Taylor Swift leaned in hard on late-night vibes with the release of Midnights, but real ones know she’s been burning the candle at both ends for some time now. While most of us have been focused on merely existing over the past few years, Swift has managed to drop new music by way of folklore, evermore, and Midnights and also release the first of her promised rerecordings of earlier albums, all while crossing the country on her massive Eras Tour. She’s been busy!
As we tuck away our Polaroid cameras after 1989’s rerelease, it might already be time to start reading the tea leaves for the next re-recording. So let’s synchronize our watches on all things Taylor’s Version … and investigate which old album will become new again next.
Why did Taylor start rerecording her albums, again?
If 2019 feels like a million years ago at this point, you’re not alone, but that’s where the Taylor’s Version saga begins. It all started when Swift’s former label, Big Machine Records, was sold to Ithaca Holdings, an entity owned by music manager Scooter Braun. Swift’s record deal with Big Machine had ended a year earlier and she had jumped to Republic Records, but her original label still owned the masters for the six albums she recorded there — which meant they were sold as part of that business deal.
Swift, for her part, made her displeasure known … swiftly. In a lengthy Tumblr post, she called the sale her “worst-case scenario,†writing that she hadn’t been given the chance to own her own work and that she’d been subjected to “incessant, manipulative bullying†from Braun (who manages clients including Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and others) over the years. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it,†she told her fans. (In 2020, Braun sold those masters to investment firm Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million, a transaction Swift also decried.)
But you can’t keep a mad woman down: In August 2019, she announced plans to rerecord those original albums, resulting in masters that she’ll own outright. “It’s something that I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting November 2020 — so, next year — I can record albums one through five all over again,†she said during an interview on Good Morning America. “I think artists deserve to own their work. I just feel very passionately about that.â€
Which Taylor’s Version albums have we gotten so far?
The first TV out of the gate was Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which the singer released in April 2021. The new version of her 2008 album contained the tracks that appeared on the original Fearless, the 2010 soundtrack single “Today Was a Fairytale†from the film Valentine’s Day, and six “from the vault†songs, including duets with Maren Morris and Keith Urban — plus the extremely earwormy breakup anthem “Mr. Perfectly Fine.â€
Then in November 2021, perfectly timed for autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place, Swift released the new recording of her 2012 album Red. The 30-track Taylor’s Version brought forth a reunion with Ed Sheeran, a duet with Phoebe Bridgers, and a collaboration with Chris Stapleton that got its own music video directed by Blake Lively. Most notably, though, it included the 10-minute version of “All Too Well,†expanding what many consider to be Swift’s best song with new lyrics to obsess over. (Just between us, did the love affair new version maim you too?) As if that wasn’t enough on its own, Swift expanded the “All Too Wellâ€-iverse even further with a live performance on SNL and a short film she directed, casting Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien as the ill-fated couple who fall love, break apart, and leave a certain scarf behind. Swift gave All Too Well: The Short Film its own New York premiere — where she performed the 10-minute version of the song live for the first time — and screened it at both the Tribeca and Toronto International Film Festivals, but hopes of a potential Oscar campaign were dashed when it failed to make the Academy shortlist for Best Live-Action Short Film.
And now, in 2023, Swift gave two more eras the TV treatment. The first one, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), was released on July 7 in all its purple glory. “I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness,†she shared on Twitter after announcing the album during her Nashville tour stop. “I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing … and living to speak about it.†That album also contains six vault tracks that fans were enchanted to meet — duets with Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy among them — and a very notable change to the “mattress†line in “Better Than Revenge.â€
Then, because you know she couldn’t resist timing this perfect, Swift announced 1989 (Taylor’s Version) during her August 9 performance in Los Angeles — yes, on 8/9! — which marked the final date on the first leg of the Eras Tour. She played “New Romantics†as one of the night’s secret songs and praised the album on social media as her “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.†She then released it on October 27 — the same date the original album came out nine years ago.
How did Taylor tease 1989 (Taylor’s Version) before making things official?
Swift loves an Easter egg as much as Swifties love looking for them, so there were definitely hints to be found. The most overt one was placed in the music video for “I Can See You†— one of the vault tracks from Speak Now (TV) — which ends with a car speeding over a bridge with a sign saying “8.9 TV.†Other fans called out a close-up of Swift’s red lips (which feature on both the original album artwork and a lyric in “Styleâ€) and a fight sequence against five security guards (1989 is Swift’s fifth album) that evokes the “Bad Blood†music video.
Finally, the announcement was all but inevitable once the singer took the stage at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium on 8/9 in a blue dress, 1989’s signature hue. You could have just started playing “New Romantics†then and there …which, as it happens, she did (and in front of Karlie Kloss, at that).
How many more albums is she rerecording?
Swift recorded six albums during her tenure at Big Machine, so that means there are two more to go: Taylor Swift (2006) and Reputation (2017).
How have the first four Taylor’s Version albums been received?
Many critics honed in on how Swift’s sound has evolved since she first sang on the originals. Pitchfork wrote that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) “presents a different puzzle: spotting the difference between the original and this almost-identical copy. These versions are slightly more polished, like photos touched up on Instagram with a press of a button: the sound is brighter, the mix is clearer, each peal of guitar is sharper.†NPR said the album “feels shrouded in an air of whimsical nostalgia.†And perhaps not surprisingly, reviews of the updated Red had plenty to say about the supersize “All Too Well.†“Every emotional detail hits home. She goes deeper into the story, venting her grief and rage, getting so savage it makes ‘Dear John’ sound like ‘I Will Always Love You,’†Rolling Stone said of the ten-minute version, while also praising the album as “a tribute to how far she’s traveled, but it makes you even more excited for where she’s heading next.†However, with the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), The Guardian felt that the third re-record lost some of its magic, as Swift’s musical ability has grown so much since she was 20, writing, “Now 33, she’s a much richer and more skilled singer than she was then, but their piercing, youthful twang was what made these songs kick harder in all their dressing-downs and rabid desires, emphasising the sense of a girl wading into adult waters.â€
Sales wise, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) became the first re-recording to outdo the original. Swift moved 1.653 million album units in its first week, nearly 400,000 more than the original’s debut in 2013. It marked her second million-album debut in just about a year, after Midnights. Amid that success, vault track “Is It Over Now?†also debuted at No. 1. Swift was right about those vault tracks — Rolling Stone said they “might be her best batch yet.â€
Which Taylor’s Version album will be released next?
Now that 1989 was re-released, there are only two albums to go in the Taylor’s Version timeline. So, what could be the next next one?
When Swift began rerecording her old albums, it seemed like we would have to wait a while before she got to Reputation. According to Rolling Stone, many music contracts prohibit rerecording songs until “the later of two years following the expiration of the agreement or five years after the commercial release.†If that were the case here, Swift wouldn’t have been allowed to rerecord Rep until November 2022 — which means that hurdle has seemingly been cleared and a new version of “Getaway Car†could speed our way anytime now.
Speaking of Reputation, we should also mention that when Swift attended the MTV Video Music Awards last August (where she surprise-announced the arrival of Midnights), she wore a bejeweled Oscar De La Renta dress that looked strikingly similar to her bathtub-full-of-diamonds moment from the “Look What You Made Me Do†music video. Possibly a stretch, but she’s been known to play the long game when it comes to Easter eggs.
Swift herself spoke about re-recording Reputation to Time, when she was named 2023’s Person of the Year. “It’s a goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure,†she reflected of the album. “I think a lot of people see it and they’re just like, Sick snakes and strobe lights.†She didn’t confirm a release, or even that the album would be coming next, but she did say the vault tracks are “fire.†And she gave an odd fantasy analogy to her whole re-recording project. “I’m collecting horcruxes,†she said. “I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one.†Uh, whatever gets us those albums!
And here’s another thing to consider: Doing Reputation next would mean that her debut album, Taylor Swift, would be the final entry in the Taylor’s Version canon, and there’s something extremely poetic about closing this rerecording chapter with her first record. As Midnights already taught us, she is that kind of mastermind.