Taylor Swift just published “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”, a new version of the artist’s fifth album, an album that, without references, marked a before and after in the pop sound almost a decade ago. With this re-recording, Swift has once again made a work that went down in history as the Bible of current pop thanks to the legendary hits highly topical. “Blank Space”, “Style”, “Shake It Off” o “Bad Blood”.
From the first listen “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” –the fourth album that the American has rerecorded– we feel that we are dealing with an album that has matured well, keeping faithful to the retro essence of the eighties that the album showed at the time, but updating the formula. And we couldn’t expect less from figures like Jack Antonoff, Max Martin or Imogen Heap, a true experimenter of electronic pop. With all of them and many more, Taylor made and makes again a pop masterpiece.
From beginning to end you feel that nostalgia for 2014, when the songs were played on all the radios or we saw the music video for the first time. “Out Of The Woods”, with her running from the wolves through the forest. “I was born in 1989, I was reborn for the first time in 2014, and a part of me is recovered in 2023 with the re-release of this album that I love so much. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the magic you would spread in my life for so long,” Taylor Swift published in the album’s prologue. And we have all been reborn a little with this release.
From “Welcome To New York” you notice something vibrating inside you; It is clear that the new and more modern lines of synthesizers make a difference. If before it was difficult not to dance to all the songs of “1989”, now it’s impossible. Taylor has managed to wrap the songs with layers of choruses, similar to the original but more elaborate; Specially in “Blank Space”, with its well-known bridge “Boys only want love if it’s torture, don’t say i didn’t say, i didn’t warn ya”, or en “New Romantics”a song with that echoing voice that is present throughout the album, or “Wonderland”, with one of the most powerful pre-choruses.
In addition to the already fan favorites “Say Don’t Go” o “Now That We Don’t Talk”we have the one who stands out and the most anticipated by everyone ”Slut!”, which has become a lead single. A catchy and melancholic song that Lana del Rey could perfectly sing, and that uses one of the most recurring insults that she has had to face to portray a relationship and capture that prejudice that has haunted her so much. On the other hand, “Suburban Legends”, which emerges as a notable song on the album and which in turn, lyrically, could be the cousin of the beloved “Midnight Rain” when Swift says that about “I broke my own heart because you were too polite to do so.”. Although “Is It Over Now?” It is, without a doubt, the most emotional Vault Track, which would fit perfectly into the soundtrack of an eighties rom-com, doing the story and the ending a favor. The theme resurfaces with many layers of voices, with a friendly synth and a rollercoaster of emotions that catches us throughout the journey.
In this way, we can conclude that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” It is here to stay, to break records, to continue playing on the radio and to accompany us now that we have grown and matured.