Just days before Taylor Swift is expected to drop her re-recorded 2008 album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), the artist invites her eager audience back to their first brush with heartbreak with another preview track, “Mr. Perfectly Fine.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the first of six currently announced re-recorded albums following Scooter Braun’s purchase and re-sale of Swift’s spanning catalog. From her reclaimed version of the 2008 collection, Swift revealed her first ‘From the Vault’ “You All Over Me” featuring Maren Morris, and “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” which debuted in a Match.com commercial. “Mr. Perfectly Fine” is her second of the ‘From the Vault’ sextet of 13-year-old tracks.
Challenging fans with a newfangled puzzle, a video of an animated vault with scrambled words, Swift unveiled more predictably secretive details of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). A de-coding effort revealed the titles of the other four new songs: “Don’t You,” and “Bye Bye Baby” remains largely mysterious, while “We Were Happy” and “That’s When” involve yet another tie to the early days. More than a decade ago, Swift doubled up during her 2008 Fearless Tour to open for Keith Urban’s Escape Together World Tour. Swift and Urban team up again for a duet on “That’s When,” and backing harmonies on “We Were Happy,” bringing it full circle. In the announcement, she shares, “his music has inspired me endlessly.”
As she described in her February 11 announcement, these never-before-released tracks are “the ones it killed me to leave behind.” A line from her latest release—Hello, Mr. casually cruel / Mr. everything revolves around you—later re-emerged on her underappreciated “All Too Well,” the fifth track from 2012’s Red. In a characteristically theatrical bridge, she laments, So casually cruel / In the name of being honest. The re-purposed phrase still stings and confirms the lyricism Swift carried with her, though these didn’t make the rounds of cuts for the sake of commercial quality.
With Jack Antonoff’s expertise, Swift breathes new life into a timely classic. The reminiscent tune sends age-old feelings flooding back with the pop-country production that defined the Fearless era. Lyrically, it sets the artist apart from her last two albums, Folklore and Evermore, which boast a certain sophistication. But “Mr. Perfectly Fine” reflects her roots from which her current musicianship bloomed.
In true Swiftian fashion, the artist planted another “Easter Egg” within the announcement. Sophie Turner—famed actress and wife of Joe Jonas—shared the song on her social media earlier today with a seeming virtual nod of approval, further confirming rumors that the song was written in the wake of Swift’s split with Jonas in 2008 after just a few months.
Listen to the latest surprise from Taylor Swift, “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” below. Pre-save Fearless (Taylor’s Version) before April 9.
