The Swiftening – Pt 7: “Fearless”

(The Swiftening Series: 1. folklore | 2. Lover | 3. reputation | 4. 1989 | 5. Red | 6. Speak Now | 7. Fearless | 8. Taylor Swift)

So, Fearless is sort of an interesting case. This entire series, I’ve been travelling backward through the lengthy discography of Taylor Alison Swift, tracing her progress as a musician as well as the culture that surrounded her backward. But this week, we experience an abrupt shift forward in time, instead.

If you’re out of the loop, here’s a quick primer for what’s going on right now in the world of Taylor Swift. At the age of 15, Taylor Swift signed a recording contract with with Big Machine Label Group. It gave them ownership of the master recordings of her first six albums – Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and reputation. When the contract expired, she moved on to Universal’s Republic Records. Now an established and extremely successful artist, she was able to negotiate a deal that gave her ownership of the master recordings of all of her future albums – so far, Lover, folklore, and evermore. The rub came, however, when Big Machine Label Group was purchased by Ithaca Holdings, a company run by big music producer Scooter Braun.

It’s not fully certain what went down between Swift and Braun, but suffice it to say it wasn’t a happy exchange. Swift claims that she offered to purchase all of her old masters, but Big Machine passed up her offer and sold them to Braun instead. By doing so, it ensured that much of the revenue the first six albums were making were going to Braun. Clearly, ownership of her own music is important to Swift, so she decided to do something a little strange. She decided to rerecord and release all six of her Big Machine albums. The hope is that by doing so, the new versions will get the majority of streams and thus revenue, allowing her to muscle out Braun.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was the first of these rerecordings to be released, in April 2021. It’s actually quite similar to the original 2008 album. Very few lyrics were changed, and the production values of the album are mostly just slightly tweaked and remastered versions of the originals. Of course, Swift’s vocal talents have progressed in the 13 years since as well. She also included six songs “from the vault,” all previously unreleased tracks from the Fearless era.

In the interest of respecting Swift’s wishes and also just because I really appreciate the updated recordings, I will be focusing my review of Fearless on the newly released Taylor’s Version. I’m not an expert on the legal ramifications of this situation, but in general I prefer money to go to artists rather than middlemen. Scooter Braun also just seems kind of like a jerk so, there’s that too.

But anyway, I’ve talked a lot about the context behind Fearless, but what is the album actually like? Well, in the general trend we’ve seen happening since Red, we are slowly sliding further and further into Countrytown. It’s mitigated somewhat by the fact that Taylor’s Version was created by a modern and decidedly more pop Swift, but there are still twanging guitars and fiddly strings a-plenty in this album. Honestly, it strikes a nice balance, though. I’ve expressed my own reservations toward country as a genre, but there’s a certain polish and restraint to Taylor’s Version that I appreciate. It’s Country Lite, for a modern Swift fan like myself to enjoy.

There’s also an interesting tone of the album to talk about caused in part by the context behind its rerecording. The original Fearless was created and released by a teenage Swift, so it’s youthful and energetic in a similar way Speak Now felt in my last review. It’s even more immature, too, with a bit less of the emotional subtlety and maturity I praised in Speak Now. However, it’s being approached by a 32-year-old Swift, with all the hindsight and experience she’s gained in her 15-year career. It’s really touching in some places to hear the adult Swift singing the lyrics she penned as a teenager.

It’s most potent in the album’s second track, “Fifteen.” It’s Swift at 32 singing a song she wrote at 18 reflecting on herself at 15. The song is pretty standard in itself, to point where I’m not sure I’d pay much attention to it did it not have so many endearing real-life connections. For example, when Swift discusses “red-headed Abigail” in the second verse, she’s talking about her real high school best friend, Abigail Anderson, who she is still good friends with to this day. (Anderson makes an appearance in the documentary Miss Americana, in fact, in a scene where the two share white wine and talk about motherhood.) The new tone of Taylor’s Version only makes the emotion in this song more real, and the reflection more loaded.

Another song with a changed meaning in the new version is “Change.” The song was written initially as a battle song for Swift and her then-label Big Machine. Swift mentioned in interviews how they often felt like they were fighting a losing battle against more established Nashville labels, only to find success when Swift won her first award at the CMAs. It brings on a note of irony, then, now that Swift’s battle is because of Big Machine’s decision to sell all her songs to Braun. Suddenly a song written as thanks to the producers who helped her achieve success is a rallying cry against those same producers. What also works for this track’s favor is, oddly, its vagueness. I don’t think I have to explain why the song loses some of its relatability when you find out it’s about a record label struggling as opposed to a bullied underdog or discriminated-against figure. It’s best that the actual text of the song is so flexible, applicable to a lot of situations, which gives it its new meaning and its relatability for all those who listen to it.

The other thread running throughout Taylor’s Version is the improved performance of Swift herself. Not only is she a more experienced person, she’s also a more experienced vocalist. Before I listened to a lot of Swift’s discography, I really didn’t have much to say about her vocal abilities, but the comparison between the new and old versions makes her improved abilities stark and obvious. This is clear in a lot of places, but I want to point to my guilty fave, “You Belong With Me,” as a particular example. (To make a long story short, I have personal experience that has always endeared me to this song, even if I haven’t always been a fan of Swift). The vocal delivery in this track is restrained and powerful in a way I don’t think the original was. There are so many little embellishments throughout as well. I really like the way she sings “easy” in the second verse like it’s with a gentle smile, connecting to the meaning of the line. The bridge also has a certain smoothness the original lacked, more of a plead than a demand.

Ostensibly, Fearless is a breakup album. During its creation, Swift was going through a highly-publicized breakup with Jonas Brother Joe Jonas. Arguably, this was the first time the media paid particular attention to one of Swift’s romantic relationships (a trend that will later cause great issues for Swift). It’s pretty obvious that this was a selling point of the original version of the album, and Swift took a lot of pains to display her emotions over the breakup. But in the thirteen years since, as Swift has moved on, she has taken a bit more of a measured approach to a lot of the songs. For example, the original version of “Forever & Always” features angry, almost spit-out lyrics. By comparison, the new version is a lot smoother and honestly a lot more sad than angry. It sounds better to my ear, but I think some of the emotion has been de-emphasized. I don’t know if that’s a flaw, really, as much as it is a natural evolution of Swift’s feelings on the situation, but it’s still notable.

Regardless of all the breaking up, there’s some great love songs on here too. There is, of course “Love Story,” the song that (if I remember correctly) was my introduction to Swift so many years ago. I can’t call it my favorite song of hers, exactly, but there is something so iconic about the optimistic love song told here. Swift purposefully calls her lovers Romeo and Juliet, yet purposefully gives the lovers a happy ending (seemingly out of nowhere). It’s perhaps not earned, but I find it interesting that the song is so steadfastly positive regardless. It’s also another track that has been hugely improved by Swift’s matured vocals. I love the way her vocals sit on the word “princess” in the chorus – hard to explain, but give it a listen and maybe you’ll hear it too.

My favorite love song on this album is “Hey Stephen.” This is a song I knew before the rerecording, but I’m not sure I would have considered it as strong a song back then as I do right now. Taylor’s Version of the song is just so warm and sunshiney. The vocal delivery on the chorus, with the happy little swoop upwards on the line “I can’t help it if you look like an angel” just injects joy directly into my veins whenever I hear it. The “mm mmm mmm” into and outro feel like a smile. The song isn’t just about falling in love, listening to it feels like falling in love. It’s great stuff, easily my top pick of the album.

Not every track from the original album really works from me, though. Swift was fully a teenager during the entire process of writing this album, and I don’t want to disrespect teenagers (I was one once), but it’s obvious that her songwriting has really improved since this album. Many of the songs on this album come off as pretty generic love songs with relatively predicable hooks (“Jump then Fall,” “Superstar”) with a few standout moments of intrigue. (I do love the “desperately in love with you” line in “Superstar,” I’ll admit).

There was moment on the album that felt like an improvement over Speak Now, though, odd as it is. If you recall, “Never Grow Up” from that album felt like a miss because of its generic and saccharine sound. But “The Best Day,” a song with similar childhood nostalgia and an interest in generating the tears from listeners works so much better. I think it’s because it’s deeply specific and personal. I’ve always held that being specific is almost never as alienating as people assume it will be. It allows the emotion to communicate and feel real so much more. The progression of time in this song is pretty effective too.

The rerecording also has a lot of new “from the vault” tracks. The most popular of which is “Mr. Perfectly Fine.” What I think this song shows off is Swift’s charmingly clever songwriting. As common as it was to chide Swift for her incessant “whining” about her exes or whatever, there’s nothing more fun than a cutting breakup song. It’s been thirteen years since Swift and Joe Jonas broke up, but people are just as happy to jam out to a song about it today. In fact, to me, it makes it more fun to observe the thoughts and emotions that accompanied this relationship. Because all parties involved have moved on and are on friendly terms, it makes the song all fun and no hurt feelings. After all, when Swift sings that she’s “Miss “Gonna be alright someday,” you know she’s right, because she is alright now. Wholesome in all possible ways.

Not all the vault songs worked for me, though. I’m not sure how many Keith Urban fans read this blog (hello if you do), but I’m just not a fan. Even without his influence, though, “That’s When” is a song that ranges from boring to baffling. The hook makes no sense (Actual dialogue from the song: “When can I come back?” “That’s when I wake up in the morning.” That’s not how you answer that question.)

My personal favorite of the vault songs is probably “Bye Bye Baby” though. While I feel like a lot of Taylor’s Version intentionally sticks to the songwriting and production habits of the original, the vault songs have a bit more freedom to evolve at their core, because while they were written during the Fearless era, they were finished in 2021. Comparing this song to, for example, “White Horse”, there’s just so much more sophisticated songwriting and production choices. There’s this great buildup to a classic Swift bridge, creating more complicated emotions than just the generic sadness of some of the other ballads from this era.

All in all, Fearless is a juvenile album with a lot of heart and energy. The rerecording faithfully preserves the original, but with an extra layer of skill and meaning. Certainly there are moments the album suffers from the disinterest in updating it, but there are some shining moments here that I really enjoyed listening to. Perhaps Swift hadn’t quite proven herself as an adept songwriter here, but you can see her start to develop the skills she’ll show off in Speak Now.

That wraps up the second to last review in this series! Next time… we finally reach the debut.

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