Taylor Swift – Fearless (Taylor's Version)

To understand this release, you need to do something to understand the motives for the new recording of FEARLESS. Taylor Swift simply has no ownership of her first six albums. At the tender age of 15, no one had any idea what global career Swift would ever achieve, and so the deal was signed naively and naively. An artist who does not own the rights to his own work is nothing unusual. Just Prince's decades-long struggle. When Taylor wanted to buy the rights from the previous label, the windy scooter Braun got before her. A start-up driven media entrepreneur and manager of Justin Bieber, who bought the rights for an estimated $300 million in July 2019, and thus also the rights to the old Swift footage. In 2005, they had not thought of a pre-emption right for the artist either.

Braun has now brokered the rights to an investment company. A lot, no one can do anything with the material. After all, without the consent of the musician and (in most cases) songwriter, licensing of recordings is not possible. Only the revenues would now continue to the investment firm. For Taylor Swift, this is a reason to look for ways to “by”. And if you look closely at the details, you can see how mercilessly cold, with an incredible amount of calculus and strategically similar to a master plan Taylor Swift is pursuing this goal. As commendable as this is, and as much as I understand such artists who have been over the table, the approach rigorously shows one thing very clearly: at the end of the day it's all about money, and nothing else. ramblings of honor, etc. is completely out of place. You don't need to look for a romance a la David vs Goliath.

Just how merciless Taylor Swift proceeds is also evidenced by the fact that FEARLESS, the most successful album, which was released as the second album in 2008, is the first to be re-recorded and sung. FEARLESS was the only one of their albums in America to receive a diamond record for 10 million albums sold. This was already a brutally high house number in 2008, when the sale of the physical recordings was already declining significantly and continued to fall. Swift (from 2006) and Rihana (from 2005) are the only artists of the new millennium to be ranked in the top 10 best selling sound carriers by music artists. Before you are only heavyweights like “The Beatles”, “Elvis Presley”, “Michael Jackson”, “Elton John”, “Madonna”, “Led Zeppelin” and “Pink Floyd”. But all these artists began their careers between 1954-1979 and date back to an era when physical records were bought on a massive scale and the artists, unless they moved across the table, even made a lot of ashes with albums (it is only possible today in the streaming age with the multisellers like Swift). In this respect, FEARLESS's historical figures are a grandiose achievement and further evidence that this is all about coal. Only Adele (2 albums) and Lady Gaga (1 album) have sold more album numbers since 2008 than Taylor Swift. This also shows the (financial) dimensions of this album.

It is these dimensions that have led an artist like Taylor Swift to release the last three albums, under their possession, within just 16 months. LOVER from 2018 received double platinum and was by far the best-selling album of the year in the United States in 2019. FOLKLORE (07/20) has already won 1x platinum and EVERMORE (12/20) has already been awarded gold in the USA after three months. The trend is rising. The ever-declining sales of physical sound recordings are the reason why overall sales are drowning dramatically, but are still selling millions for artists such as Taylor Swift and Co (but still far below the “before Internet/streaming era”). Time will tell which millions these albums will come to.

So Swift's intention is clear, as is the goal. With the second album as the first new recording, nothing else is to be achieved than the sales of the 2008 FEARLESS version to come to a hassle. It's best to zero. Investors should receive as little as possible and at best nothing more in the income of their intellectual property. It is therefore not surprising that there is hardly any difference between FEARLESS from 2008 and FEARLESS 2021 (Taylors version). You have to listen with a magnifying glass, set the hearing aid to loud and best turn on the sonar. Swift takes no risk here and therefore sends its version into the race almost completely in accordance with the 2008 version. Another well-thought-out calculus and further evidence of the tough battle for love money. To create an additional purchase incentive for Taylor's version, six brand-new songs were removed from the vaults and packed as a bonus (the last six numbers, before the bonus track on CD). In 2016, there was a “Platinum Edition” by FEARLESS (over the years the seventh edition, which changed FEARLESS's status as a financial “milking cow” ), which also included six new numbers. These six pieces are also at the start here. Another encore is the soundtrack song for “Valentine's Day” TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE, which is nestled between “Platinum Edition” and “From the Vaults”. TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE was released as a single in 2010 and has not been available in any of the six seven variants. By the way, Taylor Swift also starred in the movie. The last song LOVE STORY (brand new in the umpteenth mix, this time Elvira Remix) is also a bonus that is only included on the CD and in the AutoRip. You can stream the song separately or purchase it separately as MP3.

FEARLESS (Taylor's version) will show whether Swift will score the fight against many decades-long practices in the music industry. With the remaining five albums, which Swift will re-record under “Taylor's Version”, the aim is to reduce interest in the originals to such an extent that they will be forgotten and investors will no longer make any money. That's the whole big and final goal. Not only Swift is the dumb one, but also the fans. In this case, apart from advertising statements, Taylor Swift has no great influence on how fans can pick up again (or leave it). This is the only constant that Swift can't control great in her master plan and relies on fan loyalty. But maybe the intention is to make the next generation of Swift fans grow up right with their Taylor's versions.
Speaking of Taylor's versions, the name is so unfortunate. Playing the songs 99.9% is no other version. At least for my understanding. TAYLOR'S INTELECTUAL PROPERTY (intellectual property) or INTELECTUAL VERSION or something in the direction would be much better. In addition, “Taylor's Version” also suggests that in 2008, regardless of ownership, it was not the version that Swift wanted to play. Fans who do not know the topic of ownership could well spend money again on a supposedly “different version”.

In the booklet, Swift only briefly addresses the motives for the new recording of the first six albums. There is talk of intellectual property, which only the artist creates when composing alone, and therefore only the artist himself knows what the songs mean. Most of the prologo (about 85%) highlights the magic of the album, the genesis, the experience Taylor made as a teenager, etc. Of course, everything sounds normal and great as artists see it. In fact, their songs are quite a kind of diary/diaries. In the context of the whole context, however, it is more of a very well-formulated press release on how to the album. It's part of the store. I'm bothered by hypocrisy here. Swift uses parts of the music industry's tools for its own purposes (Six Bonus Songs/Soundtrack Songs/Platinum Edition Songs/LOVE STORY New Elvira Remix; to create sales incentives/pre-linking two “From the Vault” songs), which she does not like elsewhere, even if stored differently. It's part of the store too.

In of sound, the new edition is almost identical to the original, an invisibly impressive craftsmanship. The sound is a few nuances full, as would be a remixed and remastered reissue of almost every 13-year-old recording. Some people may be surprised at how much Swift is able to recreate the mannerisms and tics of her 18-year-old voice here, but it's worth noting that she has rehearsed this skill in hundreds of live shows in most years. So it's not like it's an alien ability for them to deliver old songs in the mind they were intended. Nevertheless, today's Swift is a far better singer than more than a decade ago, and all this version of FELESS needs is an indication of this extra maturity to achieve unexpected sharpness.

The bonus tracks are exceptional for one reason. They were written in the fearless years when Taylor Swift was 18 singing teen pop, which still stuck some country straw to his butt, but now recorded for the first time with Swift's FOLKLORE/EVERMORE (both 2020) employees Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. And they divided the sound of the difference between the two epochs. Artistically, however, it would have been better if Taylor's version only included the original fearless title list instead of the “Deluxe” edition, but this would probably endanger the recultivation project commercially. Money rules the (music) world.

YOU ALL OVER ME (previously available), a beautiful duet with Maren Morris, shows how the germs of Swift's 2020 sound can be traced back to 2008. It also suggests a best-case scenario of how a comprehensive reinterpretation of FEARLESS could have affected, rather than a 1:1 remake. WE WERE HAPPY would have improved the original if it had replaced something like HEY STEPHEN in the first place, but it would probably have removed the album too much from the actual purpose. And Keith Urban gets away surprisingly well in the lite-country FM duet THAT'S WHEN and also reminds the listeners of Swift's days when she toured the country scene with Urban. On the other hand, MR. PERFECT FINE (also available in advance) functions as part of the Swift myth (as a previously unheard song about her relationship with Joe Jonas). DON'T YOU is fine, but unsustainably stuck. And with Bye Bye Baby, it's not much different/better either.

What rating should fans make for “Taylor's Version” now? I'm sure the scissors will diverge from one to five stars. Would it really have needed this new recording? With all the understanding of Swift and as a very clear advocate of the musicians' intellectual property, a battle will be fought here at the end of the day on the back of the fans, which will not concern the fans. For my part, I already like the music of Swift. But I haven't bought a physical recording yet. Streaming was enough. “Taylor's Version” fascinated me because I wanted to know how Swift is doing this remake. And here I am absolutely disappointed. The mentioned tools are used by Swift in the same way as the opposite side. She deliberately took a zero-command risk and left the 13 original songs as they are. On the one hand, the project is understandable and basically has no choice but to implement the 1:1. She wants to replant her 2008 songs as they are as her intellectual property in the heads of fans. On the other hand, the added value for fans is very limited. We fans can't help her g the contracts so naively.

But I don't want to forgive a star. It can't be five. Therefore, I choose the golden mean of three stars, even though this is seen in the Amazon ranking rather negative and not average. But it's also negative if the fans are tried again to pull money out of their pockets in an eighth version and for a basically almost identical product. I imagine that Hater will deliberately stream the original album and the fangirls and fanboys will be deliberately streaming the original album and the new version. But even this is the normal (musical) madness nowadays. Here, too, it applies to all albums: if you like it, you should also enjoy FEARLESS in the eighth version. In addition to the money that counts for the artists, it is the personal feeling of the fans that matters most at the end. Not pushing fans too far in the head is the real challenge that Swift has to master. She apparently found the perfect strategy for everything else.

Interesting that the copy ed, all the booklet text is perfectly legible.

My Australian copy purchased from JB HiFi, the intro and the lyrics to all the songs are barely visible. You can read it if you really try, but you really have to try.

Anyone else's like mine?