Every single one of Taylor Swift’s albums tells a story, especially when listened to in sequential order.

Swift’s 1989 is no different. The album is about feeling free after huge changes. The album begins with Welcome to New York, which represents the feelings one experiences when moving to a new place. It’s representative of a fresh start.

The five vault tracks are Slut!, Say Don’t Go, Now That we Don’t Talk, Suburban Legends, and Is It over Now.

This album was originally released in October 2014 but Taylor announced 1989 Taylor’s Version during closing night of her U.S leg for the Eras tour, giving clues beforehand like exile.

After re-releasing her album, Taylor wrote “I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly.”

Glitter gel pen songs, fountain pen songs, and quill songs are three categories that Taylor sorted her songs into and Slut! was expected to be a glitter gel pen song by many but it ended up being more of a fountain pen song since slut shaming is such an accepted thing in this society and she’s been open about the slut shaming that she’s gone through, which led her to write songs like Blank Space. It’s a sad love song since she’s been judged for having “too much” exes, yet she didn’t mind entering a new relationship at the time, even if the fact that it was a new person would direct more shaming towards her, because of how in love with this person (Harry Styles) she was at the moment.

Since 1989 marked a more significant shift from country to pop, most of them would be expected to be glitter gel pen songs since so much of 1989 is glitter gel pen but Say Don’t Go is another song about the agony of wanting to stay for this other person so deeply, yet they seem to have no care. There is a part where it goes “I said, ‘I love you’ (I said, ‘I love you’) You say nothin’ back,” with a significant silence after the part where Taylor says “I love you.” She knows she has to move on but she feels as if she’s only forced to do so because of how her heart belongs to the person but he’s given her nothing back and doesn’t want anything to do with her when all Taylor wanted was for him to say “Don’t go.”

After forcing herself to move on, the next relatable but hollow feeling song is Now That We Don’t Talk which is also centered around moving on, but this time it’s with more of a calm tone and feels more like just walking away rather than being stuck to something and having to tear yourself away.

Suburban Legends tells the story of two star-crossed lovers who find success beyond their small town but try to stay together against all odds.

When Swift wrote Blank Space, she did it as a response to the rumors people were circulating criticizing the fact that she writes so much about heartbreak. There’s nothing much you can do about people who love to gossip so Taylor decided to write a song revolving around those ideas and it became one of the most popular within the album.

Then the next tracks, Style and Out of the Woods tell the story of confusing relationships that may have underlying issues but still seem to find ways back together, hence the lines “we never go out of style” or “the monsters turned out to be just trees.” Swift makes this relationship seem so magical but doesn’t fail to emphasize how she has different anxieties. Yet she still never seems to lose trust and the feeling of comfort she has within this person’s proximity.

There’s a sudden break from the feelings of comfort as All You Had to Do Was Stay plays. A constant theme of being anxious within the relationship and things being rocky but eventually always coming back together is stopped abruptly when the relationship seems to be genuinely over and she’s scared to let the person come back since she doesn’t know if he’ll really ever stay with her forever.

A popular hit Shake it Off, communicates how Taylor is getting over this break-up and having fun doing so, yet I Wish You Would following right after shows how she still yearns for him to come back out of his own energy and make things right.