“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”: Track-by-Track Review
On April 9th, Taylor Swift released her fourth new album in the last 20 months — sort of. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the first of Swift’s re-recordings of her first six albums, a virtually unheard of endeavor that she embarked upon after being blocked from purchasing the master recordings of them. The album features 27 tracks and is a masterfully updated, deeply nostalgic trip that proves that these re-recordings are so much more than a cash grab.
The Fascinating Saga of Taylor Swift’s Master Recordings
The saga over the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six albums is an epic one that has played out very publicly. To make a very long and complicated story short, Swift — like countless artists — signed a record contract at the start of her career that gave ownership over the master recordings of her initial albums to her record company (in this case, Big Machine Records). When she skyrocketed to stardom, Swift tried to use her clout and ample financial resources to buy them back, but the record company reportedly set a price so high that even Swift herself couldn’t afford them.
On June 30, 2019, Big Machine Records was acquired by manager/executive/entrepreneur Scooter Braun, the mastermind behind the careers of hot young artists like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato. As part of the deal he obtained Swift’s masters. She publicly lobbied for him to sell them back to her. He refused and she felt personally betrayed, given that she had a personal and professional relationship with Braun that went back many years. In October 2020, Braun sold the masters to the private equity firm Shamrock Holdings. Both Braun and Shamrock Holdings reportedly gave Swift the option to bid on her masters, but the price was astronomical (a rumored $300 million) and there were many strings attached — including the ongoing involvement of Braun in Swift’s life and career.
In response, Taylor Swift embarked on a journey that no major musician ever has before. She decided that she was going to re-record her first six albums so that she would own master recordings of her own. It may seem like an extraordinary amount of work for greedy, selfish, or even petty purposes, but unless Swift is doing an absolutely masterful job of subterfuge, her motivation for the re-recordings has never been about money. It’s about autonomy. She signed a predatory record deal when she was a mere child and it resulted in her not being allowed to decide how her own songs — the ones she wrote, performed, and produced — could be used. She reportedly was even blocked from performing the songs she didn’t own the rights to on televised events. These re-recordings are an act of independence and a bold and influential statement on the rights of artists to have control over their creative output.
And if Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is any indication, the re-recordings are also a deeply meaningful artistic endeavor as well.
An Overview of Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
It remains unclear why Taylor Swift opted not to release her re-recordings in chronological order. Perhaps she wanted to kick off the journey with an album more successful or iconic than her 2006 self-titled debut. Perhaps she wanted to release the albums with her most successful singles off the bat so that she could get to performing them and licensing them as soon as possible. Or perhaps she simply had artistic or emotional motivations to revisit Fearless first and it’s not about money or marketing at all.
Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album, released in October 2006, was an undeniable success, reaching the top 5 on Billboard’s all genre album chart, charting 5 singles in the Top 40 of Billboard’s all genre singles chart, and selling over 7 million copies in the U.S. alone. As successful as it was, however, few were prepared for the success of the follow-up.
Taylor Swift’s second album Fearless was originally released on November 11, 2008, just over two years after her debut. Swift was only 18 years old at the time. The album went to #1 on Billboard’s all genre album chart and resided there for 11 nonconsecutive weeks. It spawned three top 10 hits on the all genre singles chart (“You Belong With Me,” “Love Story,” and the title track) and has been certified diamond (denoting sales of 10 million copies in the U.S. alone) by the Recording Industry Association of America. It won the Grammys for Country Album of the Year and Album of the Year overall. (Swift was 20 when she received the Grammys and was the youngest Album of the Year winner in history until Billie Eilish won in 2020.) In support of the album, she embarked on the Fearless Tour, which played 105 shows to an estimated audience of 1.2 million and grossed $66.5 million. By the end of the Fearless era, Swift had established herself as one of the most commercially successful, well-respected, and widely adored musical artists in the world. And she wasn’t even old enough to legally drink yet.
Although the extraordinary impact of the album is undeniable and “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” are all-time classics of her catalogue, I never particularly cared for Fearless (or her self-titled debut for that matter). I found her vocals a bit too thin and nasally, the songwriting a bit too naive and trite, and the production too twangy for my tastes. But over the intervening decade I went from being uninterested in Swift to a rabid fan. My conversion started the moment I heard her perform her self-empowerment, anti-bullying anthem “Mean” from her third album Speak Now at the Grammys. By the time she released her stunning fourth album, Red, I was a die-hard fan. After I fell in love with all things Swift, I went back and re-listened to her first two albums. I certainly liked them more during my re-evaluation, but I was still not completely won over.
Because of this, I was not overwhelmingly excited when Swift announced earlier this year that the re-recording of Fearless was complete and would be released within weeks. Being a Swiftie, however, I still purchased the album twice over (both as a digital download and in its physical form) and listened to it beginning to end the day of its release. In the week since, I have listened to it a half dozen times in its entirety, which is no small fete given that it runs the length of an average feature film at 106 minutes! I can now say that I have finally been won over by Fearless.
The re-recording includes a whopping 27 songs and is more than double the length of the initial 13-track release. It includes the original 13 songs, plus the six songs that were included on the platinum re-release of the album (which were comprised of five previously unreleased tracks and a piano version of the album track “Forever & Always.”) Swift also re-records “Today Was a Fairytale,” the theme song from her film debut Valentine’s Day, which she originally recorded during the Fearless era.
Then she includes new recordings of six songs that she wrote during the Fearless sessions but didn’t make the cut for the final album. She labeled these songs as being “From the Vault,” a trend of veteran artists re-rerecording or re-releasing obscure tracks from their heyday (Mariah Carey opened her vault in 2020 as part of her #MC30 campaign and appears to have kicked off an exciting trend). The final song, a bonus track on the physical copy of the album, is a new remix of “Love Story.”
Of note, the re-recording of these 26 songs (the remix doesn’t count) combined with the 34 tracks she recorded during the pandemic for her quarantine releases folklore and evermore mean that she recorded and released 60 songs in under one year. Swift’s prolificness is legendary, but it is the consistent high quality of her output that is truly extraordinary.
So back to my conversion from a Fearless skeptic to a Fearless stan. What led to this dramatic shift? I suspect it was a combination of the following three factors.
First, the re-recordings just sound better to me. Swift recently noted that she pored over every lyric, every vocal performance, and every arrangement to see where things could be improved without significantly altering the feel, sound, or fundamental structure of the original recordings. Much has been made of the rapid evolution of Swift’s songwriting skills, but she has also undoubtedly grown both as a vocalist and a producer. This growth is undeniable on the re-recorded album, where each song feels richer, more polished, and more memorable than the original recordings. It should also be noted that there is an impressive confidence and restraint evident in Swift’s ability to leave the lyrics she wrote as a teenager intact without trying to make them more sophisticated or complex.
Second, the additional songs are the opposite of the typical “filler” songs that typically get added to special edition as bonus tracks. They are fully developed compositions that fit in thematically and sonically with the 13 songs that made the original cut. In my opinion, at least four of the tracks on the second half of the re-recording (“Come In with the Rain,” “You All Over Me,” “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” and “Don’t You”) exceed most of the songs that did make the original cut of the album in quality. The fact that the new content is so rich and of such high quality undoubtedly enhances the impact of the re-recording.
Third, the re-recorded songs feel more meaningful and mature in a way that goes beyond the minor improvements made to the songs in terms of vocal and production. The original recording evoked the diary of a wide-eyed teenager embarking on adulthood. The re-recording evokes a wise, mature, and soulful woman reflecting deeply on the innocence, passion, and heartbreak of youth. And it is a far richer experience as a result.
Undoubtedly, my relative fondness for Taylor’s Version is due in part to the fact that my appreciation and knowledge of Swift’s persona and craft grew so deeply as a result of my engagement with her recent masterworks folklore and evermore that I now hear all of her work with a new set of ears. However, just to make sure that’s not all that was accounting for my feelings about the re-recording, I went back and listened to the original Fearless. I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but Taylor’s Version still resonates with me much more.
Without further ado, here is my track-by-track review of Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Fearless (Taylor’s Version): Track-by-Track Review
“Fearless”
The rousing title track is the perfect tone-setter for the album, both lyrically and sonically. It explores the courageousness required to jump head first into new love and does so with a soaring orchestration that includes a guitar, fiddle, and banjo.
- Favorite lyrics: “Well, you stood there with me in the doorway/ My hands shake, I’m not usually this way but/ You pull me in and I’m a little more brave/ It’s the first kiss, it’s flawless, really something/ It’s fearless”
“Fifteen”
This is one of two re-recordings (along with “The Best Day”) that is especially poignant. The touching ballad about Swift’s freshman year of high school that she spent desperate to fit in, making a new best friend, and hoping that boys would notice her gets a whole new level of complexity hearing the now 31-year-old Swift reflect on it.
- Favorite lyrics: “Back then, I swore I was gonna marry him someday/ But I realized some bigger dreams of mine/ And Abigail gave everything she had/ To a boy who changed his mind/ And we both cried”
“Love Story”
Despite all the smash hits and fan favorite deep cuts that Swift has crafted in the years since Fearless was initially released, this remains perhaps her most iconic song. Inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and reportedly written in only 20 minutes while sitting on her bedroom floor, the catchy country-pop ditty tells of a teenage girl desperately in love with a boy her family disapproves of. Unlike Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, however, this pair gets a happy ending and it arrives in the form of one of the most euphoria-inducing climactic bridges in modern music history.
- Favorite lyrics: “And I said, ‘Romeo, save me, I’ve been feeling so alone/ I keep waiting for you, but you never come/ Is this in my head? I don’t know what to think’/ He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring, and said/ ‘Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone/ I love you and that’s all I really know/ I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress/ It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘Yes’’”
“Hey Stephen”
This teen pop track about unrequited love (reportedly inspired by her crush on Stephen Barker Liles of the country band Love and Theft) is a bit slight in terms of lyrics, vocals, and production compared to most of the rest of the album, but it beautifully captures the pain and innocence of young love.
- Favorite lyrics: “Hey Stephen, I could give you fifty reasons/ Why I should be the one you choose/ All those other girls, well, they’re beautiful/ But would they write a song for you?”
“White Horse”
Swift’s fanbase has long obsessed over the fifth track of each of her albums, which tend to be particularly personal and heartbreaking tracks. That is certainly the case here with this sparsely orchestrated and lyrically wrenching ballad in which Swift realizes that the man she fell in love with isn’t the prince charming she thought he was. Any doubts regarding the potential of Swift as a songwriter or vocalist should have been erased by this song.
- Favorite lyrics: “Cause I’m not your princess, this ain’t our fairytale/ I’m gonna find someone someday/ Who might actually treat me well/ This is a big world, that was a small town/ There in my rearview mirror disappearing now/ And it’s too late for you and your white horse/ Now it’s too late for you and your white horse/ To catch me now”
“You Belong With Me”
Banjos and electric guitars blend in this indelible piece of pop-country fusion that is one of the best and most successful songs of the 21st century to date. The song tells of a teenage girl in love with a boy who is in love with a girl who is bringing him down. The song makes great use of varied pacing and builds to a passionate, impossible-not-to-sing-along climax.
- Favorite lyrics: “And you’ve got a smile that could light up this whole town/ I haven’t seen it in a while since she brought you down/ You say you’re fine, I know you better than that/ Hey, whatcha doing with a girl like that?”
“Breathe” (featuring Colbie Caillat)
Swift wrote and performed this subdued ballad with singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, whose vocals are much more prominent in the re-recordings. The song tells of the painful aftermath of a fractured relationship. It lacks the memorable hooks or clever lyrics of the album’s best songs, but it nevertheless works quite well.
- Favorite lyrics: “Never wanted this, never wanna see you hurt/ Every little bump in the road, I tried to swerve/ But people are people and sometimes it doesn’t work out/ And nothin’ we say is gonna save us from the fallout”
“Tell Me Why”
With its catchy and prominent fiddle refrain and cathartic lyrics about a boy whose behavior toward an adoring girl is maddeningly inconsistent, this track feels like one that could have easily been a big crossover hit to pop radio.
- Favorite lyrics: “Why do you have to make me feel small/ So you can feel whole inside?/ Why do you have to put down my dreams/ So you’re the only thing on my mind?”
“You’re Not Sorry”
This slow building, heavily rock-influenced power ballad starts with a piano and builds to a soaring electric guitar-fueled climax. The lyrics cover fairly standard themes about a girl ready to move on from a boy who had hurt her one too many times, but the lush orchestration and the strong vocals make it one of the most memorable and satisfying tracks on the album.
- Favorite lyrics: “You don’t have to call anymore/ I won’t pick up the phone/ This is the last straw/ Don’t wanna hurt anymore/ And you can tell me that you’re sorry/ But I don’t believe you, baby, like I did before/ You’re not sorry”
“The Way I Loved You”
Swift wrote this song about preferring relationships that are messy, complicated, and passionate to ones that are peacefully perfect with country singer-songwriter John Rich. It has a killer chorus and expertly blends guitars and banjos for a classic country rock feel.
- Favorite lyrics: “But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain/ And it’s 2AM and I’m cursing your name/ You’re so in love that you act insane/ And that’s the way I loved you”
“Forever & Always”
Another country pop gem with a catchy chorus and a cathartic crescendo, Swift reportedly added this song to Fearless at the last minute to chronicle her emotional journey as her relationship with Joe Jonas disintegrated.
- Favorite lyrics: “And it rains in your bedroom/ Everything is wrong/ It rains when you’re here and it rains when you’re gone/ ’Cause I was there when you said, ‘forever and always’”
“The Best Day”
This is a song that I did not truly appreciate the complexity and power of until the re-recording. The song’s traditional simple verse form, jaunty production, and warm vocal performance belies how it brilliantly evokes both the crushing heartbreak of childhood and the maturing views of the world as the protagonist reflects on her relationship with her mother from age 5 through her teenage years.
- Favorite lyrics: “I’m thirteen now/ And don’t know how my friends could be so mean/ I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys/ And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away/ And we talk and window shop ’til I’ve forgotten all their names/ I don’t know who I’m going to talk to now at school/ But I know I’m laughing on the car ride home with you/ Don’t know how long it’s going to take to feel okay/ But I know I had the best day with you today”
“Change”
This soaring closing track of the original album was this ode to perseverance and hard-fought success. I don’t find much about the lyrics or production of this song to be particularly notable, but it is undeniably a powerful and upbeat note to end the album on, sonically and lyrically.
- Favorite lyrics: “Well, it’s a sad picture, the final blow hits you/ Somebody else gets what you wanted again and/ You know it’s all the same, another time and place/ Repeating history and you’re getting sick of it/ But I believe in whatever you do/ And I’ll do anything to see it through”
“Jump Then Fall”
This country pop ditty in which the protagonist encourages her partner to stop holding back and dive head first into a relationship with her doesn’t rival the best songs on Fearless but it certainly feels right at home among them.
- Favorite lyrics: “The bottom’s gonna drop out from under our feet/ I’ll catch you/ When people say things that bring you to your knees/ I’ll catch you/ The time is gonna come when you’re so mad you could cry/ But I’ll hold you through the night until you smile”
“Untouchable”
A rare cover song in Taylor Swift’s catalogue, this is a slowed-down take on Luna Halo’s 1999 upbeat rock song. It notably deviates in several ways from Swift’s typical style but is not immediately obvious as a cover thanks to the makeover she gave it. Compared to every other song on Fearless, it is given perhaps the most room to breathe and evolve, as it goes on for over five minutes and takes a while to soar.
- Favorite lyrics: “But you’re untouchable, burning brighter than the sun/ And now that you’re close, I feel like coming undone”
“Forever & Always” (Piano Version)
The country pop track about the demise of her relationship with Joe Jonas gets a stripped-downed reinterpretation here that is sparser in orchestration and slower in pace. The overhaul reveals more heartbreaking nuances in the songwriting and allows Swift to stretch herself and experiment a bit as a vocalist.
“Come In with the Rain”
Co-written with Liz Rose, who aided Swift with four of the most memorable songs form the original Fearless album, this country rock power ballad evokes late 1990s/early 2000s Faith Hill in the best possible way. Swift’s aching vocals and the superb hook make this perhaps my favorite of the bonus tracks.
- Favorite lyrics: “I’ll leave my window open/ ’Cause I’m too tired at night for all these games/ Just know I’m right here hoping/ That you’ll come in with the rain”
“Superstar”
This subdued, string-fueled, mid-tempo song about an average girl in love with a well-known musician may not pack an emotional wallop, but it is a charming song that particularly benefits from Swift’s maturing vocal abilities.
- Favorite lyrics: “You played in bars, you play guitar/ And I’m invisible and everyone knows who you are/ And you’ll never see, you sing me to sleep/ Every night from the radio”
“The Other Side of the Door”
One of the more traditionally country songs on the album, this rousing closing track to the platinum edition of the album chronicles a young woman’s internal struggle regarding whether to end a volatile relationship.
- Favorite lyrics: “With your face and the beautiful eyes/ And the conversation with the little white lies/ And the faded picture of a beautiful night/ You carried me from your car up the stairs/ And I broke down crying, was she worth this mess?/ After everything and that little black dress/ After everything I must confess, I need you”
“Today Was a Fairytale”
This song was written and recorded for Swift’s film debut Valentine’s Day, an all-star ensemble romantic comedy in which she played a very small role. Like the film, the song is thin and overly relies on tried-and-true lyrical tropes and production. Unlike the film, it works quite well in spite of those things.
- Favorite lyrics: “I wore a dress/ You wore a dark gray t-shirt/ You told me I was pretty when I looked like a mess/ Today was a fairytale”
“You All Over Me” (featuring Maren Morris)
For the first track “From the Vault,” Swift duets with gifted young country singer-songwriter Maren Morris. Their vocals blend beautifully, the exquisite production incorporates a fiddle and a harmonica alongside a guitar and drums, and it features songwriting more mature and complex than most of what Swift wrote during that era.
- Favorite lyrics: “I lived, and I learned, had you, got burned/ Held out, and held on/ God knows, too long, and wasted time/ Lost tears, swore that I’d get out of here/ But no amount of freedom gets you clean/ I’ve still got you all over me”
“Mr. Perfectly Fine”
Reportedly another song about Swift’s breakup with Joe Jonas, this jaunty hybrid of country, pop, and rock is an uptempo track that evokes Kelly Clarkson’s classic Breakaway era in both lyrics and production. The song is a litany of passive aggressive observations from a young woman furious and heartbroken that her ex appears to have moved on so quickly.
- Favorite lyrics: “Mr. ‘Never told me why’/ Mr. ‘Never had to see me cry’/ Mr. ‘Insincere apology so he doesn’t look like the bad guy’/ He goes about his day/ Forgets he ever even heard my name/ Well, I thought you might be different than the rest/ I guess you’re all the same”
“We Were Happy”
With its slow pacing, minimalist instrumentation, and melancholy lyrics about nostalgia for a former relationship, this is another winning collaboration with songwriter Liz Rose. Swift is joined on the chorus by country superstar Keith Urban and their harmonies are the highlight of the song.
- Favorite lyrics: “We used to walk along the street/ When the porch lights were shining bright/ Before I had somewhere to be/ Back when we had all night and we were happy”
“That’s When” (featuring Keith Urban)
Urban moves from backup vocals on the last track to full duet partner on this peppy country pop tune that feels looser and frothier than the majority of her songs. The lyrics are atypically nonsensical for Swift, but the refreshingly complex and uniquely euphoric vocal arrangement makes it a truly irresistible few minutes.
- Favorite lyrics: “You said, ‘I know’/ When I said, ‘I need some time, need some space/ To think about all of this’/ You watched me go And I knew my/ Words were hard to hear/ And harder to ever take back/ And I said, ‘When can I-I-I come back?’”
“Don’t You”
The most emotionally powerful of the six tracks “From the Vault,” this restrained track tells about the inner turmoil of a young woman running into an ex she is still deeply in love with. There is a modern synth-fueled element to the production that give it the field of an outtake from Lover, or even 1989. Swift gives one of her finest vocal performances on the album here.
- Favorite lyrics: “But don’t you, don’t you/ Smile at me and ask me how I’ve been/ Don’t you say you’ve/ Missed me if you don’t want me again/ You don’t know how much I feel I love you still/ So why don’t you, don’t you?”
“Bye Bye Baby”
As opposed to the standard issue of the album and the platinum edition of the album, which both ended with upbeat numbers that wrapped things on a positive note, the re-recording ends with a subdued and effective ballad in which a young woman making the difficult decision to leave a relationship. Fittingly, the closing track finds Swift at her most mature and complex in terms of vocals, lyrics, and production.
- Favorite lyrics: “It wasn’t just like a movie/ The rain didn’t soak through my clothes, down to my skin/ I’m drivin’ away and I, I guess you could say/ This is the last time I’ll drive this way again/ Lost in the gray and I try to grab at the fray/ ’Cause I, I still love you but I can’t”
“Love Story (Elvira Remix)”
Swift’s iconic smash hit gets stripped of all of its country stylings and turned into a modern pop song with some restrained synth-fueled electronica elements. It makes the song feel refreshingly current and shows how versatile Swift’s lyrics and melodies are.
Rating for Fearless (Taylor’s Version): 4.5/5 stars
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