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In 2005, 15 year old Taylor Swift signed a 13-year contract with Big Machine Records. In this time she recorded six albums, earning her stardom and global renown. When Big Machine was bought by Scooter Braun, Swift lost the licensing to those albums, but a clause in her contract allowed her to re-record her music after five years. The new recordings would let her own her music, and created the iconic “Taylor’s Version” title. Taylor also drops songs “from the vault” that never made it to standard or deluxe versions of the original albums. With the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”, Swift owns the rights to eight out of her ten albums.
The “1989” re-record received mixed reviews. Fans’ biggest complaint was the loss of emotion and angst in “Bad Blood” and “Blank Space,” two of her biggest hits. There was a bit of a loss in the depth of these songs, but there were other things that were more noticeable. Her pop hit “Style” had a slightly different background track that scared many fans, but in my opinion, the change was bound to happen. Taylor is older and in a different state of mind than she was in 2014, when the album was originally released, so naturally, it will be different.
For other songs, Taylor’s vocals were praised. The vocal performances in “How You Get The Girl,” “Out of the Woods,” “I Know Places” and “Wonderland” far surpassed those from the original recordings. In the nine years since “1989’s” original release, Swift’s vocal skill has increased tenfold. Her vocal support and background vocals both are noticeably stronger. Some songs did not have many noticeable changes, such as “This Love,” “All You Had To Do Was Stay” and “Shake It Off.”
Swift also released new vault tracks for the album. “Say Don’t Go” follows her struggle with wanting someone that doesn’t want her back, and the song is a beautiful representation of the experience of being led on and left behind. “Now That We Don’t Talk” has an uplifting feel with beautiful, poetic lyrics. It gives insight into her hope of moving on and accepting that the old ways of her life are over. “Suburban Legends” is an upbeat anthem that showcases her chorus-writing abilities perfectly. The final vault track was titled “Is It Over Now?”, and garnered lots of attention from fans due to certain standout lines. On the track, Swift sang, “Blue dress on a boat, your new girl is my clone,” which reminded fans of paparazzi photos from 2014 of Taylor Swift on a boat in a blue dress after a fight with then-boyfriend Harry Styles. References aside, the song was skillfully written and flawlessly sung.
With Taylor on her journey to reclaim her name and music, she has no limits to how honest she can be with the public. The vault tracks and re-records were unparalleled and showed the growth and maturity that Swift was able to achieve. All that’s left is for her to take back “Reputation” and her self-titled album, and then her music will finally be owned solely by her. Overall, Taylor Swift was able to keep her status as one of the best pop singers of all time, and her new version of “1989” helped cement this.
