The release comes as a surprise, following the announcement of Red (Taylor’s Version).
Image: Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift loves to keep her fans on their toes, and once again she's sent us all into a frenzy! Back in June, the global superstar announced the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), after months of fan speculation that the next re-recorded album she would bless our ears with would be 1989. Well, Swift just sneakily dropped Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version) and Swifties have lost their minds!
Whilst the song was teased in trailers for Spirit Untamed earlier this year, Swift has spent the past few months promoting the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), due out this November. The musician has announced the re-recorded edition will feature eight new songs from the vault, including new collaborations with Ed Sheeran and Phoebe Bridgers, the stand-alone single Ronan, the GRAMMY Award winning Babe which Swift gave to Big Little Town to record, and the infamous 10 minute version of All Too Well. But will the Queen of music surprise drop 1989 (Taylor's Version) any day now?
As mentioned in our article following the announcement of Red (Taylor's Version), fans of Swift had spent the first half of the year piecing together the clues for which re-recorded album Swift would grace the world with next. They narrowed it down to two choices: Red or 1989. Their reasoning? Swift’s hair at the 2021 Brit Awards, where she received the award for ’Global Icon’, was almost identical to the straight long hair with bangs we fell in love with during the Red era. She also started using filters on her posts reminiscent of the albums initial photoshoot. But at the same time, Swift was dropping hints in interviews that moved more towards 1989, and released new cloud themed merchandise that had the phrase “EST. 1989” all over.
Earlier this year, Swift released her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The new recordings remain faithful to the original production, with slight vocal and lyrical variations throughout the collection of songs. The musician enlisted her original band members on the recordings, whilst also bringing on more recent collaborators Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Christopher Rowe on production duties, alongside Swift. Colbie Caillat returned for their collaboration, Breathe, with Swift enlisting Country superstar Keith Urban and Maren Morris on two previously unreleased songs.
In 2019, after the private sale of the masters of her first six studio albums, Swift announced she planned to re-record the albums in an attempt to devalue the original masters. Having not been offered the chance to purchase the masters herself, Swift’s former label sold their catalogue to Scooter Braun, in a move that Swift stated “Stripped me of my life’s work”. As of November last year, Swift has been able to begin re-recording her first five albums.
Red (Taylor’s Version) is out November 19, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) pending! Listen to Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version) below!