Count to 10, record it, Swifties. Taylor Swift’s first re-recorded album is here.
The 31-year-old singer-songwriter released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on Friday, a re-recorded version of her second studio album.
Originally when Swift was 18 years old and focused on country music, the 2021 version had to include some “changes”. Her voice has matured, which works on tracks like “White Horse” and “Fearless”, but feels strange singing about high school on “Fifteen”. For the most part, however, the essence of the album is the same and the improvements are fun memories for long-time fans of how Swift has evolved as an artist over the years.
“Taylor’s Version,” as Swift calls it, is in return for her promise to re-record her music before her “Lover” album. In late summer 2019, shortly after Scooter Braun’s purchase of her masters sparked a public battle between the two and renewed debate over music ownership, Swift announced her plan to re-record her first six studio albums in order to own her work that artists think it is deserve to own her work, I just feel very passionate about it “on” Good Morning America. “She started doing it in late 2020 and” Fearless “is the first of her versions to be released.
The new release offers fans 27 tracks: all songs from the original and platinum editions, six previously unreleased tracks from the vault and a bonus song. We listened and noticed the biggest differences between 2008 “Fearless” and 2021 “Fearless (Taylor’s version)”.
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From the vault: songs like ‘Mr. Perfectly Fine ‘have connections to newer texts
“Mr. Perfectly Fine” (a surprise release on Wednesday) gives us “Forever and Always” vibes, which is probably why it was originally left on the cutting room floor. This one is vintage sentimental Taylor at its best (as is the other Vault song “You All Over Me” which was released in March) and we can’t stop buckling up. “It takes everything in me to get up every day. But it’s wonderful “to see that you’re okay.” That includes the line “casually cruel,” which is apparently a precursor to your greatest bridge of all time in “All Too Well” from 2012?
Keith Urban’s appearance on “That’s When” and “We Were Happy” is a fine homage to the Fearless era when Swift opened up for Urban’s Escape Together tour in 2009 (the couple also starred in Tim McGraw’s 2013 song “Highway Don” to see ‘t Care. ”) But we probably could have done without these two, along with other Vault songs,” Bye Bye Baby, “which are pretty memorable compared to Swift’s storied discography.
Four of the songs from the vault are new releases on Friday. The best is “Don’t You”, a slow bop that could have landed on her “1989” album, but lyrically sounds like the main character of “Folklore” s “The 1” is on hers before therapy begins Ex would have encountered.
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Swift’s Country Twang is back
One big question on the record: Would Swift, a Pennsylvania native who has since moved into the pop and indie realms, revive the country twang she used in her earlier work?
The answer, which we are happy to confirm, is yes. It’s not as flashy as the original, and Swift has a more mature and slightly wider vocal range than she did as a teenager, but the emphasis on the “r” in “Fearless” and some long, drawn-out “I” and “Y” undoubtedly marks a return by Yee-Haw Taylor.
None of the musical adaptations feel different from the original, although there are little cases that feel like Easter eggs to hardcore fans, including a noticeable new inflection from “Mama” to “Fifteen”, a note change to “Love Stories” closing your eyes “and an overall softer refrain in” The Way I Loved You “.
The lyrics end up differently almost 13 years later
When Swift returns to the often autobiographical work she wrote as a teenager, there had to be a few lines that reminded us of how she went from being a talented kid with a guitar to becoming one of today’s greatest superstars.
Some lines that Swift particularly hard of hearing sing in 2021:
“White horse”: “I’ll find someone one day who will treat me really well.”
If only teenage Swift, facing very public breakups, could see her self in a loving, long-term relationship in 2021 with a man who sometimes even writes songs with her.
“The best day”: “I don’t know who I’ll talk to at school now / But I know I’ll laugh with you on the drive home.”
Swift wrote this song about her mother, and it’s especially moving to hear years later after Andrea Swift announced a 2015 cancer diagnosis that was featured in the musician’s heartbreaking 2019 song “Soon You Get Better,” in which she starred sings: “I hate doing this all about me / But who should I talk to? / What should I do when you are not? ”
“Fifteen”: “When all you wanted was to be wanted / I wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now / I swore then I would marry him one day / But I’ve achieved some bigger dreams of myself.”
In the time since the song debuted, Swift has won dozens of major awards and recently made Grammy history as the first woman to win three awards for Album of the Year. Talk about doing things in your life that are bigger than dating the boy on the soccer team.
“Superstar”: “I’m no one special, just another big-eyed girl who’s desperately in love with you. / Give me a photo to hang on my wall, superstar. / You played in bars, you play the guitar. / And I’m invisible and everyone knows who you are ”
Swift again, whose Reputation Stadium Tour 2018 broke the record for the highest-grossing US tour and felt inferior to a guy who performed in front of a few dozen people? It’s a bit of fun to hear about 2021, but also sweet proof of how far she has come.
“Love Story”: “We were both young when I first saw you.”
For longtime Swifties, this one now feels like a badge to stick with over the years – close your eyes and start more than a decade of flashbacks.
