2014 was the year of Taylor Swift. I felt like no matter where you went, you couldn’t escape her that year. From constant red carpet appearances, headlining Victoria Secret’s fashion show, releasing 1989 — which was a career-defining album cementing Taylor as a pop icon, — and pulling the album from free streaming services, Swift was always in the media following a highly publicized relationship with at the time One Direction member Harry Styles. The album was Swift’s full pop release, and the gamble of leaving her country roots paid off as the album scored her three number-one singles with “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood.” As Swifties were waiting anxiously for her to re-record her best-selling album, it was no surprise when Swift made the announcement on August 9, 2023.
Onto the re-recordings of songs that Swifties are all too familiar with, there were hits and misses. One of the reasons being that the primary producer of 1989, Max Martin, was not present on the re-recording of the album and was instead replaced by Christopher Rowe, who has worked on Taylor’s past re-recordings. However, I think it was a mistake for Swift not to have Martin on the album as he is a legendary producer, and even though Rowe could replicate Martin’s sound, it always felt like an imitation and not as sincere as his predecessor. Particularly the biggest misstep on the record is the re-recording of “Style” as the bass sounds entirely out of tune, while the guitar riff in the beginning of the song sounds so different that it’s disorienting. Even Swift herself doesn’t sound as passionate on this re-recording when compared to the original. When the lyrics for the part of “some other girl” come on the original, you can hear the pain and emotion in Swift’s voice. In the re-recording, however, it comes off as flat and surface level; as if Swift is giving a karaoke performance instead of performing her own song.
A more minor miss for me was “Blank Space,” as it lacked the sass from Swift that the original one had. I think the re-recordings sometimes sacrifice the song’s emotions for correcting the production and vocals; a tradeoff that I don’t fully agree with.
On the positive, the re-recordings made me finally enjoy “Welcome to New York.” While it is still not the best lyrically, I can stand to listen to its production now without running to hit the skip button like I used to. Also, as a certified “Shake It Off” slanderer, I was not expecting Taylor’s Version to make me add the song to some of my playlists. The production changes here make it sound different enough that it doesn’t sound precisely like the overplayed original. I also thought the rerecordings of “Out of the Woods” and “You Are in Love” were the most faithful sounding to the originals and that Jack Antonoff did a great job repeating his brilliance from the original.
Now, let’s get onto the vault tracks. The first of which was “Slut!” which was the most surprising vault to me as my expectations for the song were not at all what we got. Due to the exclamation mark in the title, I thought we were going to get a fast-paced or upbeat song formed as a feminist anthem against slut-shaming. Although slut-shaming was a topic of the song, it was more focused on the idea of entering a relationship with a guy because “it might be worth it for once,” highlighting how women are often judged more for their dating histories than men. Although the song is slower, I think it will be divisive among Swifties as Swift had mentioned she had considered replacing “Blank Space” with “Slut!” Let’s just say I’m glad she kept “Blank Space.” Overall, “Slut!” is a slow-burner and will not be for everyone, and I get why it was a vault track, as it is my least favorite out of the five but still not a bad song.
Next, we have “Say Don’t Go,” co-written by Diane Warren, and it’s a captivating vault track. You enter the song hearing Taylor’s lower register which makes it stand out among all of 1989, and then you get hit with an infectious and loud chorus which sells you entirely onto the song. “Why’d you whisper in the dark, just to leave me in the night?” were the lyrics that stood out for me because the dark is the loneliest time when you are up late with you and just your feelings. Out of the five vault tracks, I would rank it number three as it is a great song, but two others were just connecting more with me.
The third vault track is “Now That We Don’t Talk,” placed as the shortest Taylor Swift song ever made at two minutes and 26 seconds, and I can feel that during the song. I love the production and the lyrics and wish the song were longer and we got more of it. My only other small critique of the song is that it reminds me of that Charlie Puth song “We Don’t Talk Anymore” with Selena Gomez, (which is god awful, so it leads me to sometimes to skip this one). My standout lyrics were “And the only way to get back my dignity, was to turn into a shrouded mystery,” as it reminds me of when you rely on someone to validate your self-worth during a relationship. Now that you have broken up, you need to go into a period of isolating yourself to give you time to reinvent yourself. This also has one of my favorite Taylor outros on any song. Out of the five songs, I placed this one as fourth, only due to the length.
“Suburban Legends” is the fourth vault track and was my most anticipated vault track for Taylor’s Version, and it did not disappoint. My interpretation of the song is that it is Harry Styles-coded and that it centers on the fact that both Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have become celebrity figures; that their relationship was gossip fodder that we all discussed, and that she had hoped they would prove the public wrong and their relationship would be successful. My standout lyrics were “Would surprise the whole school when I ended back at our class reunion, walkin’ with you.” The lyrics make me think the school is a metaphor for the general public; the class reunion could be her thinking of a wedding where she marries the man that no one thought she could make it last with and prove us all wrong.
Still, the outro reveals she knew it probably wouldn’t last. Out of the vault tracks, this song has the biggest story being told and the most lyrically complex. My favorite thing about Taylor Swift’s songs is the amount of easter eggs in the songs and how much theorizing and speculation on the lyrics we can do. Out of the five vault tracks, it is my second favorite, only being bested by one song.
My favorite vault track and the last song is “Is It Over Now,” and this song is such a great closing vault track as it connects to so many 1989 songs, and it perfectly encapsulates the album. If you take any line in the song, you can connect it to another Taylor song, making it fun to analyze as a huge Swiftie. The song also felt the most personal as there were many personal details in the song as well as more of the sass I felt was missing in the rerecordings from the original 1989 songs. Some of these include the lines: “You dream of my mouth before it called you a lying traitor… you search in every maiden’s bed for something greater” or “And you think I didn’t see you? There were flashin’ lights, at least I had the decency to keep my nights out of sight,” which implies that either they were both cheating or after the breakup Swift kept her flings secret out of respect for him while he didn’t have the same courtesy for him. This song has the most tea out of any of the vaults, and it was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting this to be a slow song, but it wasn’t.
Overall, I enjoyed 1989 (Taylor’s Version), besides a few of the re-recordings, and I think it’s worth a listen for anyone interested. I cannot wait to hear the re-recordings for her debut album and Reputation.