There are many moments in Taylor Swift’s decades long career that you can point to as significant indicators of change: when she started straightening her hair for Red, when she wiped her social media clean and started posting snake imagery ahead of Reputation, when she surprised a locked up world with Folklore, or when she announced her plans to re-record her first six studio albums. But one of the most impactful of this sort was the release of 1989.

In 2014, a 24-year-old Swift cut her hair short, moved to New York City, and swore off men. She surrounded herself with a group of girls (and cats), left behind her country roots, and jumped boldly into the world of pop. She started speaking out about the relentless slut-shaming and sexist media behaviour towards her in her early 20s. She worked tirelessly and passionately with producer Jack Antonoff on an 80s-synth-infused sonically cohesive project that was, on first listen, unlike any of her past albums. To the outside, she completely reinvented herself.

However, if you look past the shimmering new style and flashing lights, it’s not difficult to see how natural of a progression 1989 was. Her new music may have been completely fresh and exciting, offering a new level of her expertise, but it wasn’t totally unexpected. The pop-leaning songs on Red foreshadowed this shift, and to her loyal fans, 1989 felt like an organic next step for a musician experimenting with her style, sound, and voice.

1989 showed Swift growing and evolving, trying her best to figure out who she was in a world that was trying to dictate it for her. And, as she vowed not to give the media anything they could run with, she tried desperately to hold control over her own narrative. She was living in a dichotomy of the freedom she achieved in her musicality and the restraints of the media’s relentless torture. Looking back, this album represented more than a shift in genre or style. It was the time when Swift realised that no matter what she said or did, she couldn’t go back to the teenage underdog the world once rooted for. She was a global superstar and people were going to be vicious. She would be absolutely idolised by some, yet hated by others – none of whom actually knew her. The only way to move was forward. And onwards she went, staying true to herself, fighting when necessary, and letting karma work its magic on the rest.

In 2014, Swift wrote her own story with 1989. Now, nine years later, she finally owns it.

Let’s take a look at the five “From the Vault” tracks from 1989 (Taylor’s Version)…

The most highly anticipated of the vault tracks, “Slut!” made headlines when it was first revealed on the tracklist. Like the satirical “Blank Space” that came before it, the song speaks to the harsh media treatment and scrutiny of her dating life during her early twenties. However, this time, there is a melancholy frustration behind her voice, even as she claims that this love is worth the pain. A complex and dreamy pop song, it hides the dark undertones under romanticised lyrics and an alluring soundscape. “If they call me a slut, you know it might be worth it for once,” she sings in the chorus — a coy, empowering, yet heartbreaking realisation that there was nothing she could do to get the media off her back, so she may as well live her life.

“I’m yours, but you’re not mine,” Swift sings in “Say Don’t Go”, a longing plea for clarity in a season of emotional turmoil. Slightly similar to the album’s track five (notoriously her most heartbreaking songs are track fives), “All You Had To Do Was Stay”, it is an anthem for anyone who has felt like they’re begging for the bare minimum from someone who is leading you on. Stylistically, the track plays with an enticing post-chorus chant of sorts, similar to the “fight/go/win” cheer in Lover’s “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”. “Say/don’t/go”, she pleads, with echoes that almost sound like she’s trying to hear the subject say the words back to her.

My current fixation out of the five, the short and sweet “Now That We Don’t Talk” details the strange time after a relationship has ended when you suddenly know nothing about the other person’s life. With fun stylistic decisions such as a lyric change from chorus to chorus and an empowering, clever outro, it explores the complexities of moving on. Trying hard not to romanticise the good of the past without remembering why it had to end, she drops heartbreaking bombs in the form of lyrics: “The more I gave, you’d want me less;” “remind myself the way you faded ‘til I left;” “It looks like you’re trying lives on / I miss the old ways / you didn’t have to change / but I guess I don’t have a say / now that we don’t talk”. As the song comes to an end, she acknowledges the funny thing about becoming a stranger to someone who loves an enigma: “the only way back to my dignity / was to become a shrouded mystery / just like I had been when you were chasing me”.

Some people change you forever, even if they’re only in your life for a time. In “Suburban Legends”, Swift details the magnetism of such a person and how powerful and fate-driven a connection can feel. It’s a feeling of infinity with the wariness of falling off a cliff. “You kiss me in a way that’s gonna screw me up forever,” she sings, before ending in a past tense confirmation: “I always knew it / that my life would be ruined”. It’s knowing that overwhelming emotions can be one’s downfall, but jumping anyway, and feeling forever changed even as you move on.

The closing track of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), “Is It Over Now?” is another of my favourites. With a strong beat and thrilling tempo-changes that mirror the complexities of the aftermath of heartbreak, she tries to pinpoint when or if a relationship is truly over. Is it when the sadness subsides? When she no longer thinks of his memory as she falls asleep? Hurt and anger weave in and out of one another as she details trying to move on but still seeing the past in dreams. It’s also a fitting title for the final track. In ending with a question, she closes a chapter but leaves it open-ended… Could there be more vault songs to come? Or is it truly over? Guess we’ll see.

Stream the entire album here…