From country to pop, 2014 nostalgia to 2023 reality — it’s time for Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’

By MARIA SHERMAN
AP Music Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Swift’s reimagined “1989” is here, the album that ushered in the first Peak Swift era — revisited at the height of her massive pop culture dominance. Released in 2014 and named for her birth year, the original “1989” signified a sonic rebirth. Swift had shed the Nashville country roots of her first four studio albums and announced herself a full-fledged pop superstar. “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” out Friday, takes that version of Swift — then in her mid-20s, living in New York, prepared to take on the world with an arsenal of ’80s synth sounds — and includes five unreleased “vault” tracks that deliver more clues about the artist she was then.