-recorded album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on April 9, 2021, by Republic Records, as part of Swift's re-recording project following the 2019 dispute over t ...

'', a re-recording of her second studio album, '' Fearless'' (2008); the album features several unreleased "From the Vault" tracks that she had written but left out of the original version's track listing. On November 12, 2021, she released ''

'', the re-recorded version of her fourth studio album, ''

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

'' (2012). "Forever Winter" is one of the album's vault tracks and number 27 on its track listing. On the week ending November 27, 2021, it reached number 26 on the US

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart, number 64 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

chart, number 79 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and number 87 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 chart.

Production and composition

Swift wrote "Forever Winter" with Mark Foster and produced it with

, who programmed the track and recorded it with Laura Sisk at

Conway Recording Studios Conway Recording Studios is a recording studio in Hollywood, California. People and awards Conway started in the early 1970s as a mastering studio. In 1976, the studio began recording albums, including projects by Elton John and Stevie Wonde ...

in Los Angeles,

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer. It was completed by 1970. Hendrix ...

in New York City, and Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn. Christopher Rowe recorded Swift's vocals at

Kitty Committee Studio The Samuel Goldwyn Estate is a house at 1200 Laurel Lane in Beverly Hills, California. It was designed by American architects Douglas Honnold and George Vernon Russell for Polish-American film producer Samuel Goldwyn and American actress Frances ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Northern Ireland. Jon Sher, John Rooney, Lauren Marquez worked as assistant recording engineers. Foster additionally provided background vocals, while Antonoff played drums, guitars, keyboards, percussion, bass, and

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

. The track was mixed by

Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...

at MixStar Studios in

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the ...

;

mastered Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be ...

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including Blink-182, DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse ...

Sterling Sound Studios George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

Edgewater, New Jersey Edgewater is a borough located along the Hudson River in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 14,336, an increase of 2,823 (+24.5%) from the 2010 census count of 11,5 ...

; and engineered for mix by Bryce Bordone. It was engineered by Antonoff, Sisk, Rooney, Evan Smith, Mikey Freedom Hart, David Hart, Sean Hutchinson, Michael Riddleberger, and Cole Kamen-Green. Musicians who played instruments include Mikey Freedom Hart (electric guitar, bass,

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, M1,

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

); Smith (saxophone, flute); Kamen-Green (

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

mellophone The mellophone is a brass instrument used in marching bands and drum and bugle corps in place of French horns. It is a middle-voiced instrument, typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E, D, C, and G (as a bugle) have also historica ...

); Hutchinson (drums, percussion); and Riddleberger (percussion). "Forever Winter" is four minutes and twenty-three seconds long. It is a

song opening with an energetic

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

that evokes the music of

the Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

church, according to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' Helen Brown. The song then transitions into the

that features an

upbeat Up beat may refer to: *Upbeat, in music, the last beat in the previous bar which immediately precedes the downbeat *Anacrusis, a note (or sequence of notes) which precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase * ''Upbeat'' (album), by t ...

arrangement and Swift's dynamic vocals, incorporating

s, and guitars. The lyrics find Swift trying to help a friend through his mental health challenges and suicidal tendencies. She worries that his thoughts may be leaning towards suicide ("Live my life scared to death he'll decide to leave instead"), although his thoughts during their phone calls sound less suicidal than they truly are. She tells him how much he matters to her ("I'd fall to pieces on the floor/ If you weren't around") and that she will always support him ("I'll be summer sun for you forever/ Forever winter if you go"). Some music journalists found "Forever Winter" similar to Swift's single "

Renegade Renegade or The Renegade may refer to: Aircraft *Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design *Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design *Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design Games *''Command ...

" (2021).

Critical reception

Music critics praised "Forever Winter" for its detailed production and Swift's diverse vocals. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' Chris Willman lauded the track for its cheerful rhythm, mature concept, and "bittersweet" trumpet notes and saxophone embellishments, and ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

'' Nate Jones believed that Swift's feelings resonate authentically in "Forever Winter". ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' Samantha Cooney similarly complimented the trumpet notes and how "you can hear the emotions in Swift's voice". Josh Kurp of ''

Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...

'' thought that her "voice cracks" during the refrain contributed depth to the song. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Jason Lipshutz commended the track for its complex production and Swift's subtle and diverse vocals; he considered it the album's eighth-best vault track. Lauren McCarthy from ''

Nylon Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...

'' wrote: "It's a testament to both Swift's songwriting and vocals that the song is ..one of her rawest and heart-wrenching." In a less enthusiastic review, ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'' Callie Ahlgrim felt "Forever Winter" did not possess the "gut-punch revelations or keen-eyed observations" found in "Renegade" and criticized how it portrayed the narrator as a "kind of happiness tool at a man's disposal". Courteney Larocca from the same publication took issue with the narrator's perspective of viewing her friend as an issue to be resolved, but appreciated the refrain in which the narrator addresses him directly. They both placed the song last in their ranking of the album's vault tracks. "Forever Winter" appeared in 2023 rankings of Swift's vault tracks by ''Nylon'' McCarthy and Steffanee Wang (6 out of 21), Kurp (15 out of 26), Willman (19 out of 25), and Lipshutz (23 out of 26), and 2024 rankings of her discography by Jones (120 out of 245) and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

Rob Sheffield Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author. He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at '' Blen ...

(168 out of 274).

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

of ''Red (Taylor's Version)''. *

– lead vocals, songwriter, producer * Mark Foster – background vocals, songwriter *

– producer, engineer, recording engineer, programmer, drums, percussion, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

12-string acoustic guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in oc ...

, keyboards * Christopher Rowe – vocal recording engineer * Laura Sisk – engineer, recording engineer * Jon Sher – assistant recording engineer * John Rooney – engineer, assistant recording engineer * Lauren Marquez – assistant recording engineer * Evan Smith – engineer, saxophone, flute * Mikey Freedom Hart – engineer, electric guitar, bass,

, M1,

* David Hart – engineer * Sean Hutchinson – engineer, drums, percussion * Michael Riddleberger – engineer, percussion * Cole Kamen-Green – engineer, trumpet, mellophone *

– mixer * Bryce Bordone – engineer for mix *

– mastering engineer

Charts

Footnote

References

{{authority control 2021 songs Taylor Swift songs Songs written by Taylor Swift Songs written by Mark Foster (singer) Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff American power pop songs Songs about mental health Songs about suicide