If you were a regular radio listener in the late 2000s—hell, if you walked past a radio around that time—you know there was no escaping Taylor Swift. Songs like “You Belong To Me” and “Love Story” were getting significant airplay—and for good reason, even if they became overplayed around that time.
Fearless, Swift’s sophomore effort, still featured her with one foot solidly planted in the world of country music, but also has her stretching more into the popular music pool—waters she tested on her self-titled debut. In the end, this may have been the Achilles’ heel of this disc.
I am choosing to direct my attention to the original release of this album, not the “Taylor’s Version” that she re-recorded during her fight to get her masters back. No offense meant; I wanted to base my opinion on the original versions recorded when Swift was 18 and 19, and to feel that original energy and youthful vitality.
If you only heard “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” on the radio, you might be thrown by the fact the original versions were indeed more in the country vein. And, I’ll be the first to admit, I prefer the pop versions—though this is not meant to be a slam on the originals. They all still have the same cores of a song, and are just as catchy today as they were nearly 20 years ago.
But it is in songs like these and “Hey Stephen” where one can hear—well, let’s not call them seeds of discontent, but Swift’s understanding that her music was reaching a point where she might have been outgrowing merely classifying her as a country artist. Certainly, there had been country musicians who had flirted with popular music success; Swift was no exception, even then. But it’s almost as if you could hear something inside her crying to be let free, in order to express itself in its own way.
This is not to imply that Swift had abandoned country music. The title track, “Fifteen” and “Tell Me Why” are prime examples that she still knew how to maneuver through the genre that brought her initial fame, and are pleasant enough to listen to. Swift’s skills as a songwriter and performer certainly have matured over the time between her debut and this disc, and it overall is very pleasant to listen to.
The only real knock against Fearless is that much of the material borders on being fairly light-weight enough to be quickly forgotten. Tracks like “The Best Day,” “You’re Not Sorry” and “Breathe” (the last a collaboration with Colbie Caillat) are nice enough to listen to, but I question whether one would constantly hear these playing in their head if they weren't hammed into position through multimedia a la "You Belong To Me". And, honestly, part of that seems to be due to Swift’s dancing along the fine line between country and pop. Had she chosen one solid direction to take the album, it just might have made it stronger.
Make no mistake, Fearless is by no means a bad album. It’s a solid follow-up to Swift’s debut, and firmly established her as a force to be reckoned with in the music world. It’s just that I’d have liked more of the songs to be ones the listener could carry around in their head; the material here, while good, still has the hint of what could have been.
And, no... I’ve still not been converted into a “Swiftie.”