The Daily Spin, October 30
Taylor Swift | 1989 (Taylor's Version)
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: 1989 [Taylor’s Version] (2023)
Artist: Taylor Swift
Link:
I think it’s time to admit that the Taylor’s Versions have run their course.
It’s an admirable thing, what she’s doing - I certainly won’t fault her for wanting to have control over her own music, especially considering that she had campaigned against the sale of her masters to private equity firms back in 2019.
Unfortunately, the reality is that Taylor’s Versions are almost unilaterally worse than the original recordings. There’s a distinct lack of youthful enthusiasm, the sort of jubilation and energy that really only comes with the first run at something. The mixing and mastering on these re-releases is much, much worse, to the point where an album that isn’t really much my favorite to begin with pretty rapidly falls off the pace.
I have to respect her willingness to unshelve old vault material, but it doesn’t compensate for the decreased quality - and that shift is very, very noticeable over an hour and a half of music.
Rating: 6.7/10
Best Tracks: Blank Space; Wildest Dreams
Worst Tracks: Bad Blood; All You Had To Do Was Stay; Shake It Off