Fans Think Taylor Swift’s Fearless Re-Recording Announcement Hints At Her Next Album Release Date

Last year, Taylor Swift announced that following the sale of her master recordings to Scooter Braun, she plans on re-recording her first six studio albums from 2006's Taylor Swift to 2017's Reputation. On Feb. 11, she announced on Good Morning America that the first album she's reissuing is Fearless, her sophomore album originally released in 2008, and she released the first single, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)," the following day. Her choice to rerelease Fearless before her debut album puzzled some fans, but she explained the "pretty easy" decision in a new interview with Republic Records.

“Deciding on what album to re-record first was pretty easy for me,” Swift said. “I always gravitated towards Fearless because I think that, as an album, it was a real coming-of-age. And I look back on that album, and it fills me with such pride, and it was an album about hope and lessons learned and the effervescence of teenage youth and all that. What more fun than to go back and explore that?” Fans speculate that the 13 years since Fearless' original release may have influenced her decision to re-record it first as 13 is her longtime lucky number.

Aside from Swift's matured vocals, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" sounds nearly identical to the 2008 original, and she revealed that the rest of the album would follow suit. “I think that I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible," she said, noting that she'll also be including six previously-unheard tracks that almost made it onto Fearless' original track list. "The additional songs that I’ve added are songs that I think add insight into what the album almost was, because every time you make an album, you leave some songs off, and I think it’s really cool that the fans will get to have the full picture this time around."

The Fearless (Taylor's Version) release date has yet to be announced, but fans noticed that Swift capitalized random letters throughout a letter she posted on social media that make up the words "April Ninth." In the letter, posted alongside the newly-recorded album's artwork, she detailed her love for Fearless and the reason she's re-recording her work in the first place.

"Fearless was an album full of magic and curiosity, the bliss and devastation of youth. It was the diary of the adventures and explorations of a teenage girl who was learning tiny lessons with every new crack in the facade of the fairytale ending she'd been shown in the movies," Swift wrote. "This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could've imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. I hope you'll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it."