Fearless by Taylor Swift - Album Review

The stellar country pop release from Taylor Swift released almost a decade ago, getting only my second 10/10 so far on this blog. 

Release date: 11 November 2008

Record label: Big Machine Records

Genre: Country pop

Best songs: "Fifteen", "You Belong With Me", "Love Story", "Forever and Always"

Worst songs: "The Best Day" (if I had to pick one)

Rating: 10/10

See, I was only 9 in 2008, so I really wasn’t too much into music, and what I grew up was Usher, TLC, 90s-2000s R&B, along with a bit of the classics like The Beatles. Taylor Swift was one of the mainstream acts, one of the first, that I got exposed to. Granted, I didn’t put it together, because again, I was 9. But I loved “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” as a kid, such excellent songs. I didn’t know who they were from - I never kept track of artists. Skip to 2012-2013, and we had “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. Arguably, her sellout anthem that everyone I knew hated, and to be honest, I hopped on the bandwagon. Not knowing that the teenage girl I used to love listening to turned into this. So, we get 2008’s ‘Fearless’. Her best-selling album so far, and getting pretty good reviews. Does it hold up past nostalgia?

Well, it definitely does. I always went back to listen to the two aforementioned singles. But, then I got into “Fifteen”, and it made me want to go back and look at the whole record. And it holds so well. You get the Romeo & Juliet referenced “Love Story”, the friendzone anthem of “You Belong With Me”. Sure, she did it with “Teardrops On My Guitar”, and while that song is good, it came off as a bit petty compared to this one. And the fact I can kind of sympathize with this song (not the having a crush on a jock part as referenced from the video), but feeling that you could be a better match for the one you love. Although, this is where my bit of a crush on Taylor comes in, because who the hell would friendzone Taylor Swift? Like, seriously? Personal feelings aside, it has a surprising bit of energy and a nice build-up behind the melody. Then you get the advice song that is “Fifteen” saying that you may not know who you’re supposed to be, that life hasn’t truly started even though you may think so. And that boy you may love may not be the right one, being told from her own high school experiences. And that’s where she definitely shines on this album. Her charisma, her relatability. This is why I don’t feel good about bashing those who have teenage fanbases, especially when they’re teenagers themselves. If she can emotionally connect with them, then that’s pretty good. The breakup anthem of “Forever And Always” abou Joe Jonas has some good energy and is more a question of why this went wrong. The nice ballad of “White Horse” doesn’t get boring, where she realizes that this boy won’t be sweeping her off her feet, he’s a different person than she thought. And hell, while I can’t relate to the love part, and certainly can the misconceptions about a person. It shows that she can move on pretty well, while other songs show a bit of difficulty at times, this pulls it off really well with a nice guitar melody.

If I had to pick a song I don’t like, it would be “The Best Day”. While it does do a nice sentiment, a song about her growing up, the composition is so basic and dull. It gets boring really easily. Something that doesn’t happen with songs like “Tell Me Why” or even the ballad “White Horse”.

But really, I had to be forced to nitpick at one song specifically, and there’s not really any overarching problem. I love this album, I guess I’m a bit biased as a fan of Taylor Swift and someone who’s also 18, like she was on this album. I didn’t think a musician barely considered an adult could impress me so much, but she showed strength in songwriting, that was at times sloppy, but honest. I had a ton of charm and personality, it had a nice country pop sound, the production was done pretty well. And while Swift doesn’t do much range wise, her charisma sure makes up for it. 10/10.