Fearless (Taylor’s Version) consists of 19 re-recorded tracks from the original Fearless record, and also includes 6 “from the vault” tracks. Personally, Fearless holds a very special place in my heart. Having moved a lot in my childhood, I often associate different songs with different places that I’ve moved to. Whenever I think of this album, I remember joyful memories of me in Texas when I was around 5 years old. I remember belting out the lyrics to You belong with me with my best friends and being the different characters in the music video for halloween;  I remember “borrowing” my friend’s brother’s violin (without him knowing) to see if we could play the intro of  Tell Me Why, and trying to figure out exactly when Taylor laughed in Hey Stephen so that we could laugh along with her. Even now, I often find myself listening to the Fearless album whenever I need a quick pick-me-up. 

     Taylor wrote most of the songs on Fearless while she was on the road promoting her debut album by playing as the opening act for many established Country singers. Remembering how she did not connect with any of the songs that were written about “life on the road” as a listener, Taylor made the decision to continue to write about love, heartbreak, and life experiences to connect with her fans. My favorite songs off of this album are: Fearless, Fifteen, Love Story, Hey Stephen, You Belong With Me, Forever and Always, Mr. Perfectly Fine and The Way I Loved You (I know this is almost half of the original album, but it took me a while to narrow it down to just these songs). For the sake of keeping the post around the same length as the rest of the posts, I will be talking about three of the aforementioned songs: Fearless, The Way I Loved You, and Fifteen. 

     The first song on this album is the title track Fearless. This song sets the mood for the entire album as there is an element of fearlessness in each of the songs in this album. While writing this song Taylor was not dating anyone or as she said “even speaking to any potential suitor”; however, interestingly, this song describes what Taylor believes to be the perfect first date. Similar to most people, my favorite part of this song would definitely have to be the chorus which goes “Cause I don’t know how it gets better than this/You take my hand and drag me headfirst/Fearless/… I’d dance in a storm/In my best dress/Fearless”. To me, these lyrics invoke such a happy and carefree feeling – she doesn’t care that she is in her “best dress” in the storm because she is having the time of her life with whoever she is spending her time with. While listening to the records on Fearless, you will notice that the rain is a common motif. If Taylor is feeling happy – she’s most likely dancing in the rain (see Fearless). If Taylor is frustrated – she’s most likely screaming in the rain (see The Way I Loved You). If Taylor is depressed – she’s most definitely crying in the rain (see Forever and Always). Actually now that I think about it, Taylor did say that she wrote many of these songs in Arkansas, and as someone that has lived in Arkansas, I can confirm that it does in fact rain a lot there – but anyway, onto The Way I Loved You. 

     For someone that has never been in a serious relationship, I sing The Way I Loved You way too passionately. But that is the effect Taylor Swift has on her listeners: you feel her joy and her pain as she takes you through her journey of healing. In this song, Taylor talks about her internal struggle between having an “ideal” relationship and missing how she felt in her past relationship. She describes her current lover as a respectful and responsible person, and she’s perfectly comfortable in this relationship. However, she misses her rollercoaster-like past relationship where she had intense ups filled with passion and excitement and downs filled with chaos and identically passionate arguments. My favorite part of the song is definitely the chorus which goes, “But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain/And it’s 2:00 a.m. and I’m cursing your name/So in love that you act insane/And that’s the way I loved you/Breakin’ down and coming undone/It’s a roller coaster kinda rush/And I never knew I could feel that much/And that’s the way I loved you”. Pro tip, the best way to listen to this song is to drag your best friend outside with you when you feel during a heavy downpour and scream the lyrics at the sky. Trust me, the song just hits differently. If you choose to listen to any songs from the Fearless album, it should be this song.

     The last song I will be talking about, Fifteen, is a song about Taylor’s freshman year at Hendersonville High School in Nashville, Tennessee. What I love about this song is the songwriting – you can imagine all of the lyrics of this song scrawled in the diary of a fifteen year old girl. She talks about walking through doors of high school for the first time and meeting her best friend Abigail in English class – these are such ordinary experiences that I feel like many people can connect with. My favorite part of the song is where she reflects on her fifteen year old experiences and gives advice to her younger self. She says, “But in your life you’ll do things greater than/Dating the boy on the football team…I realized some bigger dreams of mine/… when you’re fifteen, don’t forget to look before you fall/I’ve found time can heal most anything/And you just might find who you’re supposed to be/I didn’t know who I was supposed to be at fifteen. High school is a difficult time even without the added pressures of trying to maintain a relationship. I love how Taylor encourages her listeners to not let the relationship get in the way of following your dreams and finding who you are. 

     What I love about the “Taylor’s Version” songs is how she was able to keep the essence of the album while also rebranding it. To promote the release of this album she released snippets of her singles – the first one she released was of the song Love Story. One of the lines she released was “We were both young when I first saw you”. Although this line originally described the romantic relationship between Romeo and Juliet in the song, the meaning was now changed to the relationship between her and her fans when she first released fearless. Although I wasn’t able to talk much about my favorite “from the vault tracks” I definitely recommend listening to Mr. Perfectly Fine!

     Also continue streaming Taylor’s Version whenever you feel like listening to any Fearless songs! It may seem like a small inconvenience, but it makes a huge difference.