Taylor Swift has announced the re-recorded Taylor’s Version of her 2014 album 1989. It’s out October 27. Swift tweeted, “Surprise!! 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is on its way to you!” She said the album changed her life “in countless ways and added, “To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE 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. But not for long!” Check out the artwork below.
With several blockbuster singles—including “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” “Wildest Dreams,” and “Bad Blood”—Swift’s fifth album definitively turned to pop music after her country-leaning beginnings. Mega-hitmaker Max Martin co-wrote and co-produced most of the record. The album introduced a relatively early public debate about compensation models for streaming services, with Swift and her then-label Big Machine withholding the album from Spotify for nearly three years over the platform’s rates. The record won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016 Grammys.
Swift released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July. Alongside new versions of the 16 tracks originally featured on the 2010 album, the album includes “From the Vault” songs featuring Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams as well as tracks co-produced by Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. One of those “From the Vault” songs, “I Can See You,” got a Taylor Lautner-starring music video that was self-directed by Swift and debuted onstage at her Kansas City concert.
Swift confirmed her campaign to re-record and re-release her catalog in 2019, following Scooter Braun’s controversial acquisition of her masters. In a September 2022 interview with NPR, Braun said he had “regrets” over how the scenario played out, adding that in hindsight, he would’ve handled it differently. Swift began with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021, and followed it with Red (Taylor’s Version) that November. Among the 30 songs on the updated Red was a 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” which got a short-film treatment directed by Swift. The video earned Swift a Video of the Year trophy at the 2022 VMAs, with Swift setting a new record for the most wins in that category.
As she’s revisited her earliest work, Swift has continued to put out new material. After releasing both evermore and folklore in 2020, she announced her 10th album Midnights while accepting her Video of the Year award for “All Too Well.” She released the record in October, chasing it with seven more surprise “3am tracks” just a few hours after Midnights hit streaming services. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200, Swift’s eleventh album to do so.
Outside of her music, Swift is set to direct a feature-length film for Searchlight Pictures, based on a script that she wrote. Neither she nor the studio have detailed the project.
Revisit Pitchfork’s “Taylor Swift’s Music Ownership Controversy With Scooter Braun: What It Means and Why It Matters.”
