Since Taylor Swift announced that she would be re-releasing all of her albums prior to Lover, I have been excited. I have been a huge Taylor Swift fan since I was 6 years old when my older sister would play the self-titled album in the car the same year it was released. From there, I have been up to date on all of her releases and have had her constantly in my Spotify wrapped. When she said last month that Fearless would be her first album re-recorded on her path to owning all of her music, I was ecstatic. This album defined me as an 8 year old and I was prepared for it to define me as a 20 year old again and I was right.
On the Friday it was released, I waited until midnight for the album to drop and nearly cried (in a good way!) when I saw the 6 additional tracks from the vault of unreleased songs. And let me just say, this album made me emotional.
Hearing Taylor’s mature voice at age 31 singing “Fifteen” made me cry. It almost sounded as though she was telling her younger self that, “… in your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team” which I won’t lie, made me emotional. Further, the difference between the laugh in the old “Hey Stephen” versus Taylor’s Version has fueled me for the last two weeks.
As for the vault songs, they bring back Taylor’s country roots that have been missing for the last decade of her career, complete with a Keith Urban feature. Of the songs from the vault, “Mr. Perfectly Fine” and “Don’t You” have been on a constant loop for me. They fit so nicely into the already well-loved album and the youthful lyrics mixed with her matured voice make me feel nostalgic while matching my now 20 year old taste in music.
Overall, this album has been playing almost every time I put my headphones in since the moment it was released. Not only does this mean major things for Taylor Swift, but it is a game changer for the music industry as a whole in regards to ownership and copyright. I am so proud of her for taking ownership of her work, and more importantly, I am loving this new version of Fearless! I cannot wait to hear which album is rereleased next (fingers crossed it is Red).