BY OLIVIA VALKNER, guest writer

Swifties awoke to a promising announcement for the coming spring last Thursday. 

In a typical secret-ridden Taylor Swift fashion, the announcement of a full re-record of her second studio album, Fearless, kickstarts a hopeful 2021 for her fans.  

Her revamped sophomore album is set to drop April 9 (revealed via a secret message on her social media), with six new bonus tracks “from the vault.” With 26 tracks total, the album promises to be a nostalgic and fulfilling musical experience. 

Luckily, to help us get through the dreadful wait until April, Taylor has released her iconic yet reinspired anthem that is “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” and a heartfelt lyric video dedicated to her fans. 

Personally, I listened to the song shortly after its release at midnight last Friday, and it brought back memories of laying on my living room floor as an 8-year-old blasting the song from my green iPod shuffle.  It was like hearing the song for the first time all over again, but the production felt more meaningful and authentic.

The venture to re-record has been a way for Swift to reclaim her art after Scooter Braun bought out Big Machine Records and profited from the manipulation of the master copies of her first six albums. Taylor has condemned Braun for the robbery of her art while actively trying to regain ownership of her master recordings since he purchased the label in June 2019. Most recently, she spoke out against Braun in November 2020 to inform her fans that her original catalog was sold again without her knowledge.

In 2019 Taylor announced that, in an attempt to prevent others from profiting from her work, she planned to re-record and revamp the stolen albums. 

Swift is fighting not only for her own work, but also to help promote awareness of the ownership and heavy restrictions placed on artists’ work by their record labels and management teams.

Swift has been hard at work throughout the entire pandemic, of which her fans have been fully aware and observant of. 

A chart-smashing streak for Swift was kickstarted with the surprise drop of her eighth studio album, Folklore, this past July, followed only days later by the announcement that the process of re-recording her original catalog was underway. She rounded out the year with the release of a second alternative-folk album, Evermore.

Per usual, swifties have been actively predicting what is to come in the future. 

There are theories surrounding a possible third alternative album to accompany sister albums Folklore and Evermore, and many more about the release dates of the greatly anticipated re-records. 

When it comes to dissecting Taylor’s Easter eggs, social media activity and even questionably credible predictions accounts, there is a lot for fans to read into. 

Knowing all that happened in 2020, and with this newest announcement arriving in only the second month into 2021 I am very excited to see what else Taylor has to offer her fans this year. Until then, I encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for any and all Taylor tomfoolery.