Amid criticism about her “multitude” of boyfriends, the Kanye West VMAs scandal, and ongoing accusations that she wasn’t “pulling her weight” in songwriting sessions, Taylor Swift was crafting her third studio album, Speak Now. Her response to the doubters? Writing the album entirely on her own and holding nothing back. As she put it in a promotional video, “[t]his time, [she’s] naming names.”

In contrast to the wide-eyed idealism she displayed in both Debut and Fearless, in Speak Now, Swift is wiser, jaded, and thoroughly disenchanted. Among the lyrical highlights of this record, the song “Dear John” stands out in her discography as one of her most caustic songs, sharing her experiences as a 19-year-old in a relationship with “an expert at sorry and keeping lines blurry” but reminding him that she “took his matches before fire could catch [her].” Her tone is wounded but triumphant, and she turns to vengeance as opposed to her typical strategy of wallowing. This spite is most evident in “Better Than Revenge,” where Swift vows to retaliate against a girl who she believes wronged her. Swift is authentically herself on this record, flourishing her intelligence and resilience, but also her pettiness, making the album feel that much more authentically “teenage.”

Swift also proves with this record, however, that she has retained her ability to dream despite the challenges she has faced. Songs like “Mine,” “Timeless,” and “Enchanted” romanticize imaginary relationships and trivial encounters with strangers, transforming them into magical tales. In “I Can See You,” “Superman,” “Ours,” and “Sparks Fly,” she muses about idealized love interests, and in the title track “Speak Now,” she even playfully ponders a scenario where – as a gesture of unbridled romance – she interrupts an ex’s wedding in order to win him over again.

Despite her veil of vindictiveness, Swift is heartbroken and vulnerable from the failed relationships depicted in the album. In “The Story of Us” and “Haunted” she expresses her frustration and her confusion in the aftermath of a breakup, summarizing perfectly the feelings of so many people in the same position. Unlike her previous work, “Last Kiss,” which is arguably one of her most moving songs ever, contains no hope or begrudging optimism; rather, with shaky breaths and a quivering voice, she simply delivers a lament to the man whose name is “forever the name on her lips.” In the song “Back to December,” she even goes as far as crafting a heartfelt apology taking responsibility for ending a good relationship and asking for forgiveness. This maturity is carried over to “Innocent,” the most frequently overlooked track on the album but also one of my personal favorites, in which she does the seemingly impossible and grants Kanye West her forgiveness for his actions at the VMAs. With this song, she proves that she is still the kind-hearted version of herself that people grew to love when she first rose to stardom.

The thesis of this album is undeniably from the closing track of the original record, “Long Live,” dedicated exclusively to her fans, in which she sings “[l]ong live all the mountains we moved / I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.” From the fairytale imagery of battling mythical figures to the realism of acknowledging the struggles she has overcome, she attributes her success to the people who supported her through it all. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is an album of angst, growth, tragedy, fury, vindication, and above all: gratitude.

Before performing her song “Fearless” for the first time, while it was still technically unreleased, Taylor Swift introduced it as a story about “the best first date [she hadn’t had] yet.” The song went on to become the title track of her sophomore album and the introduction to her series of rerecordings.

With the familiar drum kick and intro melody to the album Fearless (Taylor’s Version), the instrumentals conjure up images of sparkly guitars, sequined dresses, wild curly hair, girls spinning in the rain, and hearts made with hands 🫶. Swift has built her career, and most recently her Eras Tour, by marketing certain motifs through the aesthetics of each album, and Fearless was her first experimentation with this ultimately incredibly effective concept.

Even upon listening to this record for the first time, it radiates nostalgia and unbridled optimism. Swift arguably found success as a young songwriter with little experience because despite leaning towards autobiography, she’s always had the capacity to daydream; Fearless is an album centered around those daydreams. Her song “Today Was a Fairytale” embodies this starry-eyed idealism, depicting yet another imaginary perfect day, which is seen again in her first real hit, “Love Story.” “Hey Stephen” serves as a love letter to a boy who “look[s] like an angel,” in which Swift reminds him that “all those other girls, well, they’re beautiful / But would they write a song for [him]?” With Fearless, Swift projects every facet of her idealized personality into her music; she’s cheeky, witty, trusting, empowered, and willingly donning her rose-colored glasses.

Of course, the record isn’t all unbridled joy and fantasy – ballads like “Breathe,” “White Horse,” and “You’re Not Sorry,” are among the album’s most harrowing songs. Once again embodying the relatable teenage girl, Swift discusses heartbreak from friends and relationships; however, the distinguishable quality in almost all of these tracks is that despite her dejection, the takeaway of the song still highlights some form of self-efficacy and independence. In “White Horse,” particularly, Swift expresses her confidence that she will “find someone someday who might actually treat [her] well,” and similarly in “Fifteen” she emphasizes the importance of self-discovery despite the setbacks that might occur due to heartbreak.  Swift demonstrates her lyricism more subtly on this album, stringing together complex verses, like in the outro of “The Other Side of the Door” and between the nuances in “The Way I Loved You.”  The conclusion of the original album and the heart of the rerecorded Fearless (Taylor’s Version), the song “Change” reminds listeners that they can overcome any setback and further bolsters her messages of resilience and faith.

As for me, Fearless is usually my go-to happy album for sunny days in May. Classics like “You Belong with Me” never fail to lift my mood, and “Mr. Perfectly Fine” often seems like the perfect choice to scream in the car with friends. With Fearless, Swift paired her own self-discovery with her burgeoning imagination, creating a timeless record with the capacity to captivate listeners in both 2009 and 2021.

Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album often appears at the bottom of rankings and as the target of harsh criticism that compares the record to those that followed it. While I agree that the album Taylor Swift, or as I’ll refer to it here, Debut, might not equate to Swift’s more recent work, it has its own merit as the album that launched her career into the phenomenon it is today.

As I sat down to listen again to the album that made me a lifelong fan of Taylor Swift, what struck me most was the vulnerability in her vocals and lyrics. Swift has everything to prove with this record, and she does not hold back, establishing immediately her validity as a country singer despite being a 16-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who had only moved to Nashville a few years before. In the opening track, “Tim McGraw,” she makes a bold demand in a fake but convincing country accent, asking her listeners to associate her with the country legend and namesake of the song. She details her starry blue eyes and her faded blue jeans, then continues to shed light onto who she is with the songs that follow.

Throughout this album, Swift features several facets of her character through different songs, displaying vengeance and pettiness in “Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No” and assuming the role of the scorned girlfriend. In “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Invisible,” she depicts heartbreak as a result of unrequited love, and she’s unapologetically joyful in songs like “Our Song” and “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” While these tracks are the most acclaimed on the album and can certainly be considered relatable, I don’t believe they’re the reason why so many people found comfort in Swift’s music with Debut.

It’s songs like “Mary’s Song,” which depicts a romance that lasts a lifetime and growing old together that truly captures the hearts of the audience, and “Cold As You,” which recounts how someone “put up walls” around her just to “paint them all a shade of gray.” Perhaps one of her most mature songs ever, “Stay Beautiful” requests that the subject continues to be the version of himself that Swift loves even if she can’t have him. “Tied Together With a Smile” and “The Outside” appeal to those who hide behind strength or perfectionism with the hope that someone will truly see them, and Taylor Swift does just that.

In “A Place in This World,” Swift uses the lyric that I think summarizes the record and brings us back to that idea of vulnerability: “I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve / Feeling lucky today, got the sunshine / Could you tell me what more do I need?”

Swift exemplifies the complexity of the average girl going through self-discovery that is typically undermined, and she does it proudly in front of the whole world. Every girl can see her own diary in Taylor Swift’s debut album; what makes it special is that Swift published hers.