Fearless, Taylor Swift releases renewed 2008 album

Singer has been busy re-recording her initial albums after Scooter Braun allegedly sold her songs behind her back

Pop star Taylor Swift unveiled her own version of her 2008 album Fearless this week.

The pop sensation has been busy re-recording her first six albums following her highly publicised feud with Scooter Braun, who allegedly purchased her master tapes and sold them behind her back in November last year, reported Daily Mail. Releasing her revised recordings on social media, the Bad Blood crooner posted, “It was the night things changed. Fearless (Taylor's Version) is out now”. Swift’s post was followed by an image of herself playing the guitar for her fans.

Back in 2019, she had announced that she was planning to re-record her first six albums following a long-running dispute with her former record company Big Machine and music executive Braun over the rights to some of her biggest hits. The master recordings were later sold by Braun to Shamrock Holdings. While Swift had initially tried to gain back the rights to her music catalog, her efforts were in vain.

Swift, who has won 11 Grammy Awards, then revealed in February this year, that Fearless (Taylor's Version) would be her first album to be re-recorded and released the lead single Love Story (Taylor's Version) the same month. The track topped the Billboard Digital Songs and Hot Country Songs charts. The 31-year-old became the second artist, after Dolly Parton, to reach number one on the Hot Country Songs with both the original and re-recorded versions of a song.

Fearless was Swift’s second studio album and upon its release in 2008 became a critical and commercial success, due to its hit singles Love Story and You Belong With Me. The album won four Grammy Awards at the 52^nd ceremony and helped Swift gain the reputation of one of the biggest performers of her generation.

Fearless (Taylor's Version) features 26 songs and six previously unheard tracks. Swift had already released You All Over Me (From the Vault) featuring Maren Morris, Love Story (Taylor's Version) and Mr Perfectly Fine (From the Vault). The latter was penned in 2008, but never made it onto the final track-listing for the original cut of Fearless. Swift’s duet with Keith Urban, That's When (From the Vault) is also a part of the album, with Bye Bye Baby wrapping up the six unreleased cuts from Fearless. The final song on the track-listing is the bonus remix Love Story (Taylor's Version) by Elvira Anderfjärd, a Swedish producer who has worked with singers like Katy Perry and Tove Lo.

Although Swift has retained the publishing rights to her songs, and makes money every time someone streams them or purchases a download or a CD from the compositions, she didn't own the actual master recordings, which were held by her record label Big Machine. In 2019, she signed a new agreement with Universal Music Group giving her the rights to all future masters, which would include her surprise albums Folklore and Evermore, as well as 2019's Lover.

Now, Swift’s fans are trying to make the original records disappear on Spotify. The Twitter account Taylor Swift Updates has been sharing a how-to-guide to hiding all the Big Machine versions of her albums and songs on Spotify to ensure fans automatically get the re-records.