Taylor Swift, the pop star who simply never stops popping, released the first single off her forthcoming re-recorded of her 2008 album Fearless, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).†She announced the new album Thursday morning on Good Morning America, saying that she planed to release a 26-song, deluxe re-recorded version of Fearless, featuring 13 additional songs that didn’t make it onto the album in 2008. Swift dropped the first of these re-records, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)†at midnight on Friday, February 12. The updated version came about due to her ongoing battle with mega-manager Scooter Braun, who recently sold her Big Machine masters to Shamrock Capital for a whopping $300 million. In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Low, Swift said she feels “really close to those songs again†now that she’s started the process of re-recording her first six albums, digging into just how important it is for artist’s to own their own music:
But the reason that I feel so passionately that artists should own their catalogs is because if you are the creator of all of this music, you’re the only one who actually knows the ins and the outs of it. You’re the only one who knows what almost was written. You’re the only one who knows the kind of secrets of the journey of making this music. So you’re actually the only one who has the ability to share it with the fans in the way that can make everyone the happiest and the most excited. So it’s been really fulfilling in a way, that I had no idea what to expect. You don’t want to feel like it’s your homework got destroyed and so now you have to redo your homework. It’s not like that at all. It’s not like that at all, it’s extremely fulfilling.
As for the re-recorded version, purists will be happy to know that it’s almost identical to the original version, with an older, more mature Swift vocal swapped in.â€You just, you don’t know the music industry until you know it,†Swift tells Lowe, reminiscing about the past. “And because I have learned what I’ve learned, I really just want to make things better for other people. And I want that to start at the record deal in the contract. Artists should never have to part with their work.†Check out Taylor Swift reconnecting with one of her oldest, most beloved songs “Love Story (Taylor’s Version) and remember: it’s Taylor’s world and we’re all just living in it.