I Can See You (song)

Music critics gave the song positive reviews, and praised its rhythmic production, sensual lyrics, and catchiness; some picked it as a highlight amongst the album's vault tracks.

An accompanying music video, written and directed by Swift, was released on July 7, 2023, premiering the day before at the first Eras Tour show in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live hosted a pop-up exhibit containing costumes and props from the video, in honor of Swift's record six sold-out shows at the SoFi Stadium as part of the Eras Tour.

Swift subsequently 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, the American 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 said 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".

[17][18][19] Mike DeWald from Riff Magazine characterized "I Can See You" as an indie rock song, and Annabel Nugent from The Independent thought it evokes an "indie-rock mood" that differs from its immediate predecessors.

[21][22] For Pitchfork, editor Vrinda Jagota wrote that it "sounds more like the inky, lilting trap-pop" on Reputation (2017) than the music on Speak Now (Taylor's Version).

[28] In a less positive review, The Guardian's Laura Snapes noted the "intriguingly sexual" lyrics, but criticized the production as "actively bad Maroon 5-core".

[24] "I Can See You" was placed within the top five in rankings of Swift's "From the Vault" tracks by Lipshutz,[29] Jake Viswanath of Bustle,[30] Nylon,[31] Time,[32] and Josh Kurp of Uproxx.

[33] Variety's Chris Willman listed the song at seventh on a ranking of her bonus tracks, praising Antonoff's production and dubbing it one of the "slinky bops" of 2023 and of Swift's discography.

[31] Time's Moises Mendez II said that the production brought forth a mysterious atmosphere and thought Swift "perfectly captured" the emotions of a "forbidden love".

[56] To honor Swift's record-setting six sold-out shows of the Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium, the Recording Academy hosted a special pop-up exhibit, titled I Can See You (Taylor's Version), at the Grammy Museum, Los Angeles, from August 2 to September 18, 2023.