This past month on Oct. 27 Taylor Swift released her fourth re-recorded album, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”. These albums don’t only include the same songs re-recorded but also include new songs that had to be cut from the original album. When choosing the tracks for the album released in 2014, many had to be cut because of the amount of songs she was allowed to release due to record company restrictions.
This album is one of Swift’s most significant, with this being her first official pop album and also the most-awarded pop album of all time. So it didn’t seem like she needed to add or change anything to it to make it better but she somehow found a way to do so.
The opening track, “Welcome To New York,” has many additional instrumentals added, which makes it have a more powerful sound compared to the original song. It’s almost immediately noticeable. It brings out the song’s essence of a new start for her and her career but also for her fans who could be going through an exciting or new experience in their life. It sets the tone for the sound and energy of the entire album. Swift added instrumentals and vocals to quite a few of the re-recorded songs.
These songs are clearly different from the original, and it takes time to get used to in the beginning, especially with updated audio and changes in her voice in the 10-year gap between these two albums. Once you listen to it more and more you can start to appreciate the changes Swift and the rest of the collaborators on this album made.
The vault songs on this album are some of the most highly anticipated tracks out of all the re-recorded albums. The first vault song was one of the most talked about tracks because of its bold title that could be about many different things. The track was extremely well done with a pace and theme unexpectedly similar to “This Love” which is a slower and more peaceful song. The second vault track, “Say Don’t Go”, has a well-produced build-up and well-written chorus that makes it incredibly memorable.
“Now That We Don’t Talk”, the third vault song on the album, is arguably one of the best vault tracks on this album. Even with the song being the shortest one in her entire discography it still seems to encapsulate how the experience of a breakup or a friend breakup feels in only a little over two minutes. This song has an extremely cathartic bridge, which is a very common theme for Swift’s songs, and the lyrics are so well done and personal to her but can also be extremely relatable to everyone.
Another vault track on “1989”, “Suburban Legends”, is written from the perspective of a high schooler talking about their relationship, with lyrics like “maybe our mismatched star signs would surprise the whole school” and “When I ended up back at our class reunion, walking in with you.” Although Swift was 25 years old when she originally wrote this song and 33 years old when she re-recorded it she was still able to capture the relatable feeling of a high school relationship.
The final vault track, “Is It Over Now?”, is iconic even at first glance because it plays on being the last song in the album. The song itself is very similar to the songs on “Midnights” which shows how, even if her music has evolved and improved since the original album, she still had writing and producing habits that haven’t changed.
Overall this re-recording was very well done. Swift and her other collaborators and producers did an amazing job of keeping the original songs as similar to the originals as they could while also adding these final touches that you wouldn’t know they needed until you heard them. The vault tracks fit in perfectly with the rest of the album and were amazing additions to the record.
