Welcome to New York (again)! Taylor Swift announced that her newest rerelease will be 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
After debuting a new blue outfit — the signature color for the 1989 album — during her Speak Now, Folklore and 1989 sets at her Wednesday, August 9, concert in Los Angeles, Swift, 33, revealed the rerecorded album will drop on October 27.
“I figured that [this tour] would be fun but I did not know it would be like this. The last time I was pleasantly surprised by something you guys did was when I announced that I was going to be rerecording my first six albums. … The way you have embraced and celebrated that you’ve really decided it was your fight too and you were 100% behind me and if I care about it you care about it,” Swift said to the crowd at the beginning of her surprise songs section. “And so now here we are, the last night of the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in the eighth month of the year on the ninth day. You might have noticed there are different outfits in the show there’s something I’ve been planning for a really, really long time and I think instead of just telling you about it I’ll just show you.”
Swift then pointed to the screen behind her, which showed the 1989TV album cover, before jumping into an acoustic version of “New Romantics” — a fan favorite bonus track off the original 1989 and the last song she’s yet to perform live from the album on tour.
Following the big announcement, Swift reflected on what 1989 means to her as an artist — and revealed there would be 5 never before heard tracks from the vault on the rerecorded version.
“Surprise!! 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is on its way to you 🔜! 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 wrote via her social media accounts. “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! Pre order 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on my site 😎.”
Fans began theorizing that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was coming long before she ever announced it, particularly with the release of “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version),” which dropped in March 2021. While the “Maroon” artist is known for her Easter Eggs — and appeared to drop numerous hints about 1989 (Taylor’s Version) along the way — Swift didn’t confirm the news until Wednesday, after she had already released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July, as well as Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021 and November 2021, respectively.
Swift released the original 1989 — the critically acclaimed, fan favorite record that marked her official foray into pop and first collaboration with Jack Antonoff — in October 2014. With its slick, synth production and upbeat, ’80s-inspired sound, 1989 scored the “Shake It Off” songwriter a second Album of the Year Grammy win and went nine-times platinum. Moreover, in fans’ eyes, it’s the album that contains multiple songs about her relationship with Harry Styles, including “Out of the Woods,” “Style” and more.
The musicians were linked from late 2012 to early 2013. While devoted listeners have long picked apart the lyrics for every possible reference to the “Watermelon Sugar” singer, “Out of the Woods” famously contains a number of lines that appear to be about their brief romance. Swift sings about “two paper airplanes flying” on the track, which fans have interpreted to be about the exes’ matching paper airplane necklaces.
The bridge of the song — “Remember when you hit the breaks too soon / 20 stitches in a hospital room” — seemingly refers to an alleged snowmobile accident the pair were involved in. (The former One Direction singer shared a photo of himself with a bandage on his chin in late 2012 after he and Swift went on a skiing weekend together.)
When it comes to “Style” — “You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye / And I got that red lip classic thing that you like” — Swift told Rolling Stone after its release that she “should have just called it, ‘I’m Not Even Sorry.’”
The Don’t Worry Darling actor, for his part, later called his ex-girlfriend a “great songwriter” in an interview with Howard Stern, saying the tracks she wrote about him for the 2014 record are “good.”
1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be the fourth of Swift’s rereleases from her original catalogue after she lost the rights to her masters in 2019, when Scooter Braun purchased them in a Big Machine Records acquisition. (The music mogul later sold the masters for $300 million to a private equity company.)
The 12-time Grammy winner previously shared the primary reason she’s choosing to rerecord her work in a candid Instagram post.
“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” the “Happiness” singer wrote in February 2021. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”
