Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ will enter its 2023 era this October
“1989,” meet 2023.
Taylor Swift confirmed Wednesday that her 2014 album, “1989,” will be the fourth record to get her “Taylor’s Version” treatment — the latest in her quest to reclaim the rights to her first six albums.
A master of implication and innuendo, Taylor Swift is known for choosing her words carefully.
The award-winning album, whose rerecording is due in October, was billed as Swift’s first “official pop album” and included the inescapable hits “Shake It Off,” “Style” “Blank Space,” “Wildest Dreams” and the gossip-laden “Bad Blood.” It also marked a seismic shift from her status as a crossover-country darling to a bona fide pop star.
The “Anti-Hero” singer’s splashy reveal came during her last Eras Tour show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, followed by a formal announcement on social media. Swift also noted that she’ll include five “From the Vault” tracks on the rerelease this time around.
“Surprise!! 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is on its way to you 🔜!” she wrote on Instagram.
“The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out October 27th,” she added.
Taylor Swift kicked off six sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium, and The Times’ Mikael Wood and Suzy Exposito were there to provide a full rundown.
The economy-boosting 33-year-old said that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is her favorite rerecord thus far because the five vault tracks “are so insane.”
“I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long! Pre order 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on my site,” she wrote.
Co-written and co-produced by hitmaker Max Martin, “1989” won Grammy Awards for album of the year and pop vocal album at the 2016 ceremony, making her the first woman to win the album of the year Grammy twice. The achievement was not lost on Swift, who used her acceptance speech as a platform to call out her detractors, notably her longtime rival, rapper Ye. The “Famous” rapper and the singer were embroiled in another feud that year after he claimed on the track that he was the one who made her, well, famous.
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“I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame,” she said. “But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you are going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
“1989” was also released as the outspoken artist held her ground on compensation models at streaming services, specifically Spotify and Apple Music. She and her (now-estranged) former record label Big Machine famously withheld the album — and all her music — from Spotify for nearly three years in protest of the platform’s rates.
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So far, the earth-shaking superstar has released massively popular revisions of “Red,” “Fearless” and “Speak Now,” the latest of which arrived in June with plenty of chatter over six never-before-released tracks and an amendment to the lyrics of “Better Than Revenge.” The remaining albums are her self-titled 2006 debut and 2017’s “Reputation.”
And there’s still plenty of time to give those albums their due: Last week, Swift announced the latest extension of her Eras tour, adding 15 new dates that will take the viral production into 2024.
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