Taylor Swift Announces Re-recording of Album ‘Fearless’

By Preslee Adams, Staff Writer

Taylor Swift has been working hard on her career, releasing two albums and a Netflix documentary last year. In an appearance on Good Morning America, Swift revealed that she would be re-recording some of her earliest albums to obtain control over her first tracks.

 

The new album, Fearless: Taylor’s Version, features 26 songs, with re-recordings from the original Grammy-winning album and six unreleased songs composed by Taylor as a teenager. Swift released the rendition of the hit song “Love Story” last Thursday, making it the album’s first single to tease the album and what was to come.

 

Swift first reported that she would be remaking her first six albums in August 2019 due to a public feud with her former label, Big Machine Records. In 2019, label owner Scooter Braun paid $300 million to his brand to have ownership over the majority of Taylors’ first six albums. Taylor was infuriated and wrote a message on Tumblr to express her dismay.

 

“For years, I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Taylor said. “Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in… I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”

 

After breaking free from Big Machine in 2018, Swift signed a multi-album agreement with Universal Music Group, permitting her to have ownership over her recordings. This deal covered her 2019 album “Lover,” as well as her two most recent albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore.”

 

“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums,” Swift said in a Twitter statement, “but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from. Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work. For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album. Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons.”

 

Swift has not yet announced a release date for the new album, but after noting her excitement for the album, fans quickly noticed Swift’s secret message. Her written statement featured a “hidden message” with capital letters spelling “APRIL NINTH.” As for now, Swift fans can expect a plethora of new music from the pop star in the future.