On Friday, Taylor Swift released a new version of 1989 – the biggest-selling album of her career, and the one that definitively turned her into a pop star.
Featuring hits like Shake It Off, Blank Space and Style, it was originally written during the 2013-14 Red Tour, with demos stored on her phone in a folder named “Sailor Twips”.
Awarded a Grammy for album of the year, it has spent 325 weeks in the UK charts.
But now she has re-recorded it as the latest part of an ongoing campaign to regain control of her work, after an investment company bought her master tapes in 2019.
This is the biggest and riskiest part of the project. While earlier remakes were largely made with a live band, 1989’s pop landscapes are full of squelchy, processed synths and treated vocals.
Fans can now find out how it has turned out – and hear five new tracks from the star’s vault, expanding on the themes and relationships she explored on the original.
Here’s a guide to all the songs and what Taylor has said about them.
1) Welcome To New York
“It’s a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat forever more.”
We open with a mission statement: The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, she’s dead.
After building her reputation in Nashville, 1989 jettisons the banjos in favour of insistent, needling beats and tales of bohemian nightlife. “A farewell to twang,” the New York Times called it.
Taylor knew change was necessary. “I don’t have the option of making music that sounds just like what I’ve done before,” she told Popcrush. “People will see right through
