If you are a fan of Taylor Swift, you probably know that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” came out this October 27th. The album was announced during the final show of the first U.S. leg of Taylor’s Eras Tour on August 9th. Since then, fans have been counting down the days to listen to their favorite 2014 classics off the album, remastered. It was not only the promise of the original sixteen songs that kept fans excited, though. Just as with Taylor’s past three rerecorded albums, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” and “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” the announcement of five vault tracks brought an entirely new element of excitement to that release date.
Taylor Swift has had one of the most diverse musical careers of any artist. From country to pop to alternative, Taylor has experimented with many different styles. With those three music styles that all ten of her original albums fall under and the wide age range that all her music was written in, she has managed to do each differently every time. The diverse nature of Taylor’s discography has led fans, and Taylor herself, to refer to each of her albums as an entirely new era. Although Taylor’s career doesn’t seem like it will be dying out any time soon, we will never get to go back in time to experience listening to new music that encapsulates her in the stages of life that she captured throughout every “era” of her music. At least that’s what we thought before (Taylor’s Version) came into existence.
The magic of the previously mentioned vault tracks that fans go crazy for does just as the name presumes. These songs were written at the same time as the originals were and put into a “vault” when they were not chosen to be initially released. This vault has allowed listeners to go back in time, wondering what, or who, each song is about based on the happenings during that original era. You may be asking, “Why didn’t these songs make the cut?”. Some may assume it’s because they just weren’t good enough. After listening though, that reasoning may be hard to believe. Although there is a chance the vault tracks were simply Taylor’s least favorite at the time, the deep-cutting lyrics in ““Sl*t!””, and descriptions that are essentially equivalent to name dropping for hard core fans in “Is it Over Now?” lead many to believe they were simply too risky to be released in 2014. Now that these feelings have fizzled out, and Taylor seems to have gained more confidence and resistance with her overwhelming fan base, we are finally being gifted with songs that have been out of reach for almost ten years.
Now for the breakdown of the vault tracks! Taylor released five songs from the vault, four of which are “Say Don’t Go”, “Now That We Don’t Talk”, “Suburban Legends”, and “Is It Over Now?” Each vault track has a different meaning. Here is our take on what we think each song is about:
“Say Don’t Go” is about the betrayal Taylor felt after her breakup with Harry Styles. The song is about the resentment you feel when someone makes you love them and then shuts you out, leaving you waiting for them to give you anything back. Throughout the relationship being referred to, she was holding out hope that they would make it through, even though she knew it was a long shot.
“Now That We Don’t Talk,” is a song about a past relationship that Taylor Swift was in, rumored to be with Harry Styles. After their breakup, she implies that Harry may be going through an identity crisis. Throughout this difficult time, she must remind herself that their relationship ended for the best. No matter how much she gave in the relationship, he never truly wanted her.
“Suburban Legends”, is about a relationship that seemed to have a lot of emotion attached to it. One person in the relationship is falling out of love but cares too much about the other to break their heart. The song talks about the frustration associated with a relationship like that and the other person ending the relationship because although it isn’t what they want, they know it needs to be done.
“Is It Over Now?” is a song alleged to be about Harry Styles after his and Taylor’s relationship ended. The question repeated throughout the song is “Was it over when ____?” Taylor writes about how it was never exactly clear when the relationship was had ended. She is angry as she feels that she was never enough for him (despite his new girl being her clone). She also shares frustration over the fact that he publicized all of his relationships around the time that she was unsure if their relationship had even completely ended.
Her fifth vault song is a song about falling in love. Taylor knows that if she pursues her feelings, she will be shamed while he won’t. Although Taylor already knows what everyone will say about her and how painful that has been in the past, she’s willing to risk it for the relationship and the way it makes her feel.
In case you still aren’t completely up to date with the intention and passion associated with Taylor’s decision to rerecord many of her albums, here is some background: Back in 2005, even before Taylor released her first studio album- “Taylor Swift”, she signed with Big Machine Records. When her contract expired in 2018 Taylor had already recorded six albums with the label and gone through both very low and very high periods of her career. After her deal was up, she decided to switch record labels. Big Machine Records, however, still owned those first six. Without her knowledge, Big Machine Records sold those albums to music manager, Scooter Braun. Although Taylor tried to negotiate with Scooter to buy back her music, they could never come to a fair agreement. In 2020, Scooter sold the albums to Shamrock Holdings, which was the second time Taylor’s music had been sold without her knowledge. She expressed the intent behind the re-recordings perfectly in “It’s Time to Go”, a song from her ninth studio album, Evermore. “He’s got my past frozen behind glass but I’ve got me” Although Taylor could do nothing to own the original recordings of her first six albums, pieces of work that were personal to her experiences and would not be possible without the dedication she put into them, she still had herself, along with the fans she trusted, to truly make her work hers. Although Taylor has recently shared her, and others in the music industry’s hesitations in the success of the re-recordings, she took the jump. With “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” being her biggest album debut of all time I think it’s safe to say it was worth it.