Earlier this week, a small number of Taylor Swift fans received vinyl copies of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) that featured Cabaret Voltaire’s “Soul Vine (70 Billion People)” instead of “Mine (Taylor’s Version).”
TikToker Rachel Hunter chronicled her experience with the strange record, which featured the obscure electronic compilation Happy Land: A Compendium of Electronic Music from the British Isles 1992-1996 (Vol 1) instead of Speak Now. According to The Guardian, “'True Romance' by Thunderhead was the first thing Hunter heard when she played the record. ‘I thought maybe the vinyl had some sort of special message,’ she says. ‘Because Taylor does that sort of thing. This voice was saying strange things about flesh and anxiety. I was like: this is weird. I thought maybe the other side would be less strange but I flipped it over [to Cabaret Voltaire] and, no, it only got weirder.’”
The story has become so popular that even Cabaret Voltaire responded. Continues The Guardian: “’My kids in Australia told me about it,’ says Stephen Mallinder, co-founder of Cabaret Voltaire, now in Creep Show. They said, ‘Dad, you’re on a Taylor Swift record and this girl looks really distraught about it’.”
“We are aware that there are an extremely limited number of incorrectly pressed vinyl copies in circulation and have addressed the issue,” Universal Music Group, shared in a statement to Billboard. “If you have purchased one of the affected goods, please contact customer service at your respective retailer for a replacement or refund.”
Check out the viral TikTok that broke the news here.
