Taylor Swift - 1989

i realize I'm in the minority there and that kind of cutesy shit is what lots of people love

she had a chance to change "nice dress" and let it stand

It is pretty hard to imagine people preferring to listen to these new versions except out of loyalty

"I don't have to pretend I like acid rock"

xp - sorry, i meant the "regular" version of the new Taylor's Version. some of the exclusive vinyl ones she sold had better covers.

Gawd, "Say Don't Go" (the Warren co-write) is so so good. All these Vault tracks are so good

let me remind you
THIS WAS WHAT YOU WANTED

[Chorus]
I didn't come here to make friends
We were born to be suburban legends
When you hold me, it holds me together
And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever

whatever else she lost in the transition to pop music on this record, she still loved to employ the framework-shifting bridge. "out of the woods" and "all you had to do was stay" are both catapulted out of tedium by it

The "Bad Blood" version with Kendrick is her worst single, right? We can all agree?

(not that the original was good; it's like she constructed a nothing song out of a phrase she scribbled in her hotebook)

Not to sound like a jerk, but I feel like these vault tracks give the lie to the idea that Midnights was somehow "good" (I think it's a reasonable comparison, as they're in a comparable mode).

Just play "Slut!" adjacent to, say, "Maroon" (or yr favorite slice of tedium from that record)... it's (mid)night & day.

idk why i insist on putting myself through the rerecordings except that they usually summon fond memories of when i first heard the record. iirc the morning 1989 leaked i took it on the train with me and cried to "you are in love"

this is easily my least favorite taylor record other than the s/t so i'm not really dwelling on the uncanny differences in the rerecordings, other than "shake it off" sounding really bizarre

Not to sound like a jerk, but I feel like these vault tracks give the lie to the idea that Midnights was somehow "good" (I think it's a reasonable comparison, as they're in a comparable mode).

Just play "Slut!" adjacent to, say, "Maroon" (or yr favorite slice of tedium from that record)... it's (mid)night & day.

― Girl (1956) (morrisp), Friday, October 27, 2023 12:44 PM (one minute ago)bookmarkflaglink

i had the sameeeee exact thought lol. like oh wow they did really have a good idea here... 8 years ago

(not that the original was good; it's like she constructed a nothing song out of a phrase she scribbled in her hotebook)

― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 27, 2023 12:43 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's a dumb song, but it sounds good loud.

The "Bad Blood" version with Kendrick is her worst single, right? We can all agree?

― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 27, 2023 12:43 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"bad blood" vs. "me!" in a garish fight to the death

man antonoff's two songs on the original go so fucking hard

i actually think the new version of "i wish you would" sounds a bit better, more synthy and mechanical. feels to me like it has more steve winwood in it & less haim. but maybe i'm hearing things. i love this song

Listening now confirms:

All You Had to Do Was Stay >>>> Stay Stay Stay

"how you get the girl" underrated

What if you're new to Swift, should you go for the originals or the re-recordings?

Originals 100%

“slut!” is kinda drab but the rest of these vault tracks….. the long lost mini new wave taylor swift album implied by “new romantics”

i'm seeing and hearing less about this than I expected, perhaps we have finally reached peak swift saturation. she's almost done rerecording stuff now isn't she?

she had a chance to change "nice dress" and let it stand

I think that was ftgi

I think she still has to do Reputation (my fave of that batch, which I wish she wouldn't touch...) and the S/T.

(assuming the songs on the S/T don't feel too much like "juvenilia" for her to get into...)

"You Are in Love": I prefer the original mix by a wide margin -- the way the vocals are are more buried behind the synths, the subtle tinge of sadness -- but nevertheless, this is such a gorgeous underrated track and among my favorites of hers. Deceptively simple, and so much work being done in the phrasing. Yooooouuuuu. A perfect melody in a single syllable.

"I don't have to pretend I like Acid Rock." PREACH.

Yeah these Vault tracks are all awesome. The Antonoff sound but more 1989 than Midnights in vibe. None of these would have necessarily fit well with the album, but very glad to have them here.

My daughter's conspiracy theory is that a lot of these Vault tracks were not really written contemporaneously with "1989." I think she described them as "very Antonoff" or something, and hypothesized that they may have started from demos or scraps or fragments from "1989" but were fleshed out and finished much more recently.

Antonoff wrote & produced 3 of the original tracks, but what you said is probably right.

It's really too bad Martin didn't help with the re-record. "Style" in particular is a pretty terrible attempt at a facsimile. Whoever is playing the electric guitar is noticeably not the same person, and yet they mixed it way more to the front during the pre-chorus than in the original, and it really competes with her vocals.

Ha, I almost referenced Nile Rodgers's style in that post -- was going to say that you can try to copy it but you'll never get it quite right -- and then discovered this: https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-oral-history-of-taylor-swift-s-1989-d9869cc13adc#.cw9c2ox39

Niklas Ljungfelt (guitarist): I played on “Style,” a song I started with Ali Payami for ourselves. He was playing it for Max Martin at his studio; Taylor overheard it and loved it. She and Max wrote new lyrics. But I recorded the guitar on it before it was a Taylor song. It was an instrumental. I didn’t have a clue that Taylor would sing on it. The inspiration came from Daft Punk and funky electronic music. Taylor liked that a lot when she heard the song the first time. [She was] taking a big step from the music she had done before.

she doesn't say "this sick beats" this time so that's an improvement

Indexed is right about the new “Style” guitar line; its weakness is so jarring.

There’s something so lifeless and tepid about this batch of re-recordings… that “spark” is just missing from every element (including her vocal performance). Admittedly, I don’t know how the takes would sound to someone who isn’t already familiar with the originals.

That someone is me, and they sound great to my ears.

My daughter says she would recommend a newbie just go with the new recordings, cuz by and large they are close enough, so why not? Plus you get all the Vault tracks, which she distinguishes from bonus tracks.

i hadn't listened to this album in at least 2 years, and I would not have known this was a different recording just by listening to it.

xp Well they are distinguished from the bonus tracks, as we’ve heard those before… it is fascinating that she had these vault tracks in her pocket, and chose to release that weaker batch of songs instead. Gives credence to your daughter’s “conspiracy theory, perhaps…

Radio stations still play the singles from this album. If I were a programmer there’s no way I’d swap them out for these new versions

Would anyone notice? I dunno. Has anyone noticed the nu versions of, say, ELO and Def Leppard? Are they in circulation on the radio?

I should amend my earlier comment, for accuracy:

it is fascinating that she had these vault tracks songs written and in her pocket, and chose to record and release that weaker batch of songs instead.

The "Bad Blood" version with Kendrick is her worst single, right? We can all agree?

the original version that the ac stations played is even worse! also "me!"

xp the re-recorded version of "i knew you were trouble" from red has made it onto many radio stations where that song had still been in gold rotation. but that one legitimately sounds very close to the original

“Bad Blood” is much better than “Me!,” omg

“BB” is basic, but I think it’s fine/listenable (and the “blood runs cold!” part is cool)

you could also change "weaker batch of songs" to "batch of songs that I think are weaker" for accuracy xxxp

she might think these are the weaker ones.

Well sure, I can’t speak for her (though she did say, “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.”)

President Keyes otm about the afterlife of 1989 in the wild. I hear "Blank Space" and "Style" more often than other older singles, "You Belong With Me" and karaoke favorite "Love Story" excepted.

ppl have been suspicious of the temporal provenance of the vault tracks since swift dropped the "fuck the patriarchy" keychain on the ground in the 10 minute "all too well." imo it doesn't matter and who cares

I don’t think of it as a “gotcha” thing; but as a fan of her music, I think it’s interesting to think about the provenance of those songs and how they fit in her “story” as a songwriter.

Like, “Mr. Perfectly Fine” from the (“Fearless” vault) is one of my favorite songs of the past few years, and it’s fascinating to think she wrote and discarded it.

(I also wouldn’t “hold it against her” if she’s not being entirely truthful about when they were fleshed out / finished… artists fudge the truth about that kind of thing all the time.)