In 2008, then-18-year-old Taylor Swift was presented the award for Album of the Year at the Grammys for her album “Fearless.” Ten albums, two additional Album of the Year awards and a few broken records later, Swift is re-releasing her celebrated second album to the public in a fight for ownership over her music.
This time, however, she is giving us all a few extra treats. Six to be exact. In addition to “Fearless’” original line-up of iconic songs, such as “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me,” the musical icon is releasing six never before heard songs “From the Vault.”
The first of which, titled “You All Over Me,” was released to the public March 25. Though it is not accompanied by a country fairytale-esque music video, as per Swift’s 2008 MO, it has already gained a fair amount of traction. The official lyric video, for example, has over 4.4 million views on YouTube and counting(update).
“You All Over Me” has the makings of a Taylor Swift classic. Featuring country singer Maren Morris on back-up vocals, it has all the hopeless romantic undertones that many have come to associate with old-school Taylor Swift.
She takes advantage of a soft country twang and lilting guitars while breaking our hearts with lyrics like “No amount of freedom gets you clean / I’ve still got you all over me.”
The familiar sounds take me back to my early childhood, dancing around to my room with “You Belong With Me” blasting out of a pink, bedazzled stereo. “You All Over Me” will fit right in with the rest of “Fearless.”
We have yet to see if this will hold true for the rest of her music “From the Vault.”
These songs, though sung by an older and more experienced Taylor Swift, were apparently written when she was between the ages of 16 and 18. They were kept off the original track for a variety of reasons, all which no longer seem necessary, Swift said in a tweet Feb. 11. She included them in her re-released album in order to share with us “the entire dreamscape that is (her) fearless album,” Swift said in the tweet.
There is a lot of speculation regarding information like the re-release date of “Fearless” and the titles of Swift’s “From the Vault” additions. However, she seems to like leaving behind a trail of clues and cryptic messages for her devoted fans to decipher.
For example, her tweet Feb. 11 included the message “APRIL NINTH” written in all capital letters, while the rest of the message was written in lowercase. This has encouraged fans to believe that something big, perhaps the re-release of the rest of the album, will take place on that date.
She also posted an encoded video to Instagram April 2, posted with the caption:
“The vault door is about to be as unhinged as you’ll think I am after you watch this video.
Level: Expert
Happy decoding!”
The video itself includes what some have speculated might be audio clips from her re-released album as well as scrambled words and names, possibly related to her six “From the Vault” song additions.
Some of those letters spell out Morris’ name as well as Keith Urban’s name, according to New Musical Express, which could hint at another collaboration.
Other undeciphered words include “baby,” “were,” “happy” and “when.”
However, despite Swift’s playful clues, nothing is set in stone just yet. With no official release dates, titles or collaborations announced, all we can do is wait to see what she will do next.
This story was written by Charlotte Ives. She can be reached at [email protected].
