Taylor Swift really started the year by saying that 2021 belonged to her. After her summer and winter releases of folklore and evermore, I didn’t think there was any way she could really top that. And then she decided to announce that she was rereleasing all of her earlier albums, starting with the platinum-winning album, Fearless. And with the addition of new, never-before-heard songs on her new edition of Fearless, this album is a behemoth with 27 songs in all. Overall I thought it was amazing, as Taylor’s albums often are, but I’ve gone through all 27 songs to let you all know what I thought!
“Fearless”
I feel like I’m in high school again listening to “Fearless”. I’ve never been with someone who’s made me want to dance in the rain wearing my absolute BEST dress, but this song sure makes me feel like I have, and like I have to go sing in this in the pouring rain somewhere.
“Fifteen”
Nobody told me they loved me when I was 15, but this song sends me back to high school. I’m in grade nine. I’m young and excited for the next four years of my life. I’m hoping some boy on any of the sports teams (except the football team ironically, because they never won a single game) will notice me. I listen to this song and I’m fifteen again, and I feel as uncertain, and as hopeful, as I did back then.
“Love Story”
A classic! When I sing this song in the shower, I imagine myself as a princess in a romantic fantasy story! My lover is on his knees proposing to me, and I’m wearing a beautiful dress. I love this song, I’ll never stop singing this song— thank you Taylor for rerecording it so I can listen to it on the radio again.
“Hey Stephen”
As Taylor says in the chorus, “I can’t help myself,” because I love this song. It’s sweet, it’s simple, and I’m so happy I’ve started listening to it again. It sounds like young love, and it’s so sweet and so lovely to sing to.
“White Horse”
I have never in my entire life experienced the level of heartbreak that this song depicts, and yet I find myself singing this song in the shower as if I’ve ever had someone make my heart ache this deeply. “White Horse” is truly a classic: it’s so beautiful to sing and it feels like a song straight from the end of a teen romance movie.
“You Belong With Me”
Now I’m back in elementary school, and I’m singing this at our school’s talent show. Questionable lyrics aside, “You Belong With Me” is a bop that I will continue to sing at the top of my lungs.
“Breathe”
This song is so soft and gentle it always manages to make my heart ache when I listen to it. It’s just simple and beautiful and I love listening to it.
“Tell Me Why”
Honestly I’m not sure if any line will ever hit quite as hard as “you could write a book on/How to ruin someone’s perfect day.” This song is a certifiable slapper and I think everyone who has ever been hurt by someone close to them should be screaming it out at the top of their lungs for the catharsis.
“You’re Not Sorry”
This song is raw and it makes my heart ache in a way I can’t quite place. It feels like a song to be sung at midnight when the world is dark, and maybe it’s raining for good measure.
“The Way I Loved You”
Another song that absolutely hits you, with lines like “But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain/And it’s 2am and I’m cursing your name/So in love that you act insane.” Is this a healthy relationship? No. Is this song full of passion and some absolutely raw, incredible lines? Yes.
“Forever & Always”
It feels like Taylor is singing about a betrayal here. Whether that’s true or not I will absolutely be singing this one every time one of my friends turns out to be the imposter in Among Us.
“The Best Day”
This song is sweet and simple and soft, and makes me feel so incredibly nostalgic for simpler times when I could drive to the next town over and find healing. It makes me want to call my mom, and reminds me how much I miss her.
“Change”
The title of the song says it all: this song is all about change. It describes it as a battle, as a type of revolution. She says not to give up, and I think we should all listen to her.
“Jump Then Fall”
This song was one I had on repeat for weeks after the first time I heard it. It’s fun, it’s sweet, it’s a song that feels like the beginnings of love— and asks you to take the risk of jumping into it. I think we should trust Taylor on this one: I think we should take that jump. Also this song slaps.
“Untouchable”
I will be perfectly honest with everyone, I didn’t really remember this song much from her original recording of Fearless. Which makes me so glad that this rerecording came out because this song is beautiful. It’s soft and full of longing and love and honestly just a beautiful love song.
“Forever & Always” (Piano Version)
Somehow, this is an even more beautiful version of “Forever and Always.” If the original song is a thunderstorm, then this one is the lightest of showers. If the first is screaming, then this one is crying. It sounds more like heartbreak, and I feel like my heart is breaking when I listen to it.
“Come In With The Rain”
There’s a common thread within this album, and it’s that I want to sing every single one of these songs in the rain. “Come In With The Rain,” perhaps very aptly named to be sung in the rain, is no different, and it’s a song I’d like to sing out my open window at night. It feels like hope, like the last sliver of hope.
“Superstar”
If any song is about unrequited love on this album, it’s got to be “Superstar.” I can’t think of anything that captures an unrequited crush quite like this song.
“The Other Side Of The Door”
“But all I really want is you/To stand outside my window throwin’ pebbles/Screamin’ ‘I’m in love with you.’” I can think of no other lyric that hits like this. I spend every night dreaming of someone to stand outside my window and throw rocks telling me that they love me.
“Today Was A Fairytale”
I’d have to say that this is my favourite song on this entire album. Are there different, more emotionally powerful songs? Sure, but do they feel like an innocent first love like this song does? Do they remind me of sunshine? Of holding someone’s hand for the first time? Because that’s what this song reminds me of.
“You All Over Me”
This song feels like a lament about everything that reminds Taylor of someone she’s ended things with, and I think we can all relate to that: feeling the echoes of someone else still in everything we see and experience.
“Mr. Perfectly Fine”
I heard a rumour that this song is about Joe Jonas? Whether that’s true or not, this song is excellent and I plan to listen to it a lot.
“We Were Happy”
Another song that feels like a lament, but more heartbreaking somehow, because she sounds like she’s wishing she could go back. She reminisces about happy memories, but you can feel the bitter thread even running beneath the cheerful chorus, because she’s not happy as she sings this song, but she really wishes she was.
“That’s When”
“That’s when, when I wake up in the morning/that’s when, when it’s sunny or it’s stormin’.” I know I’ve talked about a lot of songs to sing in the rain, but this is a song to sing when the sun is out. It’s about mending relationships, about coming back together, about forgiving all the nights of screaming in the rain.
“Don’t You”
This song is about contradiction. She wants to stop loving this person, wants them to tell her they don’t care about her anymore, but she still has so much love in her heart for them. This is a song for singing as you watch the sun go down, trying to make your heart move on from someone it still wants desperately.
“Bye Bye Baby”
“Bye Bye Baby” feels a bit like a ballad, like a bit of a mix between “Breathe” and “We Were Happy.” It’s about leaving and about not wanting to leave, but somehow it’s still not enough and she has to go.
“Love Story – Elvira Remix”
Taylor Swift could make a remix of Love Story in a million different genres and I would still cry a little bit while I sang it. The Elvira Remix is heavier in the bass and the techno beats, but the love and charm of the original still fills the song.
While Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is a rerelease, featuring only a handful of songs we’ve never heard before, I would argue that this is her best album yet. It harkens to the past, yet it’s an album that’s entirely hers. The songs are just as beautiful as they were when I was a teenager listening to them in my parent’s car, staring out the window. Or maybe I just really like “Love Story,” and getting to hear it on the radio again feels like a major win. Whatever the case is, give Fearless (Taylor’s Version) a listen, you definitely won’t regret it.