1989(Taylor’s Version)

Alright, here’s a more laid-back version:

Taylor Swift's 1989 (Taylor’s Version) kind of feels like a collection of rough drafts that don’t fully capture the magic of the original 2014 album but still manage to be good enough for a full release.

Everyone knows who Taylor Swift is at this point—she doesn’t really need an intro. From having the most profitable tour ever to winning 12 Grammys and becoming one of the first artists to hit 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Taylor's pretty much been killing it.

1989 was the album that really turned Taylor into the pop superstar we all know today. It’s packed with massive hits like "Style," "Bad Blood," and "Shake It Off"—songs that pretty much defined the last decade. It’s not surprising she’d want to re-record this album—she had every reason to. First, she didn’t own the rights to the original songs because of her old management under Scooter Braun, and second, the success of 1989 is impossible to ignore. Given how much I enjoyed her last three “Taylor’s Version” projects, it was only a matter of time before she gave 1989 the same treatment. And she did, dropping it on October 27th, exactly nine years after the original release.

Before I dive into this album, I should say that I generally like Taylor’s music. Some of my favorite albums are Folklore, Evermore, Red, and 1989. But I’ve also not been into a few of her projects like Midnights, Reputation, and Lover. With such a mixed discography, I still had high hopes for this new release. I’ve really enjoyed the “Taylor’s Version” albums so far—they’ve breathed new life into the originals. But after listening to 1989 (Taylor’s Version), I felt kind of meh about the whole thing.

Let’s start with the good stuff: I like some of the new production choices, like boosting the background vocals and synths, and overall, the re-recordings sound cleaner and more polished than the 2014 version. I also appreciate the new mixes of "Shake It Off," "Bad Blood," and "Welcome to New York"—songs I wasn’t crazy about before but now actually enjoy.

But honestly, a lot of it fell flat for me.

One of the biggest letdowns was the mixing, which felt undercooked. With all the money Taylor has, you’d think the production would be flawless, especially in mainstream pop, which isn’t exactly complex. But that wasn’t the case. For example, "Style," which was my favorite track from 1989, just lost its magic. The vocals are too loud, the instrumentation is too quiet, and the whole thing feels more like a demo than a finished track. And it’s not just "Style"—"Blank Space" and "Out of the Woods" suffer from the same issue.

But at the end of the day, this is still 1989, and it’s still a pretty fun listen. The hooks, the instrumentation, and the vocals are all catchy, though some more than others. The original album is so ingrained in my memory that it’s hard not to be critical of this version. If I were hearing it for the first time, I probably wouldn’t pick up on the production flaws as quickly—or maybe at all. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had a lot to live up to, but given how well she did with Red, Speak Now, and Fearless, I was expecting more.

There are some new tracks on this album labeled "From the Vault," which is something she’s been doing with all her re-recordings to add some fresh content. Usually, these tracks bring something new and exciting to the table, sometimes even outshining the original songs. But the "From the Vault" tracks on 1989 don’t really do that. To me, they sound like leftovers from her 2022 album Midnights, which I wasn’t a fan of because it felt monotonous, repetitive, and unoriginal. Those same issues show up here—the "From the Vault" songs don’t add anything special and feel like they’re just padding out the album to rack up more streams rather than adding any real artistic value.

In the end, Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is a mixed bag. Some tracks feel half-baked, while others hit the mark. But overall, the album loses a lot of the magic that made the original so special, especially on key tracks like "Style" and "Blank Space." For die-hard Swifties, this re-recording might be enough to scratch the itch for new Taylor material, but for me, it didn’t quite hit the spot, especially compared to the original album it’s trying to revive.

TAYLOR SWIFT - 1989 (TAYLOR’S VERSION)

RATING - 7.7/10

FAVORITE TRACKS - Say Don’t Go, Blank Space, Style

GENRE - Pop, Folk