Electric Touch (song)

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, on October 25, 2010, under Big Machine Records.[2] She released three more studio albums under Big Machine, as per her recording contract, which expired in November 2018. Swift hence withdrew from Big Machine and signed a new deal with Republic Records, which secured her the rights to own the masters of any new music she would release.[3] In 2019, American businessman Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine;[4] the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six studio albums, including Speak Now, transferred to him.[5] In August 2019, Swift denounced Braun's purchase and announced that she would re-record her first six studio albums so as to own their masters herself.[6] She began the re-recording process in November 2020.[7]

On May 5, 2023, at the first Nashville date of her sixth concert tour, the Eras Tour, Swift announced Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and its release date of July 7.[8] She subsequently revealed in social media posts, "I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing ... and living to speak about it".[9] Swift emphasized the hardships she faced in her life during the time she wrote the record, among them "brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness".[10] On June 5, 2023, Swift announced the track-list of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), which consists 22 songs. Among them are six "From the Vault" songs that were written for the 2010 album but did not make the final track-list, including "Electric Touch", which features American rock band Fall Out Boy.[11]

"Electric Touch" is a pop-punk[12] and pop rock[13] song featuring electric guitar riffs and crescendo drums.[14] Critics described the production as "anthemic", "cinematic", and "soaring".[15][14][16] Swift's "creamy" vocals are juxtaposed with Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump's sharp voice.[17][16][14] The song is about the anxieties, pessimism and self-doubt over going on a first date.[18][15]

Speak Now (Taylor's Version) was released on July 7, 2023, by Republic Records; "Electric Touch" is placed at number 17 on the track-list.[19] The song peaked at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 16 on Hot Country Songs, where it became Fall Out Boy's first entry.[20][21][22] Elsewhere, it reached the countries of the Philippines (22),[23] New Zealand (35),[24] Australia (38),[25] Canada (46),[26] and peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Global 200.[27]

Rachel R. Carroll of PopMatters commended Swift's ability to "turn a small, fleeting moment into a cinematic showstopper".[14] Mark Sutherland from Rolling Stone UK wrote that Fall Out Boy raises the song to "soaring pop-punk status".[16] Bobby Olivier of Spin compared "Electric Touch" to other duet "Castles Crumbling" with Hayley Williams of Paramore, and opined that the former is more upbeat and called it a "fun and hooky, four-on-the-floor guitar jam — exactly the sort of pop-rock banger missed amid the digital thumps of Midnights".[17] Laura Shapes of The Guardian described "Electric Touch" as a "rueful stadium chugger", and considered it a "good bit of revisionist history, rightly honouring Speak Now as emo canon".[28]

In Uproxx, Danielle Chelosky lauded Swift and Stump for their musical chemistry and "impressive, mesmerizing" vocals.[29] Rolling Stone journalist Maura Johnston described the song as a "shimmering four minute pop gem", and wrote that Swift and Stump work "pleasantly" together.[18] In a less positive review, Jem Aswad from Variety found the song to be the least interesting "From the Vault" track compositionally, and said that "it lacks any of the truly great, peculiar lines that mark a Swift song as unmistakably hers".[7]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes[30]