Rating: 4/5
Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) cracks the shrewd, cool-girl persona embodied by Swift in 1989, letting a light of vulnerability and ache contextualize each song.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) marks Swift’s fourth go at re-recording her previous albums, following the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July. The eagerness to reclaim the work from Swift’s first six albums stems from a decision by her previous label, Big Machine Records, to sell the master recordings without Swift’s consent. This sparked a commitment on Swift’s behalf to reclaim the master recording rights to her past catalogue in the form of re-mastered recordings, now known as Taylor’s Version.
The public reception to Swift’s re-recordings thus far has been overwhelmingly positive, embracing her as a hegemonic force in pop music and culture. Seeing as 1989 largely cemented Swift as a critically acclaimed pop idol, the re-recording had great expectations to meet.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) mostly manages to capture the essence of pop perfection established by Swift’s crown jewel, 1989. That said, a trained Swiftie ear may notice incongruences in the mixes or instrumentation that distinguish 1989 (Taylor’s Version) from the original record, 1989.
While some songs stood out because of flaws in mixing and production, others were able to shine brighter than ever before. Some flawed attempts to capture the essence of the original tracks include hit songs such as “Style” and the album opener, “Welcome to New York”. Weirdly enough, the problem with both re-mastered versions is not one of unhinged creative liberties taken, but rather an issue of lack of attention to detail.
For “Style (Taylor’s Version),” the iconic guitar riff that carries the rhythm of the song sounds robotic and plays with a different tonality than the original. Likewise, the synthesizers in the mix fail to reflect the growing energy of the song before it bursts into the chorus.
In contrast, songs like “I Wish You Would” and “I Know Places” not only stayed close to their original versions but were also invigorated through Swift’s vocal performance and high-quality mixing. In “I Know Places (Taylor’s Version)”, Swift sounds more certain in her vocal performance, granting an engaging listening experience and heightened connection to the message of the song.
Along with the standard tracks included in 1989, five new tracks “From The Vault” were included in 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Songs “From The Vault” are songs that were written for a particular album yet were scrapped in the original release for one reason or another. When 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was announced, Swift highlighted that the 1989 re-recording was her favourite thus far.
“To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVOURITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind,” said Swift.
For this instance, Swift dug out “Slut!”, “Say Don’t Go”, “Now That We Don’t Talk”, “Suburban Legends” and “Is It Over Now?” from the 1989 vault. Pleasantly, all vault tracks exemplify genius song-writing abilities and vocal delivery from Swift, but the production often fails at sonically placing the songs within the sound of 1989.
In tracks such as “Suburban Legends (Taylor’s Version)” and “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version)”, the production and vocal delivery resembles Swift’s work in her most recent record, Midnights, more than it does 1989.
That said, the real power behind the 1989 vault tracks lies in the world-building aspect of the album. Much of the writing throughout 1989 intentionally shied away from journal-like recounts, focusing more on general tropes and imagery to depict Swift’s stories. Instead, the vault tracks break down the intentionally vague, cool-girl persona in other songs in 1989. For instance, “Slut! (Taylor’s Version)” builds off the more abstract themes in songs like “Out Of The Woods” to recount her difficulties navigating love in the public eye, and the slut-shaming that accompanies it.
Despite some obvious production flaws across hit songs in 1989 (Taylor’s Version), the re-recording remains reasonably close to its original. If anything, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) has a secret power, and that is all attributed to the genius songwriting present in the vault tracks.