When I was in middle school, my mom had a CD of Taylor Swift’s Fearless album in her car. Every time we went anywhere, the car would always start playing that album. It went with us everywhere — from school every morning to moving across the country to the hospital when my brother was born.
Even though the album is mostly about love and heartbreak and I could not relate to it at the age of 8, it has always held a special place in my heart. As I got older and my mom bought new CDs, I never really listened to Taylor Swift anymore. That’s why when I first heard that Taylor Swift had rerecorded Fearless so she could own it again, I thought “good for her” and moved on with my day thinking I wouldn’t care that much about it. But then I opened Spotify and listened to the album. And listened again. And again. Between the nostalgia, listening to the lyrics differently as an adult, and the inclusion of unreleased songs completing the story of the album, I couldn’t stop listening.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sounds almost identical to the original, but that’s the whole point. Her voice has gotten noticeably deeper over the years, and she loses her country twang (the most noticeable to me was on “hey isn’t this easy” in “You Belong With Me” in Taylor’s Version) but the part that made this album feel new to me was thinking about how far Swift has come as an artist since its release in 2008. Hearing Swift sing lyrics she wrote as a teenager about her dreams, like in Fifteen when she says “…back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I’ve realized some bigger dreams of mine,” was particularly triumphant considering everything she has accomplished in the decade since Fearless came out; just last month she won her third Album of the Year award at the Grammys.
Along with all the original Fearless tracks, six more unreleased songs were added to the album that she had written during that era. One that was released ahead of the rest of Taylor’s Version was Mr. Perfectly Fine, a breakup song Swift allegedly wrote about Joe Jonas. It’s easy to tell that this song was written at the same time as the rest of Fearless; the sound fits seamlessly with the rest of the album. This is one of those poppy breakup songs that Swift was known for during her earlier albums. If it had come out when I was eight, I would have played it on repeat so loudly in my room my parents would have banned it.
Overall, it almost doesn’t seem fair to review this album, seeing as it is literally an exact copy of a beloved one that came out over a decade ago. Without the context that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was created so she could regain the rights to her music, it would feel like no more than a remastered album.
This album marked the beginning of Swift’s transformation from country to pop, and has been looked back at fondly by many including me. This was the first of several albums that Swift will be rerecording, and if she decides to go chronologically that means Speak Now is next. Personally, I can’t wait.