![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
When I was eight years old and before I had my own phone or computer, I would watch YouTube videos on my dad’s computer. When he wasn’t working, I would spend hours and hours there watching all sorts of music videos or toy reviews. I used to love putting his big headphones on and jamming out to Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. My absolute favorite song that really got me into Swift’s music was “Out Of The Woods” for sure. I used to love watching the music video of her running out of the woods on loop, and just listening to her repeat “are we out of the woods yet” over and over again is what really got me through some of those difficult times that I struggled with throughout my childhood.
Whenever new music is released, I tend to rank albums completely different than when I listen to that same music a month later. With the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” a little over a month ago, the album has had time to sink in and I feel like I’ve had some time to really reflect on the new rerecording of one of my favorite albums of all time.
Taylor Swift is currently underway in the process of rerecording her first six albums, already having rerecorded four. The reason she’s rerecording her albums is because when she first started making her music, she got signed onto a record label known as Big Machine Records, where she was able to create pop sensations such as “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space”. When her contract with this label ended, she shifted over to Universal’s Republic Records. According to Time, the reason she decided to switch over is because Big Machine Records sold to a corporation owned by Scooter Braun, who then sold her original music to another company, resulting in him receiving the profits from the streams of the original albums. Swift’s goal is to own and control her own music that she created, hence the phrase “Taylor’s Version”.
In 2014, Swift released her album titled “1989” (named after her birth year), with 1.2 million copies sold in the first week according to The Washington Post. This album was her first big shift into the pop music industry, where she created masterpieces such as “Shake It Off” and “Bad Blood”. Now in 2023, she has rerecorded this album as “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”, and has outsold the original with over 1.3 million copies sold in the first week, according to Rolling Stone.
One of the reasons I decided to review this album (besides being a massive “Swiftie”) is because of the fact that I grew up with its music. I was 8 years old when it first came out in 2014, and I would say that this album really transformed me into the Swiftie that I am today. I would hear it all over the radio and everyone was always talking about it. Now that she’s rerecorded it nine years later, I was very excited to get to listen to it and compare it to my childhood memories.
The first song on the album is “Welcome to New York (Taylor’s Version).” I had always loved the original of this song and its “big city” vibe, and I used to have it on repeat when I would travel to New York. My first impression after listening to Taylor’s Version was that her voice sounded the same but the production sounded a little different. Now, after a month of listening to the song, I can definitely hear a difference in her voice, which sounds a lot more mature.
Another song that I definitely noticed a major difference in was “Style (Taylor’s Version).” I would argue that the original version of the song is the epitome of pop music, with a beat that just makes you want to dance. My first impression of this song was that it sounded vastly different from the original. I felt like her voice was really good, of course, but the production of the song
was very weird and did not have the same “vibe” as the original version. I think now, after a month, I would say that the song is amazing and that all it took was a little bit of time to get used to it.
“Shake It Off (Taylor’s Version)” was definitely a song that I was curious about hearing the difference in, since the original was such a popular song. I definitely prefer this new version a whole lot more because it sounds less “annoying” than the first and I could really hear how her voice had matured. I also felt like it sounded really similar to how she sounded live, which I thought was really nice.
Jumping ahead to “New Romantics (Taylor’s Version)”, this was probably the song I was most excited about because the original was my favorite off of the album. When I first heard the new version, I was completely speechless and honestly in tears because it sounded so good. I later saw some complaints on social media about how different this song’s chorus sounded, and at first it took me a little time to get over it, but now I would say that it’s my number one song off of this album (again).
In addition to the 16 rerecorded songs, Swift also released five songs known as “vault tracks”. Vault tracks are songs that were originally written for the album but didn’t end up making it on. So when listening to the new version, I also got to hear five brand new songs.
The first vault track that really got my attention was “Say Don’t Go” because of her low register at the beginning of the song, leading into a higher one. I really love this song because of the lyrics and how it’s another example of Swift’s songs having sad lyrics, but a beat that makes you want to dance. I was definitely blown away by this whole song on my first listen and it’s definitely still one of my favorites.
The last song that I would say is really notable (even though they all are) is definitely “Is It Over Now?” The noises at the beginning of this song completely caught me off guard on my first listen because they reminded me of how her songs from “Midnights” sound. This song is definitely my favorite vault track and probably my second favorite song off of this album because it left me speechless. The lyrical references to a… certain someone had me shocked, and the bridge of this song is absolutely phenomenal. I feel like this song was an incredible way to end this album and I can’t believe this had just been out there for so long without anyone getting to hear it.
Overall, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” was definitely an experience to listen to and compare to the original. I’m really not sure if I can say if I like this better than the original, because I don’t think anything can compare to the sounds of my childhood. But at the same time, getting to hear her voice mature, better production on the songs, and new vault tracks really make it harder to decide on which one I prefer. Instead I’ll just give it a ranking…
13/13!
