Anyone who knows me knows Taylor Swift is my favorite singer. I have her cds and sweatshirts, and I even made the Junior Jewels shirt to go see The Eras Tour Movie. However, a lot of people don’t know that 1989 is my favorite TS album. So, when she announced she would be re-recording it, I was excited, to say the least. She announced that it would be released on October 27th, 2023. I’ve had that date marked in my calendar since August.
Like all of the other re-recordings, I immediately knew what song is my favorite. From Fearless it’s “Forever & Always,” from Red it’s “Everything Has Changed,” Speak Now is “Back To December,” and from 1989 it’s “I Wish You Would.”
The original version of the album was released in 2014 right after Swift moved to New York. The opening song is all about that and is titled “Welcome to New York,” For those of you who’ve seen the film The Secret Life Of Pets, you’ve heard the song. Track two is “Blank Space,” a crowd favorite. Due to the fact that it was one of the three singles off the album.
This album has multiple songs about Harry Styles. (“Style” and “Out Of The Woods”). As a fan of Styles, these two have always been favorites. “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood” are also featured on 1989. All three are great songs, but I was most excited for “Bad Blood.” I really wanted to see if Kendrick Lamar would be featured, and he is! Swift put out a deluxe version of the album that features Lamar and the iconic line “You forgive, you forget, but you never let it go.”
Many remember when Swift re-released “This Love” and “Wildest Dreams,” which really made me believe that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was coming out in 2021. However, it did not. Instead, in 2021 Red (Taylor’s Version) came out. Then there was the “Taylor In Wonderland” era, when people heard “Wonderland” for the first time.
While I was growing up, there were two songs I thought went hand-in-hand. “Stay, Stay, Stay” from Red (Taylor’s Version) and “All You Had To Do Was Stay” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
I need to talk about the love songs. 1989 features three blatant love songs. They are “How You Get The Girl,” “This Love,” and “You Are In Love.” “You Are In Love” is track number fifteen and my favorite of the three.
Speaking of favorites, as I said previously “I Wish You Would” is my favorite song. However, “I Know Places” and “Clean” follow close behind. Many listen to “Clean” but are unaware of what it’s about. During the 1989 era Swift was struggling with anorexia (an eating disorder). This song was about her recovery journey and what it feels like to be clean. It’s by far the heaviest song on the album, especially now that it’s been nearly ten years, to see how far she’s come.
On a bit of a lighter note, the last song on the album is “New Romantics.” I’ve always been a big fan of the song, but in the past few years it’s definitely become a favorite. It’s the song my best friend knows the best. So therefore, it’s usually the song I play when we’re together.
Now, because this is a re-recording, there are vault tracks. If you don’t know what vault tracks are, they are the songs that didn’t make the cut when the album was first released. When Swift was first writing 1989 she wrote about 100 tracks for the album. Originally sixteen made the cut and the rest were scrapped. Now, Swift was able to add five new songs for the re-release. The songs are “Sl*t!” “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” and “Is It Over Now?” If you’re a big fan of Swift, then you remember when she first revealed what the vault tracks were called. Everyone was coming up with theories on what they thought the songs would sound like, “Sl*t!” definitely had the most predictions. I was a little shocked when I heard it for the first time. Despite “ME!” (From Lover) and the song being the only two to have exclamation marks, the two are very different. “ME!” is very upbeat, while “Sl*t!” isn’t at all. My favorite vault track is “Is It Over Now?” The song is said to be about Harry Styles and I definitely see it, through all of the parallels to his various songs.
1989 has always been my favorite album. There’s something so special about it that I could never put my finger on, but the other day one of my friends said that it was the most similar to the other music I listen to. It makes a lot of sense and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that. I’ve grown up listening to Taylor Swift. Her Debut album came out the year I was born and the deluxe version of Folklore was released on my birthday. So I can confidently say I adore this album and cannot wait for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version), even though they haven’t been announced yet.
