The nostalgia of Taylor Swift’s Fearless album hit Gen Z all over again with the release of Fearless: Taylor’s Version. Swift brought to us the results of a custody battle of her first six albums with her old manager Scooter Braun and was finally able to bring the magic of young Taylor back to life. 

While she is not still the same eighteen-year-old who released this album in 2008, she sang with the same message. Yet, you can clearly hear the maturity in her voice. There is stronger annunciation in songs like “You Belong With Me”. I caught myself singing the incorrect lyrics that I have been singing since I was in elementary school because the words are much more coherent. 

Now that I am around the age of Fearless era Taylor Swift, I am able to understand what the messages of the songs that little bright-eyed and bushy-tailed me was screaming at the top of my lungs. It’s almost as if this generation grew up and into this album. 

The second time around, there were tracks that I listened to and realized that I overlooked them previously. In “You’re Not Sorry”, the resonance in Taylor’s voice is increasingly more pleasing to listen to and made me fall in love with it. Not only that piece, but in “Change”, there is a guitar that is brought out the slightest bit more and produces more power to the song. 

Not only did she bring the original smashing success of an album for the second time, but Swift included six songs that were never released, or “From The Vault”. I will admit I am guilty of being a part of the phenomenon of teenage girls belting “Mr. Perfectly Fine” on repeat. It fits hand in hand with the vibe of “The Way I Loved You”, and I am a little disappointed that we were deprived of it until now. “Don’t You” has more of a Folklore rhythm to it, seeming almost as if it were written from an older Taylor Swift. 

Although my perspective on parts of the album has changed and there were tiny alters to songs, the most fantastic part of Fearless: Taylor’s Version is that it is almost identical to the original album. That was her intention— to earn back her work. We all needed to feel the rush of Fearless once again, especially parts of the album that we missed out on in the 2000s. I am looking forward to the re-recording of the other five albums to transform back into the eras of my life that they were a part of.