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Taylor Swift Won't Re-Record 'Reputation,' and That's Good News

Taylor Swift Won't Re-Record 'Reputation,' and That's Good News

Taylor Swift performs at the opening concert of the Reputation Stadium Tour on May 8, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. On May 30, the American pop star repurchased the rights to her first six albums. She announced that there would be no re-recording of "Reputation." For New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica, this is more than good news: it's a relief.
Taylor Swift performs at the opening concert of the Reputation Stadium Tour on May 8, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. On May 30, the American pop star repurchased the rights to her first six albums. She announced that there would be no re-recording of "Reputation." For New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica, this is more than good news: it's a relief. PHOTO KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

This is what you call a disappointment. Or a relief (depending on your point of view).

Just after buying back the rights to her first six albums from the Shamrock investment fund, Taylor Swift announced on May 30 that she would not be re-recording Reputation, her sixth album, released in 2017.

And, for New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica, that's great news.

The rights to the American pop star's first six albums (recorded for the Big Machine label) fell into the hands of agent and producer Scooter Braun, before being sold a year later to Shamrock.

Two transactions in which the American singer had no say.

“His remake of ‘1989’ had a bigger first week than the original album, entering the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 1.65 million sales in the United States, which was at the time the best first week of his career,” reports the American daily “The New York Times”.
“His remake of '1989' had a bigger first week than the original album, entering the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 1.65 million sales in the United States, which was at the time the best first week of his career,” reports the American daily “The New York Times.” PHOTO PETER NICHOLLS/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

But Taylor Swift is not going to let this happen.

Capitalizing on the fervor of her fans, she painstakingly re-recorded each of her albums and re-released them with the label "Taylor's Version," the New York Times reports in another article.

She started with Fearless (Taylor's Version) in 2021. Then followed Red , Speak Now and 1989 .

Except that one album was still missing: Reputation .

Which was enough to fuel Swifties' speculation. Some even thought the singer would take advantage of the Eras Tour to make an announcement.

The announcement in question has finally been made: there will be no Reputation (Taylor's Version).

“In all transparency, I didn't even re-record a quarter of it.

Reputation is so

anchored in a very specific period of my life that every time I tried to redo it, I blocked. This defiant attitude, this need to be understood while knowingly being misunderstood, this desperate hope, this shameful audacity and malice. Honestly, of my first six albums, this is the only one I couldn't redo better

Today."

Taylor Swift on the Instagram account swifterastour

Why is this good news? Well, according to critic Jon Caramanica, it's largely because Reputation holds a very special place in Taylor Swift's discography.

According to the pop star's Instagram post, it was her fans' enthusiasm for both Taylor's Version and the Eras Tour that allowed her to buy back the rights to her first albums.
According to the pop star's Instagram post, it was her fans' enthusiasm for both Taylor's Version and the Eras Tour that allowed her to buy back the rights to her early albums. Photo MARK METCALFE/Getty Images/AFP
“This album was driven by something she had never had access to before, and will never need to access again.”

From now on."

Critic Jon Caramanica in the American daily The New York Times

Taylor Swift performs during the Reputation Stadium Tour opening concert at University of Phoenix Stadium on May 8, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. “For years, I asked, begged, for the opportunity to own my work,” she wrote in 2019. It’s now done.">
Taylor Swift performs during the Reputation Stadium Tour opening concert at University of Phoenix Stadium on May 8, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. “For years, I asked, begged, for the opportunity to own my work,” she wrote in 2019. It’s now done. PHOTO KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

“It contains some wonderful songs: two of the sweetest and most rhythmic songs of his career, with Delicate and Dress ; angry laments, with Look What You Made Me Do and This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things ; and a call to remove the mask of good behavior and display his scars in broad daylight, with I Did Something Bad ,” the critic adds in the columns of the American daily.

But above all, for him, Taylor Swift's genius "lies in her ability to capture the present moment without artifice."

“That's why recording replicas of his albums could have felt like a bad joke, an insult to the originals,” he believes. “The previous albums couldn't be improved upon either. Not because they were perfect, but because they were authentic works of art, in keeping with the time they were released.”

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