When Taylor Swift was just eighteen when she wrote her award-winning album, Fearless. Itâs an album full of the highs and lows a girl faces in her teenage years, from wanting change in her life, to realizing her mom was her best friend even when she had none at school, and above all, finding herself in plenty of heartbreak. Itâs easy to relate to her as she sings through the most romantic and sweet and giddy moments all about falling in love, as well as relate to her most blindsided heartbreaks, everything from getting cheated on, to getting broken up over the phone, to being unwanted and friend-zoned, things a lot of us all wish we felt a little less. Thereâs a reason itâs called Fearless though: because through every moment she got through it and itâs made her stronger, even her weaker moments. Itâs the lyrics and the meaning of her songs that make the album get the attention it does. And as a teenager, she wasnât able to own her own music, so now sheâs rerecorded all of her Fearless songs with an additional six new ones called the Vault. Sheâs being Fearless yet again and itâs time for us to feel nostalgia and feel love and pain all over again, and these are the songs you NEED to listen to it again.
- Fearless
-
âAnd I donât know how it gets better than this. You take my hand and drag me head first, Fearless. And I donât know why but with you Iâd dance in a storm in my best dress, Fearless.â
This song may seem like the most obvious song to include since itâs the song that shares the title with the album itself, but itâs so much more than that. This song is about going out on your first date, having the guy pick you up, driving around, and having that first kiss on the doorstep, and having the guy hold his door open for you as you guys dance in the rain. Taylor sings about how fearless she feels falling in love and how sheâs going all in and how she doesnât even care if her dress gets wet because sheâs so in the moment. It gives you the butterflies feeling of falling in love for the first time and not knowing what the heck youâre doing but doing it anyway. The Fearless in the song speaks for the guy and the girl as theyâre both fearless to start a relationship which they know can end badly. Itâs hard to open up and bring someone into your life, and itâs about giving into that fear because love is totally worth it. When I first listened to this song, it reminded me back when I was in my room dancing around all nervous and excited for my first date. The reason this is a must is because it reminds you to just go for it, to listen to your heart, and to be in love and let it last.Â
- Fifteen
-
âCount to ten, take it in, this is life before you know who youâre gonna be, at fifteen.âÂ
Fifteen is a MUST because itâs such a great coming of age. Itâs about being fifteen and walking through the high school doors as a freshman for the first time. It goes through the feelings of wanting a senior guy on the football team to ask you out and laughing at all the popular girls with your redhead best friend (aka Abigail). Itâs about going on your first date and your mom waiting for you to come home and you dancing around. Itâs about not knowing who you are yet. About experiencing your first heartbreak with your best friend as she gets dumped and you cry the night away with each other. Itâs that moment when you donât find out who you are until you get your heart broken. At that moment youâre so convinced that heâs the one youâre gonna marry, that youâre nothing without him, that it forces you to move on and realize that you have bigger and better things and that youâll find someone else. Itâs about acknowledging you donât know who you are at fifteen or what you want but also acknowledging that youâll find it and that you love yourself and that a guy will love you for you someday. Itâs a reminder not only of experiencing heartbreak, but just a reminder that as we keep growing we keep making mistakes and experiencing painful events in our life, and we have to see it as a positive thing and something that we can take with us to grow as a person. It ends with âtake a deep breath girl as you walk through the doors,â ending how it started, and itâs just a good song to listen to to get you through those first painful scarring moments youâll have as you become a teenager. Itâs vague enough that you can imagine yourself as a freshman, the kind of song that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. I love the line: âWhen youâre fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, youâre gonna believe them.â It shows how gullible you are going into love and how blindsided you are when it doesnât work out: a masterpiece.
Â
- Love Story
-
âHe knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, âMarry me, Juliet, youâll never have to be alone. I love you and thatâs all I really know. I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress. Itâs a love story, baby just say, yes.ââ
Love Story is a classic. To give some background, itâs a song Taylor wrote when she was mad at her parents because they didnât approve of a boyfriend she wanted to date. So, it made her think of the Romeo and Juliet story and she wrote a song based on the story with one twist: she gave it a happy ending. This one is all good feels, that feeling of finding the one and being in love. It follows the Romeo and Juliet story, of meeting, of sneaking out, and then of waiting for him to come back to you and getting impatient and sad he wonât come, until finally in that last verse, he comes running to you and asks to marry you, asks you to get our your white dress and says he already got your dadâs blessing. This song also references the Scarlet Letter. Itâs just so cool how she goes back in time and makes a modern love story out of an older one. Itâs just so romantic. It has a good beat and it just makes you believe in young love. It makes you want to find the one.Â
- You Belong With Me
-
âIf you could see that Iâm the one who understands you, been here all along, so why canât you see? You belong with me.â
You Belong With Me is another one that used to be played over and over again on our radio stations. Itâs about being the best friend to your neighbor and secretly being in love with him even though he has this super hot cheerleader girlfriend. It takes the perspective of a girl thatâs sort of nerdy and in the band and who talks so deeply and laughs with this guy. They clearly have a connection but itâs like sheâs invisible to him. Itâs so relatable to being friend-zoned or having a crush and just knowing how to tell them. It ends though with him finally seeing her, so it gives girls that optimism and again, fearlessness, to tell that guy how they really feel.Â
- White Horse
-
“Iâm not a princess, this ainât a fairytale. Iâm not the one youâll sweep off her feet, lead her up the stairwell; this ainât Hollywood, this is a small town, I was a dreamer before you went and let me down. Now itâs too late for you and your white horse to come around.â
White Horse is THE song about heartbreak. Itâs about finding out the guy you dated was cheating on you from the get-go and finding out that the entire relationship was plain lies. Itâs about heartbreak of feeling like youâre not enough and you were just a side thing. Itâs about the guy asking for you back and begging for you back, saying heâs sorry and for the girl telling him itâs too late. Again, it takes so much fearlessness to be able to walk away from a guy who treated you wrong. It takes tremendous bravery to be able to say, âYou donât deserve me,â and then move on. Itâs so easy to just forgive him and let him cheat again, but Taylor is encouraging girls not to. Sheâs showing how sad she is in the song and how much it hurts but also how sheâs doing the right thing. I also think itâs so smart of Taylor to allude to princesses and fairy tales and white horses and show that in real life not every guy is a prince charming, that there isnât always a happy ending and a perfect relationship like we want there to be.Â
- That’s When: The vault
-
 âAnd you said, âWhen can I come back?â And I said, âThatâs when, when I wake up in the morning, thatâs when, when itâs sunny or storming, laughing when Iâm crying. And thatâs when Iâll be waiting at the front gate. Thatâs when, when I see your face, Iâll let you in. And baby, thatâs when.â
Out of all of her new songs from the Vault, I thought this one was the best. Itâs about how sometimes a break is good in a relationship and you need time to be apart before you can get back together. I just loved the chorus and Keith Urban also joined her in on this collaboration. It was a nice simple song with those same emotional lyrics she always uses. âLaughing when Iâm crying,â is my favorite line. If youâre a romantic, definitely give it a listen.
To wrap it all up, Fearless is an amazing album that will bring back many teenage memories and that is totally worth it. It will put you in your feels. And I just love the message. Be fearless in all you do.