"Fearless (Taylor's Version)" outshines the 2008 album
By Kendra Martinez, Staff Writer
After 15 years of creating music where she didn’t have a stake in the rights of most of her masters, Taylor Swift released her first re-recorded studio album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” on Apr. 9, which is officially owned by herself. The album is the first of six re-recordings Swift is planning on releasing, and it has set the bar high, even for her standards. Featuring all 20 songs from the old “Fearless” album and six new “From the Vault” songs, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” does a phenomenal job at combining Swift’s mature production style and vocals with the youthful country nostalgia of the old album.
While “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” does not change significantly from the 2008 album, Swift managed to include small differences in each song that were enough to make hardcore Swifties go feral. The most notable change in each song is the maturity of Swift's vocals and overall production quality. This is heard firsthand in “White Horse (Taylor’s Version)”. The song is about realizing someone you loved is not who they said they were, and Swift’s time away from it has only added to the fullness of the song, contributing a new layer of complexity. Additionally, many of the songs now hold new meanings as they are being sung at a later point in Swift’s life. “Fifteen (Taylor’s Version)” can be listened to from a parent’s perspective while telling their child about their teenage years and things they wished they had known back then. This is a new meaning as opposed to listening to it from the adolescent’s perspective.
Along the original tracks, Swift put out six unreleased songs, called “From the Vault” songs. These songs were some of the most anticipated by fans. Swift teased many of these songs through her social media, causing fans to look for easter eggs in each one of her posts, many of which were completely ridiculous. While it is understandable why some of them didn’t make the cut for the old album, there are at least two that should have been on the album from the start: “Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” and “That’s When (feat. Keith Urban) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”. Swift dropped “Mr. Perfectly Fine” as a single and ever since, it has been a fan favorite and has garnered mass attention on the media platform TikTok. It’s an upbeat song that can be used to scream your heart out while still capturing Swift’s skilled lyricism. Among the many things Swift knows how to do well are duets. “That’s When” is a song that has great dialogue between the two singers, along with overall great production.
Considering that these songs have always been successful, the new album raises a very important question: why is she re-recording her masters? To answer this question, we have to travel back to 2019 when Scott Brochetta, CEO of Big Machine Label Group, sold Swift’s first six studio albums to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings without her knowledge. Swift had already been trying to buy back her masters, but Brochetta wouldn’t sell unless she produced more albums for his record deal. Later, Swift tried buying her masters from Braun, but he wouldn’t sell to her unless she signed a non-disclosure agreement about him. Notice a pattern? With every right, Swift refused to sign but was still fighting to get her work back. In Nov. 2020, Swift released a statement announcing her masters had been sold once again without her knowledge to Shamrock Holdings. While she was open to the idea of working with Shamrock Holdings, Swift did not like that Braun would still be profiting off her work. In the same statement, she announced that she would be re-recording her six masters. From the beginning, all Swift wanted was ownership over her work. Sadly, in the music industry that is almost never the case. Many artists will sign over the rights to their music and unlike Swift, they will not go through the hassle of re-recording their music for ownership.
Not only was “Fearless (Taylor's Version)” a major hit, it also made the important statement that artists should be the owners of their masters as it is their work. The album broke many records upon its debut, most of which were previously held by Swift. It was successful in introducing a whole new generation to the Taylor Swift world, many of whom would have not experienced the glory of the album since it was released such a long time ago. “Fearless (Taylor's Version)” is a fantastic album if you need to feel the nostalgia of your childhood or if you need an introduction into the world of Taylor Swift.