In November 2019, Swift announced that she intended to “re-record copycat versions of my songs” in 2020, adding that it was “something I’m both legally allowed to do and looking forward to”. The plan was clear: gain control of her songs, and encourage fans to play the new versions instead of the originals on streaming services and download stores.

The plan has been a resounding success. Not only has Fearless: Taylor’s Version debuted at the top of the Official Charts Company’s countdown, but Swift has also now broken a longstanding record by the Beatles for the fastest run of successive number one albums in just 259 days. It’s a wonderful mix of signature songs, bonus tracks and never-before-released songs from the Fearless era, of which You All Over Me is the first offering. And it’s also received rave reviews from the critics, with Clash observing that the album compares to “a restored photograph brightening from black and white into colour”.

That’s actually a pretty good way to describe how I see Swift’s personal evolution. The narrative around her music no longer centres on a battle for ownership. Like a butterfly emerging from the dark cage of its cocoon, Swift is experiencing joy once more, and it’s wonderful to witness. Yes, she’s now in charge of her own work. But more importantly, she has her voice back; one that’s grown richer, wiser, and more powerful with age.

A few days ago, she joked on Twitter that “life is chill, writing songs based in fiction to avoid drama, feeling pretty grown up”. But there’s nothing low-key about what she’s done in re-recording Fearless. Opinions about her music aside, you can’t deny that there’s something profoundly moving about seeing a woman go to painstaking lengths to replicate every line of her breakthrough album. It’s radical, and some might say vengeful, but I choose to see it as the act of a woman who is fully realising her creative potential.

Swift’s countdown is finally over, and what now awaits, to borrow from her own lyricism, is now “a brave world…filled with equal parts nostalgia and brand newness.” I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version): “Taylor Swift is reclaiming her voice, and it’s incredibly powerful to witness”