by | Salma Cano
Staff Reporter
Exactly 9 years after the original, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was released October 27. This is a re-recording of Taylor Swift’s hit album 1989 from 2014, including the addition of five songs from the vault. With 1989 being her most successful album, fans have been anticipating this moment for quite some time, and it has finally arrived.
With this album, Swift has broken her own record for Spotify’s Single-Day LP Stream. With familiar tracks Wildest Dreams and This Love topping the list already with hundreds of millions of streams, the Swifties are staying committed to honoring the music that Taylor Swift owns in comparison to the older version that was sold by her former client, Scooter Braun.
When it comes to the vault tracks, the highly foreseen “Slut!” has already gotten nearly 50 million streams. With the big hint of the title, this song is about all the criticism that Swift has received about her dating life. Despite the idea and intention behind this song, it is not what most would expect. We’ve seen her write hits like Shake It Off and Blank Space from the original 1989 album over this topic, but melodically, “Slut!” is quite the opposite of these very upbeat tunes. The first verse caught me by surprise with the romantic lyrics, “Flamingo Pink Sunrise Boulevard/ Clink, clink, being this young is art/ Aquamarine, moonlit swimmin’ pool/ What if all I need is you?”
After “Slut!” the next vault track Say Don’t Go is one of my personal favorites. This is probably the most heartbreaking song throughout the entire album. We can already see this in the first verse with the lyrics “I’ve known it from the very start/We’re a shot in the darkest dark/Oh no, oh no, I’m unarmed/ The waiting is a sadness/Fading into madness/ Oh no, oh no, it won’t stop.” We also hear a much deeper side of Swift’s voice in this part of the song, that we only really see in a couple other tracks in this album. This helps set the melancholy tone for the rest of the song and convey the message of not wanting to leave a loved one, despite it being for the best.
Then, the most streamed vault track, Is It Over Now? had really struck a chord with me and many of my fellow Swifties. Swift never fails to create catchy, likable songs, even with wordy lyrics such as “Let’s fast forward to three hundred takeout coffees later/ I see your profile and your smile on unsuspecting waiters”. Despite this song having very similar vibes to the fan favorite Out Of The Woods, this is a very mature track about the relationship issues a famous couple goes through. With references such as “red blood, white snow” and “blue dress on a boat”, fans believe this is specifically about Swift’s past relationship with Harry Styles. A while back, Swift had gotten into a snowmobile accident with Styles, and a photo of her sitting on a boat alone in a blue dress was supposedly taken not very long after their breakup.
Overall, I believe that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is one of Swift’s best albums. Though I’m not sure if anything can compare to the vault for her album Red, Swift’s vocals have improved a noticeable amount from the original 1989 nine years ago. From then to now, it’s easy to tell how much cleaner and more controlled her voice is when comparing the original tracks to their re-records. I will definitely support Swift’s efforts towards owning her own music by listening to this album. I rate this album a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
