1989 is an album made by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in 2014, and on October 27, 2023, she claimed this album as her own. Taylor Swift has been rerecording her albums for the past few years and this is because she was not given the option to buy her first six albums that she made with BigMachine Records meaning that she does not own them. She has so far rerecorded Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and now 1989. 1989 was Taylor’s pop breakthrough album, and it became a huge success. This album won many awards when it was first released, including a Grammy for album of the year.
Taylor Swift’s original 1989 album had 13 songs including: Welcome To New York, Blank Space, Style, Out Of The Woods, All You Had To Do Was Stay, Shake It Off, I Wish You Would, Bad Blood, Wildest Dreams, How You Get The Girl, This Love, I Know Places, and Clean. Taylor then released 1989 [Deluxe] which included 6 more tracks called: Wonderland, You Are In Love, and New Romantics and the last 3 tracks are voice memos that include Taylor’s song-making process. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) includes all of these songs, but it also contains songs that Taylor wrote for this album but never decided to release until now. The songs are called vault tracks and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) includes 5 of these.
“Sl*t!”: The first vault track of the 1989 Taylors’ Version album is called “Sl*t!”. This song is what nobody expected, a love song. “Sl*t!”’s lyrics suggest a feeling of not caring what happens as long as you’re with the one you love. The lyrics “And if they call me a slut, you know it might be worth it for once” show this. This song is relatable to teenagers today because many people are worried about what people think of them until they are with someone they care about and all of their worries go away. This soft love-pop song has already become people’s favorite of Taylor’s vault songs, and it is sure to continue to grow in popularity.
Say Don’t Go: The second track of vault songs on this album is called Say Don’t Go. This upbeat pop song has lyrics that are quite the opposite. This song is about loving somebody more than they love you and wondering why they hurt you. Some lyrics that explain this are “Why’d you have to lead me on? Why’d you have to twist the knife?”. This song fits in perfectly with the rest of the album 1989 because this is yet another song by Taylor with a classic pop sound and strong lyrics that relate to many.
Now That We Don’t Talk: This third vault track of Taylor’s is about how good or bad life could get when you and somebody stop talking. Taylor uses an ominous beat that builds up into a very poppy 80’s tune to show how not talking to anyone anymore could have a bad notation, but then turn to relief and happiness. “Guess maybe I am better off now that we don’t talk” is a lyric that shows that losing somebody could be a good thing. This song is both an important story and a lesson for many to hear and learn from.
Suburban Legends: Suburban Legends is a story about two star-crossed lovers who go their separate ways in life no matter how hard they try but are still successful in their own lives. The lyric “I broke my own heart ‘cause you were too polite to do it” shows that these lovers tried to stay together but they had to break up to become successful in life. This song relates to anybody who would have to leave behind something for a better cause.
Is It Over Now?: The 5th and final vault track called Is It Over Now? Has become a great success and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 making it Taylor’s 11th number one. The likely reason that this song has reached this height is because of its overall lyrics, music, and beat which tell an intricate story. The song explains a break-up and how it affects each person. In this song, the narrator is questioning her past lover and has some resentment towards him. The lyric “at least I had the decency to keep my nights out of sight” is telling how the narrator feels she is doing better than him which shows her anger at him. Saugus High School freshman Jade Chan explains that this is her favorite vault track from 1989 because “it’s very catchy and it has lyrics that are addicting”.
1989 (Taylors’ Version) has become a huge success and it has already broken records and reached very high heights. Taylor broke her own record of streams in the first 24 hours of an album drop with this album, beating her album Midnights. Though this album hasn’t been out for long, it has already accomplished greatness and is likely to continue to grow.
