Castles Crumbling

[3] In 2019, the music executive Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine;[4] the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six studio albums, including Speak Now, transferred to him.

[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.

She produced it with Jack Antonoff, who also provided programming and played instruments including acoustic, bass, electric guitar, drums, piano, and synthesizer.

Others musicians on the song were Bobby Hawk (violin), Eric Byers (cello), Evan Smith (flute, saxophone), Mikey Freedom Hart (synthesizer), and Sean Hutchinson (drums, percussion).

[31][32][33][34][35] Maura Johnston, in a review for Rolling Stone, drew comparison between the themes of "Castles Crumbling" and "Innocent", a Speak Now track released in 2010 that also addressed the MTV incident.

[39] The second verse featuring vocals from Williams has lyrics, "Once, I was the great hope for a dynasty/ Crowds would hang on my words and they trusted me", which Glamour UK editor Suzanne Cordeiro thought to metaphorize Swift's early-career role in bringing country music to a younger generation.

[29] Bustle journalist Jake Viswanath meanwhile wrote that the said lyrics illustrate how small missteps might have a catastrophic influence over someone's career, a narrative that continues through the pre-chorus: "Power went to my head and I couldn't stop/ Ones I loved tried to help, so I ran them off.

[40][16][41] Others compared "Castles Crumbling" to "Nothing New", a vault track included on Red (Taylor's Version) (2021) featuring Phoebe Bridgers, since it is a self-written piece with a guest vocals from female friend, "[grappling] with a particular kind of self-doubt, caused by the glare of a spotlight in her eyes" as put by Callie Alhgrim from Business Insider.

[29][31][35][40] In The Daily Telegraph, Poppie Plat said that listeners who expected the Swift–Williams collaboration might be disappointed by the "somewhat saccharine tone" but picked it as a standout and said it was a "perfect companion" to other ballads such as "Enchanted" and "Last Kiss".

[44] Labeling the track as "a duet for the ages", British Rolling Stone critic Mark Sutherland praise how the singers' voices "gorgeously intertwin[e] as they wrestle with the fear that the cheers may one day turn to jeers".

[30] In the article published on Spin, Bobby Olivier opined that it is a "stronger" duet offered in Speak Now (Taylor's Version) than "Electric Touch", a collaboration with the band Fall Out Boy, calling it a "deliciously emo piano burner".

[28] Despite placing the song last on his ranking of the album's "From the Vault" tracks, Jason Lipshutz of Billboard wrote that the production is "brimming with ethereal voices and Swift and Williams maintaining mournful attitudes as they examine their personal wreckage".