Taylor Swift - Fearless (Taylor's Version) (Target Limited Edition) (2021)

“I lived, and I learned,” Taylor Swift sings 85 minutes into the expanded, rerecorded version of her breakthrough 2008 album, Fearless. Less than two years ago, Swift announced she’d be redoing her back catalog to reclaim ownership of her early material after the master recordings of her Big Machine discography were acquired by industry mogul Scooter Braun. The goal of this ambitious undertaking is plain enough. To borrow a phrase from “Tim McGraw”: When you think Fearless, Swift hopes you think “Taylor’s Version.”

Musicians rerecording their back catalog following behind-the-scenes label disputes is an age-old music industry story. But there is little precedent for an artist undertaking the endeavor in as high-profile a manner as Swift, who has leapt into this project with the big-budget ambition and creative fervor usually reserved for a blockbuster album. In doing so, she’s positioned unromantic industry pragmatism as a retrospective celebration of her creative life: part die-hard fan treat, part legacy-artist archival reissue — think: The Bootleg Series (Taylor’s Version) — and part told-you-so pet project.