At midnight on April 9, Taylor Swift re-recorded and released her 2008 album Fearless, after finally reclaiming the rights to her music. Less than two years ago, Swift announced that she’d be re-recording her earlier music to reclaim ownership after the master recordings were acquired by Scooter Braun. She begins reclaiming her music with Fearless, the album that established her as a country to pop crossover star. Compared to the 2008 version of the album, Swift’s voice is richer and more sure of itself, while mimicking the Nashville textures of the original. 

While fans couldn’t help but miss the emotion and energy of 18-year old Swift’s original Fearless album, songs like “Change,” “The Way I Loved You,” and “Love Story” make a glorious return. In addition to rerecording the 19 original songs on Fearless and its platinum edition, Swift released six original new songs “from the vault,” including “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” a track with a little attitude towards an ex, and “Bye Bye Baby,” which can bring people in the happiest of relationships to the brink of tears.  

However the music itself wasn’t the only exciting part for fans. In the last few weeks before releasing her new version of Fearless, Swift drew fans in with several messages to decode. Among these hidden messages was a video of scrambled words moving across the screen as an audio of what sounded like gibberish played in the background. The day that she released this video, Swift captioned her instagram post “Level: Expert”, knowing that only the smartest of her Swifties could determine the meanings behind these gibberish words and the backwards audio. As predicted, many did crack the codes and were able to figure out the titles of her “From the Vault” tracks that nobody has heard before. In addition, when played backwards, the audio from the video is a verse from one of these special tracks. Swift clearly has the best marketing team who know how to get fans involved way before an album comes out. 

Swift’s fans, whether they are new to her sound or have been a fan since day one, are thrilled to see her new pride when it comes to her re-recordings. Now Swift can do as she pleases with her music, and she definitely is.