Taylor Swift's "worst case scenario" occurred in August 2019, when Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine Label Group. Unbeknownst to her, the deal Swift's former label gave Braun all of the rights to her first six albums, and now she is reclaiming her catalog with all new versions of the material. She has officially announced that a re-recording of her sophomore album Fearless is "done and will be with you soon." A new version of "Love Story" drops at midnight.
Swift released a statement sharing feelings about re-recording the music. “I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums," she said, “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 (don’t want too many breakup songs, don’t want too many down tempo songs, can’t fit that many songs on a physical CD).”
Swift went on to detail how those feelings influenced the new, expanded version of Fearless. “Those reasons seem unnecessary now,” she continued. “I’ve decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album. That’s why I’ve chosen to include six never before released songs on my version of this album. Written when I was between the ages of 16 and 18, these were the ones it killed me to leave behind.”
No official release date for Fearless (Taylor's Version) has been announced. View Taylor Swfit's entire statement below.
I’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be with you soon. It has 26 songs including 6 never before released songs from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. Pre-order now at https://t.co/NqBDS6cGFl 💛💛 pic.twitter.com/Vjyy2gA72O
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 11, 2021