Are you ready for it? Taylor Swift just released Red (Taylor’s Version), but fans are already thinking about which one of her early albums she’ll rerecord next.
The “State of Grace” singer embarked on a mission to rerecord her first six records in 2019 after losing control of her masters in a highly publicized battle with music manager Scooter Braun. The decision is about ownership, of course — whoever owns the masters gets paid for the music when it’s purchased, streamed or licensed — but the Pennsylvania native has also said it’s a matter of artistry.
“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” she wrote via Instagram in February 2021. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”
The first Swift album to get the rerecording treatment was Fearless, originally released in November 2008. For Taylor’s Version, the Grammy winner added six tracks described as “from the vault,” including duets with Maren Morris and Keith Urban.
Despite the fact that Swift fans had already heard most of the album’s songs over a decade earlier, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) became her ninth album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 when it was released in April 2021. At the time, Billboard also noted that it would have done so even without selling a single copy because the album’s streaming numbers were so high.
Seven months later, the Cats actress gave her fans even more material to dive into with the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), the rerecorded edition of her beloved 2012 album. In addition to a 10-minute version of fan favorite “All Too Well,” the album included nine new tracks “from the vault” and an acoustic version of “State of Grace.”
On the day of the album’s release, the “Wildest Dreams” songstress thanked her fans for supporting her rerecording project. “It never would have been possible to go back & remake my previous work, uncovering lost art & forgotten gems along the way if you hadn’t emboldened me,” she tweeted in November 2021. “Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Now we begin again.”
Keep scrolling for a look at all the albums that could be next on Swift’s list:
