Taylor Swift's '1989' rerelease is here! These are the two songs we love the most
Long before the 45-song concerts, the world dominance at the box office and the giddy touchdown celebration hand slaps, Taylor Swift was just a twentysomething emerging from her country shell to blossom into an unstoppable pop titan.
The album named for the year of her birth, “1989,” immediately captivated radio and signified that her transformation was complete. The cavalcade of hits (“Shake it Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” “Out of the Woods,” “Bad Blood”) and equally synth-tastic albums cuts (“Welcome to New York,” “This Love”) established that the glossy pop stomp of predecessor “Red” was merely an appetizer.
Only three months after her last revisited offering, “Speak Now,” Swift has dropped “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” in all of its bustling beauty as she continues her quest to reclaim her artistic ownership after the contentious sale of her original master recordings in 2020.
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This was Swift’s caterpillar-into-butterfly moment, eventually christened with an album of the year Grammy Award and nine million copies of “1989” sold in the U.S.
In Swift’s cannily crafted world, everything has a deeper meaning or a connection to her past. So it’s no surprise that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” arrives exactly nine years to the date of the original release. Swift also announced the impending album during one of the six sold-out shows of her blockbuster Eras Tour at So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles on Aug. 9 (that would be 8/9 for those not playing along).
It is arguably her most complete record, displaying a lyrical maturation from diary jottings to poetic elegance (“Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream” from “Blank Space” remains the MVP of her considerable cauldron of compositions) and musicality both slick and lighthearted.
The album’s 21 tracks include those from the original deluxe version of “1989” (including “New Romantics”) and five songs from the vault, which have become the most fan-cherished part of these rereleases.
All of the previously unreleased songs carry the same polished veneer as the rest of “1989,” which is part of the pronounced influence of producers including Max Martin, Jack Antonoff and Ryan Tedder.
These are the two best among them.
‘Suburban Legends’ offers some of Swift’s most vivid lyrics
Swift is both skeptical (unmarked numbers popping up on her beau’s phone are caught in her peripheral vision) and feeling a bit inferior as she wrestles with self-directed anger about being tangled in a love vortex.
“You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious,” she sings by way of explaining her attraction and subsequent inability to let go.
Sparkly synthesizers and a gentle pulse carry the song as Swift resigns herself to the fact that, “You kissed me in a way that’s going to screw me up forever.”
As “Suburban Legends” escalates into a dreamy swirl, she discloses, “I broke my own heart ‘cause you were too polite to do it,” an admission that lands hard.
Could ‘Is It Over Now’ be about Harry Styles?
It’s no secret that Swift’s brief romance with the former One Direction hunk in late 2012 inspired some of the songs on “1989,” notably “Out of the Woods” and “Style.”
“Is It Over Now” adds to the speculation with vitriol-spiked lyrics such as “If she has blue eyes, I will surmise that you’ll probably date her” and “You search in every model’s bed for something greater, baby.”
Swift details her confusion about the mixed signals being sent in verses that sometimes plow rapidly, as if she can’t wait to unburden herself from this “lying traitor.” It’s one of her patented story songs filled with layered background vocals, an ethereal melody and the sting of a Swift scorned.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift's '1989' best vault songs: Is one about Harry Styles?
