In a letter to fans, Taylor Swift admitted that she hit a wall with re-recording most of her 2017 album Reputation, struggling to recreate the "shame-born snarl and mischief" she felt at the time.
"Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it," the iconic pop star wrote. "That album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point."
"All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief," she cited as making the album difficult to duplicate authentically.
Swift went on to describe the album as the only one out of her first six that she didn't feel could be improved. "Not the music, photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off," she explained.
The confession follows Swift's success in finally regaining ownership of her master recordings for her first six albums, including Reputation, by purchasing them from Shamrock Capital. The purchase deal concludes a long-standing battle over her music rights, which began when her original masters were sold without her consent in 2019.
Acknowledging the potential disappointment to fans eagerly anticipating Reputation (Taylor's Version), Swift indicated that unreleased "vault" tracks from the album may still be released in the future. "There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch," she wrote.
Swift's journey to reclaim her music has not only been a personal triumph but has also inspired other artists to seek greater control over their work.
"Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was," Swift said.
The singer ended the letter with gratitude for her fans: "Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine... finally actually are."
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