I've been doing a fair number of Beatles-related posts recently, so why not break up the monotony and do something with a different artist?
Taylor Swift is quite possibly the most prolific artist of the 21st century so far, having put out eleven studio albums within the span of eighteen years - fifteen if you include the Taylor's Version releases of Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989 - but that's just barely scratching the surface as to what she's put out in terms of output. On most of Taylor's albums, she's included some bonus tracks, which gave fans more to listen to alongside the main album, but they didn't always appear on the same releases.
And so, that's where this post comes in, to gather as many stray tracks as possible and compile them together into albums that can fit alongside Taylor's main discography like a glove. I've avoided using remixes as much as possible (i.e. "Bad Blood" with Kendrick Lamar and "Karma" with Ice Spice) as I wanted to focus more on the bonus tracks. I think the remixes are for completionists only.
1. Permanent Marker - 3:08
2. What Do You Say - 3:31
3. I'd Lie - 3:34
4. Beautiful Eyes - 2:58
5. Dark Blue Tennessee - 3:07
6. Better Off - 3:20
7. Invisible - 3:26
8. R-E-V-E-N-G-E - 3:29
9. A Perfectly Good Heart - 3:42
10. Being with My Baby - 3:08
11. I'm Only Me When I'm with You - 3:35
12. Brought Up That Way - 4:11
13. I Heart ? - 3:15
Total length: 44:24
Even at such a young age, Taylor Swift was writing and recording many songs by herself, with her first songs being recorded when she was only fourteen years old! However, I don't want to focus on her material pre-2004 since they were recorded solely as demos in order to get a record label deal. The first of these stray tracks albums focuses on the early part of Taylor's career, during the recording sessions of her self-titled debut and Fearless. During that time, she also put out an extended play called Beautiful Eyes; I reused the cover for that and included the two songs that are exclusive to that EP - the title track and "I Heart ?". A third track, "I'm Only Me When I'm with You", also appeared as a bonus track on the self-titled album.
The remaining eight tracks have never appeared on an official album, although they have been leaked online over the years. Out of these unreleased songs, five are confirmed as being originally intended for Taylor Swift and/or Fearless, while the remaining three - "Better Off", "Being with My Baby" and "Brought Up That Way" - were rumored to having been planned to appear. The first half of the track listing is partially adapted from what was originally intended for Fearless, down to "Permanent Marker" being the first track. With the inclusion of these eight songs, Beautiful Eyes now serves as the missing link between Taylor Swift and Fearless, showing that bigger things were yet to come for Taylor. The overall length is a few minutes longer than that of the former album, which ran at just 40 minutes.
Also, no, I didn't forget about The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection; that's better off as a standalone holiday release.
Sources
- 2005 outtakes (tracks 1, 5, 6, 8 and 12)
- 2004 outtakes (tracks 2 and 10)
- 2006 outtake (track 3)
- Beautiful Eyes, extended play (tracks 4 and 13)
- Taylor Swift: Deluxe Edition (tracks 7, 9 and 11)
None of these songs have had re-recordings released as of this posting, but I'm pretty sure we'll see at least half of them show up on Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version) whenever it comes out.
1. Jump Then Fall - 3:56
2. Untouchable - 5:11
3. Forever & Always (Piano Version) - 4:27
4. Come In with the Rain - 3:58
5. Superstar - 4:21
6. The Other Side of the Door - 3:57
7. Drama Queen - 3:11
8. Crazier - 3:12
9. American Girl - 4:10
10. Today Was a Fairytale - 4:02
11. Breathless - 3:51
12. Ours - 3:58
13. If This Was a Movie - 3:54
14. Superman - 4:34
15. Let's Go (Battle) - 4:30
Total length: 61:12
Here's some behind the scenes insight for you: Originally, most of the songs on here were going to be combined with the five officially released songs on Beautiful Eyes, and the tracks included on Speak Now: Deluxe Edition would be on the next album. However, upon doing some research with the unreleased material, I felt that there was more than enough to be spread out over two albums, so here we are.
With the success of Fearless and Speak Now, Taylor Swift was now a rising superstar, even recording a song for Hannah Montana: The Movie (and writing another for Miley Cyrus to sing herself), and even appeared as a part of Hope for Haiti Now when an earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. That's how big a deal she was back then, and Today Was a Fairytale perfectly captures that time period. The cover comes from SoundCloud, and two songs - "Drama Queen" and "Let's Go (Battle)" - have never been released. If you don't have these songs or can't find them online, don't worry; the album functions just fine even without them.
Sources
- Fearless: Platinum Edition (tracks 1-6)
- 2008 outtake (track 7)
- Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack (track 8)
- Non-album single (track 9)
- Valentine's Day soundtrack (track 10)
- Hope for Haiti Now (track 11)
- Speak Now: Deluxe Edition (tracks 12-14)
- 2009 outtake (track 15)
If you want to create Today Was a Fairytale (Taylor's Version), tracks 1-6 and 10 can all be found on Fearless (Taylor's Version), and tracks 12 and 14 on Speak Now (Taylor's Version). "If This Was a Movie (Taylor's Version)" appears as a part of The More Fearless (Taylor's Version) Chapter. "American Girl" and "Breathless" are likely to be cut since they were covers, but as is the case with "Drama Queen" and "Let's Go (Battle)", I don't think you'll lose much without them. If "Crazier" ends up being re-recorded, it'll probably end up on Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version), and we might even get Taylor's own version of "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Best Days of Your Life", and they can be subbed in for the outtakes.
1. Safe & Sound - 4:01
2. Eyes Open - 4:04
3. The Moment I Knew - 4:46
4. Come Back... Be Here - 3:43
5. Girl at Home - 3:40
6. State of Grace (Acoustic Version) - 5:23
7. Ronan - 4:25
8. Sweeter than Fiction - 3:54
9. Wonderland - 4:05
10. You Are in Love - 4:27
11. New Romantics - 3:50
12. I Don't Wanna Live Forever - 4:05
13. September - 3:07
Total length: 53:30
Red and 1989 have enough bonus tracks and other "era" songs between them to make a whole album. With the addition of songs from the respective soundtracks to The Hunger Games and One Chance, plus the non-album charity single "Ronan", you get a much fuller picture of what Taylor was putting out in the early to mid 2010s. Reputation, however, didn't come with any bonus tracks for whatever reason, so that era is represented solely with Taylor's duet with Zayn Malik, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", from the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. Her cover of "September" concludes the disc.
The image of Taylor on the cover comes from 2015.
Sources
- The Hunger Games soundtrack (tracks 1 and 2)
- Red: Deluxe Edition (tracks 3-6)
- Non-album single (track 7)
- One Chance soundtrack (track 8)
- 1989: Deluxe Edition (tracks 9-11)
- Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack (track 12)
- Spotify Singles (track 13)
Wonderland (Taylor's Version) should be fairly easy to compile since most of the re-recorded tracks have been released thus far without any gaps between them. "Safe & Sound" and "Eyes Open" were both included on The More Red (Taylor's Version) Chapter, so if you have those re-recordings as well as the Taylor's Version releases of Red (tracks 3-7) and 1989 (tracks 8-11), you should be good to go. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is likely to be on Reputation (Taylor's Version) whenever it comes out, and "September" will probably be cut altogether.
1. All of the Girls You Loved Before - 3:41
2. Need - 3:09
3. Beautiful Ghosts - 4:21
4. Christmas Tree Farm - 3:48
5. Only the Young - 2:37
6. The Lakes - 3:31
7. Right Where You Left Me - 4:05
8. It's Time to Go - 4:15
9. Carolina - 4:24
10. The Great War - 4:00
11. Bigger Than the Whole Sky - 3:38
12. Paris - 3:16
13. High Infidelity - 3:51
14. Glitch - 2:28
15. Would've, Could've, Should've - 4:20
16. Dear Reader - 3:45
17. Hits Different - 3:54
18. You're Losing Me - 4:38
Total length: 67:41
Beautiful Eyes, Today Was a Fairytale and Wonderland all compile the stray tracks from Taylor's Big Machine Records era (2004-2018), before leaving the label in favor of Republic Records, eventually leading to a public dispute over the ownership of the first six albums, which led to her re-recording them. Lover has no bonus tracks, so to represent that era, "All of the Girls You Loved Before" starts things off, having been recorded in 2019, but not officially released until 2023. "Need" was also recorded around that time, but has never been officially released. Folklore and Evermore have three bonus tracks between them, and so the bonus tracks across various versions of Midnights dominate the second half of this compilation, and the title, Til Dawn, serves as a parallel to it. The resulting album runs at over an hour, several minutes longer than Lover, Folklore and Evermore.
The cover once again draws parallels to Midnight, with the picture of Taylor coming from the same sessions. The picture I picked was the one that I personally liked the best, and that it also served as a contrast to the dark blue background.
Sources
- Non-album singles (tracks 1, 4 and 5)
- 2019 outtake (track 2)
- Cats soundtrack (track 3)
- Folklore: Deluxe Edition (track 6)
- Evermore: Deluxe Edition (tracks 7 and 8)
- Where the Crawdads Sing soundtrack (track 9)
- Midnights: 3am Edition (tracks 10-16)
- Midnights: Deluxe Edition (track 17)
- Midnights: The Late Night Edition (track 18)
1. The Black Dog - 3:58
2. I'm Gonna Get You Back - 3:42
3. The Albatross - 3:03
4. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - 3:33
5. How Did It End? - 3:58
6. So High School - 3:48
7. I Hate It Here - 4:03
8. Thank You Aimee - 4:23
9. I Look in People's Windows - 2:11
10. The Prophecy - 4:09
11. Cassandra - 4:00
12. Peter - 4:43
13. The Bolter - 3:58
14. Robin - 4:00
15. The Manuscript - 3:44
Total length: 57:13
I don't really have much to say about this companion piece to The Tortured Poets Department; all tracks come from the Anthology digital release, and in the exact same order they appear in. The only change I made to the cover was the text. So yeah, thanks a lot.
1. Two is Better Than One - 4:02 [Boys Like Girls]
2. Half of My Heart - 4:10 [John Mayer]
3. Cannonball - 3:41 [Justin Bieber]
4. Both of Us - 3:36 [B.o.B]
5. Highway Don't Care - 4:36 [Tim McGraw ft. Keith Urban]
6. Babe - 3:35 [Sugarland]
7. Gasoline (Remix) - 3:13 [Haim]
8. Birch - 5:30 [Big Red Machine]
9. Renegade - 4:14 [Big Red Machine]
10. The Joker and the Queen (Duet Version) - 3:05 [Ed Sheeran]
11. The Alcott - 4:27 [The National]
12. Us - 4:02 [Gracie Abrams]
Total length: 48:11
An additional album I compiled at the last minute that covers all of Taylor Swift's guest appearances on studio albums as of 2024; the sole outlier, "Cannonball", was originally intended to appear on Justin Bieber's Believe, but it was left off altogether. I didn't include any songs that Taylor co-wrote for or with other artists (i.e. "Best Days of Your Life", "1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back"), because I wanted to focus on songs that she actually had vocal parts in. Originally, I was going to include "Gasoline (Remix)" and "The Joker and the Queen (Duet Version)" on Til Dawn, but they would've stuck out like a sore thumb there, hence their inclusion on ...and featuring. Besides, Til Dawn was already pretty lengthy as it is.
1. You All Over Me - 3:40
2. Mr. Perfectly Fine - 4:37
3. We Were Happy - 4:04
4. That's When - 3:09
5. Don't You - 3:28
6. Bye Bye Baby - 4:02
7. Better Man - 4:57
8. Nothing New - 4:18
9. Babe - 3:44
10. Message in a Bottle - 3:45
11. I Bet You Think About Me - 4:45
12. Forever Winter - 4:23
13. Run - 4:00
14. The Very First Night - 3:20
15. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) - 10:13
Total length: 66:25
Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) not only contain re-recorded bonus tracks alongside the main album from each, but they also contain songs that have either never been released or, in a few cases, were given away to other artists. Tracks 1-6 come from the former album, and tracks 7-15 from the latter, which is practically an album all by itself thanks to "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)". All tracks are in the order that they appear in on their respective albums.
The two images on the cover are outtake photos from their respective sessions, and are deliberately juxtaposed with the album titles. It looks like Red Taylor is eying her Fearless counterpart for whatever reason, and I like it.
From the Vault: Speak Now and 1989 (2023)
1. Electric Touch - 4:26
2. When Emma Falls in Love - 4:12
3. I Can See You - 4:33
4. Castles Crumbling - 5:06
5. Foolish One - 5:11
6. Timeless - 5:21
7. "Slut!" - 3:00
8. Say Don't Go - 4:39
9. Now That We Don't Talk - 2:26
10. Suburban Legends - 2:51
11. Is It Over Now? - 3:49
Total length: 45:34
I don't have much to say about this one that I didn't already from the previous From the Vault album. The first six tracks come from Speak Now (Taylor's Version), and the remaining five from 1989 (Taylor's Version). It's quite short at 45 minutes and only eleven tracks, but that's due to being uncertain as to what new songs will end up on Reputation (Taylor's Version). So far, possible candidates are "This is What You Came For" (originally released as a single by Rihanna), "Family", "Shaking Thrift Shop" and an untitled collaboration with Drake. Once that album comes out, I'll also add a cover to it.
So where does that leave Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)? So far, "Beautiful Eyes", "I Heart ?" and "Crazier" have been confirmed as re-registered, but we have no idea what will end up being From the Vault tracks for it. However, we do know that she's recorded at least fifty songs before getting a record label deal, but there could be even more that we don't know about. I'm not sure I'd even call it From the Vault: Taylor Swift; I may as well give each album its own title! Perhaps the collection overall could be titled Taylor's Treasure Trove?
Overall, if you've got all eleven of Taylor Swift's studio albums, as well as some of her bonus tracks and the four re-recorded albums, you should be able to start putting these albums together. I get the feeling that by the time that this post comes out, Taylor will already have put out even more songs we haven't heard of before, so who knows?
