Taylor Swift Continues to Impress Us All
I’m on the phone but I’m definitely not upset. This past Wednesday, Taylor dropped another surprise on her social media-another song from the upcoming album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” was coming out. This time, rather than another one of her massive hits, the song is from the “vault”, meaning it has never been officially released. “You All Over Me” came out at midnight on March 26 and features country singer Maren Morris. It was first written and recorded when Taylor was writing “Fearless” back in 2007 and 2008, but was cut from the final tracklist.
There are five other songs on the new album from the vault as well. When Taylor announced her version of “Fearless”, she explained her reasoning for including these older songs with all the re-recordings of the tracks of the original album and the platinum edition. In this letter, she writes “I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture and let you into the dreamscape that is my fearless album.” With these never-before-released songs, Taylor’s version has a tracklist of 26.
When sharing the news of the release of “You All Over Me”, Taylor explained another aspect of the vault songs. Since they are going to be (mostly) heard for the first time when the album comes out, she wanted to be more creative than when the music was first written when Taylor was a teenager. “I can experiment, play and even include some of my favorite artists” she wrote on her posts about the song.
While she hasn’t shared any information on the other new songs, “You All Over Me” was produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Taylor’s collaborators on the Album of the Year folklore, and its sister record evermore. It was also co-written by Scooter Carusoe, who worked with Taylor in the mid 2000s.
It is kind of weird to be excited for this album, because while it is coming out in April, it also came out in November. Of 2008. When this album first came out, I was in third grade. Safe to say I did not have much knowledge of “screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain” or “dancing in a storm in my best dress.” I also was not even close to age fifteen. But the thing about “Fearless”, Taylor and music in general, is that it can be about anything, or even nothing. I remember screaming along with “You Belong with Me” in the back of my parents car or on the playground with my friends. I grew up with this album, as did a lot of my friends. The girl who got Fearless for her ninth birthday is now almost a senior in college. I can learn the songs all over again and let them fit into my life now.
Just because I am not a freshman in high school anymore does not mean I don’t relate to being nervous about starting a new chapter. The first day of classes my freshman year at SLU I nervously wandered the pathways through the unknown buildings listening to “Fifteen” and took my deep breathes. I would not be surprised if I do that on the first day of my job after graduating. When I talk to my mom on the phone to catch her up on my adventures, she’s on my side when I’m wrong, and the meaning of “The Best Day” hits me again and again. My friends and I danced around our dorm to “Love Story (Taylor’s Version), singing into our karaoke microphone the same way I bounced up and down in my living room with a hairbrush. Meanings can change, but the love for those little moments in life is forever and always.