But Black has been releasing music steadily, and quietly, for the last few years, and recently she’s been inching back into the spotlight as a reliably charming presence on TikTok. It’s been around a decade since “Friday,” her debut single, made her an early casualty of social media cruelty. Or perhaps you could take the Rebecca Black route. Sure, you could do a note-for-note rerecording that serves primarily as a middle finger to equity investors. Send a message to the people who robbed that thing of the pleasure and satisfaction it brought you. Take a thing that made you well known, and reclaim it. But Swift has so far brought a sense of triumph, grace and artistry to the endeavor, and in doing so has begun the process of retelling her story on her own terms.
Swift is more interested in impressive note-for-note simulacrum than revisionism here, though sharp-eared Swifties will delight in noticing the tiniest differences (like the playful staccato hiccup she adds to “Rom-e-oh!” on the second pre-chorus.) When Swift first announced her intentions to rerecord her first six albums, skeptics wondered if the whole project was just an uncomfortably public display of personal animosity toward her former business partners, and the songs’ new owners. Not only is it one of her most beloved hits, but it also means that the first new-old lyric we hear the 31-year-old Swift sing is, “We were both young when I first saw you” - an immediate invocation of the past that subtly reframes the recording as a kind of tender love song to her 18-year-old self. As the first official release of her rerecorded back catalog, “Love Story,” from Taylor Swift’s 2008 album, “Fearless,” is a savvy pick.
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