The Farr Side: Swift's star continues to shoot higher

What an exciting time in music it is right now, particularly if you’re Taylor Swift. I am in awe of this woman and I can’t help but get caught up in the madness. It’s mind-blowing what she has achieved and there seems to be nothing she can’t conquer.

Her latest album, “1989" (Taylor’s Version), debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart this week breaking all kinds of historical records. While it’s becoming the norm for Swift’s releases to cause a stir, this particular one is a biggie. Swift moved nearly 1.7 million copies of her released album making it the biggest week for any album in almost a decade.

“1989" (Taylor’s Version) is her fourth album to be re-recorded in her attempt to earn back the rights to her own music. I have so much respect for her in this endeavor as I completely support singers and musicians and their art. Swift is bringing attention to a problem that has plagued artists for decades. It’s more than a girl wanting her diary back.

The fact that Swift moved 1.7 million copies in less than a week is pretty cool because it means a lot of vinyl albums were sold. I love that people want to get their “hands” on an actual album. That’s right — 1.3 million of those sold were vinyl albums and CDs.

Swift’s “1989” was such a monumental album when it was first released in 2014.

Back then, the album debuted at No. 1 in its first week and made her a massive superstar, earning her the second of her three Grammys for Album of the Year. The album featured a slew of hit singles including the No. 1’s “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood,” as well as the Top 5 hits “Out Of The Woods,” “Style,” “Wildest Dreams” and “New Romantics.”

I’ve become quite fond of Swift’s music through the years as her growth can be seen with each new album. “1989” is such a stellar album and deserves to be among the greatest of all time.

So if it would be feasible for any artist to re-record their past albums, would they still sound good? I was skeptical, at first, but somehow she pulled this — quite well, I might add. I wasn’t sure she could make “Blank Space” any better than her original, but it's incredibly good. It’s almost as if she’s fully grown into the lyrics now. The musicianship is even better than before, too.

I’m certain we will see a few new tracks from the album score well on the Hot 100 as Taylor’s Version contains 8 new tracks. The best of the new tracks has to be the song, “You Are In Love,” a song that might parallel her fairytale romance with Kansas Chief’s Travis Kelce. It’s a beautiful song and a perfect example of her amazing ability to pen incredibly great, poetic songs.

For Swift to score more hits she might want to be careful because she’s currently sitting pretty atop the Hot 100 with “Cruel Summer,” a song from Swift’s 2019 album, “Lovers.”

For those keeping score this is Swift’s third No. 1 album this year, a new record for a female artist. This album also increases Swift’s record-breaking tally of No. 1 albums for a female to 13.

Forbes just listed Swift as the latest billionaire. She can credit her successful “Eras Tour” for a lot of this, but according to Forbes it was the success of her recording her previous works as that did it. The report also said that it didn’t include anything she’s earned from the tour-turned-movie, which will be huge by the end of the year.

For me, it was discovering a “Little Golden Book” biography on Taylor Swift at the grocery store to know that she’s made it. It may or may not have fallen into my shopping basket.

— David T. Farr is a Journal correspondent. Email him at farrboy@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: The Farr Side: Swift's star continues to shoot higher