Taylor Swift keeps re-recording her albums, and one of the fans favorites has finally arrived , 1989. The number is the year she was born, and on her songs she showed herself more open than ever before. On this remake, she has also brought to light five more songs she never released before but she wrote at the moment. Moreover than the Taylor’s version, she has decided to publish a deluxe version with 22 songs, adding the “Bad Blood” remix with Kendrik Lamar.
Lets remember Taylor is re-recording her past jobs due to a problem with the pieces author rights (which she doesn’t own). But she has kept her professional life running and has been publishing new albums on an alternative technique with her old ones re-recorded.
On the album, cualified for some people as a “pop bible” we can experiment different feelings and sing and enjoy concepts in each song. In YouTube, as well as in Spotify, she has published some visualizers and lyric videos that help you follow the songs quite better and surround yourself on a full experience visually and sonorously.
On the first song, “Welcome to New York“, she talks about the moment that she moved tho the American city in 2014, just before she published this album. On the song Taylor narrates how she felt this change where she held her freedom and compares it with the city and their people. Is that feeling of new beginning and excitement that she tries to show with the music and her lyrics and give us a welcome to the new Taylor era.
Following, “Blank Space” criticizes society and the journalism world and how it affects her relationships. On this song she presents a version of herself where she can be alone and walk boyfriend after boyfriend with some “blank space” for some more exes on her list.
Her figure has always been controversial because of her talking of her loves and relationships on her songs. That’s why she decided to be that toxic girlfriend the world may think she is and show it mostly on the music video.
Although people see that girl, on “Style“, she talks about a perfect love that never runs out of style. This song is rumored to be inspired on her relationship with Harry Styles, but meanwhile fans have found clues on the music video and the lyrics, nothing has been confirmed.
On the fourth song, “Out of the woods“, she creates a different ambiental space than in the rest. On the music video she runs out of wolves though all kinds of adversities to finally find herself. This feeling of trying to escape is also reflected on the lyrics, where she asks if they are “out of the woods”.
While she is ready for running on that song, on “All you had to do was stay” she is waiting for him and criticize his actions. On the song, the boy walk away and, when he tries to come back, she’s already gone. This revenge song may be relatable for some people and, at the end, like she says, “that was what he wanted”.
Back again with her fight against the critics, with “Shake it off“, you can cheer your journey through the album and move your body a little bit. On her words she jokes about the critics that she receives from society and how to digest them and learn to ignore it. “Haters gonna hate” might be one of her greatest advices for her fans.
On “I wish you would” she returns to the love topic. It might be one of the more unnoticed. She narrates how a boy left a relationship and she regrets the things she said and did when they were together and now she wish he would come back to her.
The next song on the list may have one of her most famous music videos. The “Bad Blood” collaboration with Kendric Lamar pass the 1.500 million views on YouTube. That visual had the collaboration of celebrities like Zendaya or Selena Gómez.
On the song she narrates how she felt betrayed by a friend and now they hate each other drown in disappointment and anger. This song is part of an album finally on the deluxe version.
On the next song, “Wildest dreams“, she talks about the beginning of a love story and she wishes he remembers her in a beautiful way, even if it is just dreaming. The topic of love is a recurrent theme on her writhing because she base her stories on her own life.
On “How you get the girl”, Taylor gives some advices to the men out there to get the girl or lose it based on her love experience with a boy. It’s a pop song where she can show her voice potential, mostly at the end, with some electronic touch, different of what she got us used to.
The next song, “This Love” sets the mood and drowns you in a different world with his instrumental. She talks about how the love comes and fades and without him, she feels uncompleted, but he always comes back.
Following with the love, on “I know places” she express herself with the feeling of having to hide your love with someone because of the thoughts of the society and the others. She says on her lyrics that she is well aware of where to go to avoid press and fans and be able to be with her partner, chilling. Besides that, she compares herself with a prey followed by hunters. That persecution feeling is also shard through the music with a sort of circular structure.
That adventure follows to “Clean” where she talks about a breakup. She’s gotten her heart broken and she’s in pain but, with the time you can overcome and restart her life “clean”, with no thoughs of him. This might be a relatable song for people getting through a breakup o that has experimented one.
Changing the atmosphere set before, “Wonderland” creates a fairytale sensation with the instrumental. The song is about a relationship beginning. That moment where everything is perfect, and you have the rose color glasses on. But that world is not what it appears to be and them both end up getting crazy because even when that moment is perfect, the reality is that every relationship have ups and downs and thats just not the truth.
That moment can also be related to “You are in love”, where she talks about the moment that you realize that you are in love. The song describe that moment of falling in love in a way that make you empathize and remember when you felt it. The instrumental with the sparkling may be what falling in love might sound if we could hear it.
The end of the original album was “New romantics” where she speaks about the critics again. We are back to the dance rhythm that cheers you to dance with a smile on your face. It’s definitely a song to sing out loud in the shower.
On this album, Taylor has decided to publish 5 unedited songs she wrote for this album but were left behind in 2014.
One of these songs is “Slut” where she says that fall in love is worth it even if you have to support gossiping and reject. Secondly, on “Say don’t go” where she’s really in love but is not that reciprocal, and she waits for him to tell her not to go, but that never happens. The lyric “I am yours, but you’re not mine” shows it perfectly.
On “Now that we don’t talk” I’d like to stand out her low notes at the beginning of the song. It gets you into the story where you have to stop talking with someone even if it hurts. “Suburban legends” has a topic that can be related with the high school love, a throwback to her past. And finally, “is it over now” closes the album with a wild relationship where he’s meeting with various girls at the same time as her.
You may like more or less this album, but you can’t deny it is a pop reference. This project is quite cohesive and narrative. The lyricism helps you navigate though the stories she tells, and the instrumentals help her voice to create the perfect space to hear the album. It is, definitely a “must listen to” on Taylor discography.
CREDITS:
Text: Gabriel Sánchez
