Last year, Taylor Swift went through hell with former label Big Machine and promised her fans that she’d re-record her six albums under the label. Since then, she previewed her new version of “Love Story” in a Match.com ad helmed by Ryan Reynolds, hinting that a re-recorded version of her 2008 album, Fearless, was coming soon.
Today, the news every Swiftie had been waiting a long time for is finally out: Swift is officially re-releasing Fearless. This version has 26 songs, including 6 never-before-released tracks, written between when Swift was 16 and 18. She’ll also be releasing the new version of “Love Story” in full tonight.
In a statement on social media, Swift said: “When I think back on the Fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face. This was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. So before I say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you. And for those of you I’ve come to know more recently than 2008, I am ecstatic that I’ll get to experience a bit of that feeling with you in the very near future. Now I can fully appreciate it in its whimsical, effervescent, chaotic entirety.”
She also got into the meaning behind being in control of her music by re-recording her Big Machine albums:
“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, 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 many 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.)“
The full statement also has a big Easter egg. Swift capitalized what seemed at first to be random words. But nothing Swift does is at random, don’t you know? She’s spelling out the release date: April 9th.
Read her full announcement below.