Every ‘From the Vault’ Track Ranked on Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
By Emmy Mulvena / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
It has been almost a decade since the famous popstar Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album 1989, named after the year she was born. Back in August, while she was performing on the last stop of the first US leg of The Eras Tour, Swift announced she would be dropping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on October 27, 2023.
The following month, she created puzzles for Swifties to solve in order to figure out the names of the five ‘From the Vault’ tracks she would be including with the original sixteen songs from the album. When her tracks are ‘From the Vault,’ this means she had written the songs back when she wrote the original album, but decided to release them for the first time on the re-recorded version. The vault tracks are titled: “Slut!,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” and “Is It Over Now?”
It is rumored that Swift wrote over 150 songs for 1989, but only five of those made it out of the vault for 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Here are all of them ranked.
- “Slut!”
This was the most anticipated vault track due to its controversial title. The song is slow, romantic, and quiet, which is the exact opposite of what fans were expecting. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) contains songs like “Out of the Woods” and “Bad Blood” that have a more aggressive, hardcore tone that fans assumed “Slut!” would resemble. While the song was still phenomenal, the anticipation created around it accounted for my expectations not being met upon its release. Many fans agreed that the track was rather disappointing and did not live up to the hype, or the title. However, this track arguably has the most interesting easter eggs.
Swift released four limited edition vinyls for 1989 (Taylor’s Version), each one a different color. All of the colors are referenced in the song, the lyrics mentioning “flamingo pink” to refer to the Rose Garden Pink Vinyl, “Sunrise Boulevard” to reference the Sunrise Boulevard Yellow Vinyl, “aquamarine” to refer to the Aquamarine Green Vinyl, and “tangerine, neon light” to reference to the Tangerine Edition Vinyl. The Rose Garden Pink Vinyl is also a reference to her song “Blank Space,” as is the Crystal Blue Skies Vinyl, which is the original blue color for 1989, however it is interesting that all four colors of the limited edition vinyls are mentioned just in this one song.
- “Suburban Legends”
This particular vault track is actually a favorite of mine from the five, however I ranked it lower on the list due to the fact that it doesn’t really fit on 1989 (Taylor’s Version). “Suburban Legends” tells the story of someone waiting around to get back together with an ex they’re still in love with, holding onto a promise from the past. It feels like an intimate thought process where someone planned a future with their high school sweetheart, but those plans didn’t pan out, and now they’re waiting for them to come back into their life, knowing that it will never happen.
The song illuminates Swift’s skills in creative lyricism, having lyrics like “You’d be more than a chapter in my old diaries / With the pages ripped out,” followed by “I am standin’ in a 1950’s gymnasium / And I can still see you now.” Fans hear these lyrics and understand what Swift is trying to portray. These words echo high school and suddenly you are feeling just as heartbroken as the person in the song. While I love this particular vault track, the song is not insanely exciting, and I feel as though it would’ve fit much better on Midnights than 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
- “Say Don’t Go”
When this vault track plays, suddenly it’s 2014 again and Taylor Swift has a bleach blonde bob and “Blank Space ” is playing on every radio station. “Say Don’t Go” has quiet, hearty verses that grow into a strong chorus, emanating the pop genre and feeling very at home on 1989 (Taylor’s Version). This song is about betrayal and being led on, loving someone who does not feel the same way, hoping you don’t have to leave them and wishing it can all work out for the best. The strongest lyric is “I said ‘I love you’ (I said ‘I love you’) / You say nothin’ back” at the end of the bridge, really hammering in the point that the love explored in this song is very one-sided. The chorus is insanely catchy, having the kind of lyrics you can scream-sing when you’re mad at a situationship for ghosting you. The entire song is someone begging for their lover to tell them not to leave, but concludes by saying “But you won’t.”
- “Now That We Don’t Talk”
This is arguably the most popular song on the album, as it blew up on TikTok as a trend. The trend follows the lyrics “Now that we don’t talk / I don’t have to pretend I like acid rock,” and TikTok users can make videos listing things they no longer have to put up with since they don’t speak to their exes anymore. That is exactly the point Swift is trying to make with this song. She is wondering about an ex and what they’re up to now, but concluding it doesn’t matter since they are no longer speaking or in each other’s lives.
This really highlights what dating is like as celebrities, even if you don’t talk to the person anymore, you are still subject to their lives through the media. . The lyrics say: “And from the outside it looks like you’re tryin’ lives on.” The moral of this vault track is that Swift is grateful that she no longer has to talk to her ex, as she doesn’t have to pretend to like things she didn’t or act like she was someone she was not, something anyone with an ex can relate to.
- Is It Over Now?
For my top pick, I have chosen “Is It Over Now?” the final song on the entire album. This is another vault track that amplifies how it must feel to date another celebrity as someone already in the spotlight. It follows someone singing about an ex they assume never moved on, and they also assume that this ex still thinks about them. The song shows fans what it is like to recall a relationship that ended poorly a long time ago, even after casually dating other people for so long. The lyrics say things like “Let’s fast forward to 300 takeout coffees later” and “Let’s fast forward to 300 awkward blind dates later,” showing that Swift and her ex had both moved on with other people, but they must still think about one another.
The words also have a hint of wondering if your ex will come back to you. Even though you’ve hurt each other and appeared to have moved on, maybe there is still a glimmer of hope that you two will be with each other again. Fans suspect this song might be about Swift’s ex Harry Styles, a musician that is also incredibly famous. The most cutthroat lyric in the song is definitely “If she’s got blue eyes, I will surmise that you’ll probably date her,” and this also appears to be a fan-favorite on social media.
“Is It Over Now?” was an easy pick as the number one vault track in my opinion, due to its complex narrative of how someone can feel so many emotions about somebody they used to know, wondering if the relationship can ever truly be over.