Musically, 1989 (Taylor's Version) is a 1980s-inspired synth-pop album, driven by synthesizers and heavy percussion. It consists of 21 tracks, containing re-recorded versions of the 16 songs from the deluxe edition of 1989 and five previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks. Swift, Jack Antonoff and Christopher Rowe produced the majority of the album, with original collaborators Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella, Shellback and Imogen Heap returning to contribute again. Extended editions of the album additionally feature the re-recorded versions of the soundtrack song "Sweeter than Fiction" (2013) and the Kendrick Lamar remix of "Bad Blood" (2015).
Upon release, 1989 (Taylor's Version) received widespread acclaim from music critics, with emphasis on Swift's vocals, the sound production, and the vault tracks. The album broke the global Spotify record for the biggest single-day streams in 2023 and sold one million copies in the United States within a week, becoming Swift's record-extending sixth album to do so. It debuted atop the album charts in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Singles "Slut!" and "Is It Over Now?" were released to Italian and U.S. radio on October 27 and 31, respectively. Both songs, along with "Now That We Don't Talk", reached top-tier positions on various national charts.
Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album, 1989, on October 27, 2014, under Big Machine Records. Inspired by 1980s synth-pop, Swift conceived 1989 to recalibrate her artistry to pop after marketing her first four albums to country radio. The album was a critical and commercial success, receiving positive reviews from music critics and selling over 1.287 million copies within its first week in the United States. Three of its singles—"Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood"—reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Swift became the first artist to have three albums each sell one million copies within the first week, 1989 was the first album released in 2014 to exceed one million copies,[1] and topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks.[2] At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards (2016), the album won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album,[3] making Swift the first female artist to win the former two times.[4]
Swift released her next studio album, Reputation (2017), under Big Machine, as per her recording contract, which expired in November 2018. She hence withdrew from Big Machine and signed a new deal with Republic Records, which secured her the rights to own the masters of any new music she would release.[5] In 2019, American businessman Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine;[6] the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six studio albums, including 1989, transferred to him.[7] In August 2019, Swift denounced Braun's purchase and announced that she would re-record her first six studio albums so as to own their masters herself.[8] Swift began the re-recording process in November 2020.[9]Fearless (Taylor's Version), the first of her six re-recorded albums, was released on April 9, 2021, followed by Red (Taylor's Version) on November 12, 2021,[10][11] and Speak Now (Taylor's Version) on July 7, 2023; all three achieved critical and commercial success, debuting atop the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.[12]
Several hints to the imminent announcement of the album were noticed by fans while Swift performed at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood as part of her sixth concert tour, The Eras Tour. On August 9, 2023, at her final show at SoFi Stadium, several of Swift's outfits were changed to a blue color, and fans' LED wristbands flashed blue five times right before the acoustic section of the concert.[18][19] Swift announced 1989 (Taylor's Version) as her next re-recorded album, set for release on October 27, 2023, exactly nine years after the original release of 1989.[20] SoFi Stadium illuminated its roof with the album title following the announcement.[18]
The standard edition 1989 (Taylor's Version) consists of 21 tracks: re-recordings of the 13 songs from the standard edition of 1989, re-recordings of the three bonus tracks from the original deluxe edition, and five previously unreleased "From the Vault" songs that were written for the 2014 album but excluded from the final track list.[21] Re-recordings of the "Bad Blood" remix (2015) featuring American rapper Kendrick Lamar and "Sweeter than Fiction" (2013), a song Swift and Jack Antonoff contributed to the soundtrack of One Chance (2013), were included on extended editions of 1989 (Taylor's Version) as bonus tracks.[22][23]
Most re-recorded tracks were produced by Swift and Christopher Rowe. The remaining were co-produced by their original producers—Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella and Imogen Heap. Swedish producer Shellback, who produced multiple songs on the 2014 recording alongside Max Martin, produced "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" with Swift and Rowe, while Martin was not involved in the production of the re-recording. All of the vault tracks were written and produced by Swift and Antonoff, except "Say Don't Go", which was co-written by American songwriter Diane Warren.[24][25]
1989 (Taylor's Version) is a synth-pop record.[26] Its sound is driven by sinuous melodies, burbling synthesizers and heavy percussions.[27] According to NME, the album is a work of 1980s-inspired synth-pop that features a unique sound rather than a "kitschy pastiche" of retro influences.[28] Various critics have opined that the only sonic difference between 1989 and 1989 (Taylor's Version) is Swift's vocals, which have become technically stronger and richer.[29][30][26][27] According to Clash, the re-recording has a "cleaner" instrumentation, with Swift's vocals being "some of her best yet".[31]Slant Magazine critic Jonathan Keefe identified minor changes: the clicking pen noise on "Blank Space" sounds less like the spring action of a ballpoint pen, the "ah-ah-ah" vocal hook of "New Romantics" is more staccato, the reverb on "Out of the Woods" is more prominent, and the guitar's tone on "Style" is altered.[32] Unlike Swift's previous re-recordings, 1989 (Taylor's Version) does not feature new guest vocalists.[33]
"From the Vault" songs
Various critics opined that the sonics of the five vault songs were pertinent to the 1980s-inspired sound of the original 1989.[31][26][34][35] According to The Line of Best Fit's Kelsey Barnes, the vault tracks are of different pop subgenres similar to the 2014 recording.[30] However, Variety's Chris Willman felt that some production elements of the vault tracks seem to have been influenced by Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights (2022).[36]
"Slut!", whose title is a reference to the slut-shaming Swift has experienced as a public figure over the years, is about a romantic relationship Swift is proud of and therefore has no concern of how the outside world views it.[35][37] It is composed as a "dreamy", slow-paced, mid-tempo pop song,[35][38][39] featuring glistening synthesizers and a range of other instruments.[28][31] "Say Don't Go" is a sensuous "high-drama" song about intense romantic feelings,[35][27] with an anthemic chorus and isolated vocal patterns.[40][30] Swift sings about a lover's departure over "crashing" drum beats.[28] "Now That We Don't Talk" is the shortest song in Swift's discography,[41] showcasing her "breathy" falsetto.[30] Lyrically, it sees Swift "sashay away" from heartache.[35]
"Suburban Legends" depicts a hopeful but unfruitful romance.[35] It features bouncing chords and an outro of dissipating synthesizers,[35] in a "wind chime-y" production style, according to People's Jeff Nelson.[41] "Is It Over Now?" is an introspective song chronicling the end of a relationship, with lyrics about mistakes committed by both partners and various "feelings of unfinished business", "cruel memories", and confessions.[35][31][40] Musically, the song is built around "an odd squawking sample" in the hook,[27] with features a breathless vocal delivery that imbues a sense of urgency over steady drum beats,[40][41] further accentuated by tightly-packed internal rhymes.[27]
Promotion and release
1989 (Taylor's Version) was released on October 27, 2023, to music streaming services and in vinyl LP, cassette tape, and CD formats. It marks Swift's fourth re-recorded album. The standard edition contains 21 tracks, five of which are designated "From the Vault", indicating unreleased songs that were written for 1989 but did not make the final track list in 2014.[42] A deluxe edition with the re-recorded remix of "Bad Blood" featuring Kendrick Lamar as a bonus track was surprise released on streaming and digital download platforms hours after the standard album.[43][44] The album was sold in four CD editions, which featured different cover artwork and either posters or photographs,[45][46] as well as five vinyl variants, one of which is a Target-exclusive deluxe that also includes "Sweeter than Fiction (Taylor's Version)."[note 1][48][49] Minutes after the album was released, streaming platforms Apple Music and Spotify crashed due to heavy traffic.[50]
On September 19, 2023, Swift posted a short visual on social media that depicted the characters "T-S-!-U-L" emerging from a blue vault, which fans and journalists considered to be a teaser for one of the five "From the Vault" tracks.[51] She also partnered with Google Search to launch a feature for solving word puzzles in order to uncover the album's "From the Vault" track titles. Searching for "Taylor Swift" gave rise to an animated graphic of a blue vault, which, upon clicking, produced one of 89 puzzles with or without an accompanying hint. The track titles were set to be officially revealed once 33 million puzzles had been solved globally.[52] Although the feature crashed hours after launching,[53] it reached the 33-million mark in less than one day. Four of the five vault track titles were revealed: "Is It Over Now?", "Now That We Don't Talk", "Say Don't Go", and "Suburban Legends".[54][55][56] Shortly thereafter, Swift unveiled the back covers of the album, which featured the full tracklist, confirming "Slut!" as the remaining vault track.[57] "Slut!" was released as a single to Italian radio on October 27,[58] while "Is It Over Now?" was released as a single to the U.S. contemporary hit radio on October 31.[59][60]
1989 (Taylor's Version) was met with widespread acclaim from critics. On review aggregator Metacritic, it received a weighted mean score of 90 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[62]
NME's Hollie Geraghty, The Daily Telegraph'sNeil McCormick, and Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of Financial Times hailed 1989 (Taylor's Version) as Swift's best record; Geraghty argued that the album consists of "deliciously polished belters",[28] while McCormick called it an "impeccable" and indistinguishable remake with "deft and clever" new tracks.[27] Hunter-Tilney said the album documents "young adulthood, the most exhilarating and error-strewn period of a person's life, in the highly engineered setting of the perfect pop song."[67]Will Hodgkinson of The Times dubbed the album a "pop masterclass".[66] Ed Power of i described it as a "bright, brash, smart and catchy" LP, displaying the best of Swift's effervescent songwriting.[33]
Kelsey Barnes, writing in The Line of Best Fit, described the album as "sleek pop passion" and observed there are no jarring changes in the re-recording, "if anything, Swift's vocals are more powerful and punchy than ever."[30]The Guardian's Rachel Aroesti described Swift vocal performance as "richer and more mature yet hardly distractingly so" and felt the pertinent vault tracks add more depth to a classic.[26]Rolling Stone critics Angie Martoccio and Mark Sutherland commended Swift's richer voice and the vault tracks; Martoccio stated, 1989 was not critiqued seriously by many rockist "cultural gatekeepers" such as Pitchfork in 2014 but its Taylor's Version "shines a lot brighter",[37] whereas Sutherland said 1989 could have been the "greatest pop album of 1989" and the Taylor's Version "could well be the greatest pop album of 2023."[68]
Clash's Alex Berry admired the "exquisite" vault tracks that continue the sonic landscape of 1989.[31] In a similar vein, Paste critic Elizabeth Braaten proclaimed that the vault tracks made 1989 (Taylor's Version) Swift's best re-recorded album yet.[64]American Songwriter's Alex Hopper called the album "surprisingly timeless", saying it sounds as fresh as it did in 2014 depsite its retro elements.[34] By contrast, Adam White of The Independent wrote that Martin's absence as a producer and Swift's improved vocals losing 2014's raw "strain" made the re-recording a "diminished" pop classic. However, White added the album is still "untouchable greatness".[29] In Pitchfork, Shaad D'Souza remarked that the album is "an artistically lesser entry" in Swift's catalog but a "wildly durable" one, with the vault tracks adding more "depth and context".[65]
Commercial performance
1989 (Taylor's Version) became the most successful re-recorded album by Taylor Swift. It posted the highest single-day streams globally for an album on Spotify in 2023 and the second-highest for an album ever, behind Swift's own Midnights (2022), accumulating 176 million streams worldwide. Swift also broke her own record for the highest amount of Spotify streams for an artist in a day, gaining over 260 million streams across her entire discography.[69][70] In its opening day, 1989 (Taylor's Version) eclipsed Midnights on Amazon Music to become the platform's most streamed album globally in a single day ever.[71] It also became Amazon Music’s most streamed album in a single week.
In the US, 1989 (Taylor's Version) sold 250,000 albums on its release day,[72] and over one million albums by its fifth day, marking Swift's tenth and record-extending sixth album to sell 500,000 and one million copies in a single week, respectively. The album also broke two records set by Midnights as it became the top-selling album of 2023 and garnered the largest vinyl sales week since 1991 (580,000 LPs in six days) and tallied over 572.4 million global streams on Spotify in its debut week.[73][74]
In the UK, 1989 (Taylor's Version) earned the biggest opening week of any album in 2023 in three days of tracking, with 148,000 units.[75] It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 184,000 units, of which 62,000 were vinyl LPs, doubling the opening of its 2014 counterpart to become the fastest-selling vinyl album of 2023. 1989 (Taylor's Version) also marked Swift's record-extending 11th career number-one album in the UK. On the UK Singles Chart, "Is It Over Now?", "Now That We Don't Talk" and "Slut!" charted at numbers one, two, and five, respectively.[76]
In Australia, 1989 (Taylor's Version) debuted atop the ARIA Albums Chart as Swift's 12th number-one album in the country, marking her career-best opening week, the largest week for any album since 2017, and the largest vinyl sales week in the country's history. Eight songs from the album charted simultaneously in the top 10 of the ARIA Singles Chart, completely occupying the top four spots.[77]
^The physical deluxe editions, which do not include the re-recorded "Bad Blood" remix featuring Kendrick Lamar, are subtitled "Crystal Skies Blue", "Rose Garden Pink", "Aquamarine Green", and "Sunrise Boulevard Yellow". The Target-exclusive LP is subtitled "Tangerine Edition".[47]
^ ab1989 (Taylor's Version) (Compact disc liner notes). Taylor Swift. Republic Records. 2023.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)