With “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” out now, Taylor Swift has just two of her previous albums left to rerelease: “Taylor Swift” and “Reputation.”
Since 2020, Swift has been steadily rerecording her first six studio albums. She began the rerecording process after the first six albums in her catalog were sold, meaning she lost the rights to the master recordings of those songs.
So far, Swift has released rerecorded versions of four studio albums: 2008’s “Fearless,” 2010’s “Speak Now,” 2012’s “Red” and, most recently, 2014’s “1989.”
Here’s what to know about the two albums left to rerecord — and why Swifties think “Reputation” is up next.
What to know about the 'Taylor Swift' and 'Reputation' albums
“Taylor Swift,” the singer’s debut album, was released in 2006.
The album’s lead single, “Tim McGraw,” charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and in 2020 was certified double platinum.
Swift was just 16 when her debut album came out, and the songs reflect all the ups and downs of being a teen, from navigating heartbreak to finding her place in the world.
Pitchfork called Swift’s debut album a “solid, spunky-yet-reflective country record told squarely from the teenage perspective.”
Swift herself has said that with this album, she aimed to share her authentic experiences as a teen, rather than singing about more adult themes.
“I feel like people my age haven’t had a lot of people in country music that can speak directly to them,” Swift said in a fan Q&A hosted by Great American Country in 2007. “I’ve been there. I’ve been a country music fan, and I’ve been 17, so I know exactly what we go through, trying to find songs that we can relate to.”
Fast forward a decade, and Swift was firmly in her pop era.
Her 2017 album, “Reputation,” is full of bold electropop beats and even bolder lyrics about revenge and the darker sides of fame.
In the album’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift seems to be saying goodbye to the “sweet girl next door” persona she embodied during her earlier career, and celebrates her ability to reinvent herself.
“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time,” she sings in one verse. “Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time / I got a list of names, and yours is in red, underlined / I check it once, then I check it twice.”
“Reputation” was released in the midst of Swift’s headline-grabbing feud with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who sparked controversy when he made sexual references to Swift in his 2016 song, “Famous.”
Swift has said she didn’t try to explain the “Reputation” album because she didn’t feel she “owed that to anyone.”
“There was a lot that happened over a couple of years that made me feel really, really terrible,” she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music's Beats 1 in 2019, according to Billboard.
“And I didn’t feel like expressing that to them. I didn’t feel like talking about it," she continued. "I just felt like making music, then going out on the road and doing a stadium tour and doing everything I could for my fans. Everything I did was for them, and I didn’t need to try and get every headline.”
Why fans think 'Reputation' will be rereleased next
Many Swifties believe “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” will be Swift’s next rerecorded album.
Why? For one thing, a rerecorded song from the album, “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version),” has already surfaced in the trailer for the TV series “Wilderness” and features as the show’s opening title song, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Another rerecorded song from "Reputation (Taylor's Version)," "Delicate (Taylor's Version)," also appeared to pop up in the second season of the show “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” leading fans to guess that the full, rerecorded album couldn’t be far behind.
Other fans believe there’s an Easter egg hidden in the music video for Swift’s 2022 song, “Karma.”
Near the end of the video, a woman who appears to be Swift is wearing blue nail polish on one hand, and black nail polish on the other.
Die-hard Swifties will know that the colors blue and black have been associated with her “1989” and “Reputation” albums, respectively — leaving fans to wonder if Swift was telling fans that the “Reputation” rerelease was coming after the “1989” one.
There are also some elaborate fan theories about the clock-shaped latte art in the same scene, with some fans wondering if the placement of Swift’s fingers are clues to the “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” release date.
“1989…blue nail…on the 8…announced in August (8th month),” one fan wrote on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. “Reputation announcement 2nd month….february probably for april release.”