With the release of the re-recordings, one of the best experiences has been re-listening to each song with a new perspective - even if the production has only changed slightly.

Back when Swift was first writing for Fearless, she sought out John Rich (yes — the country songwriter who wrote 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy') for a co-writing session. The catalyst of their meeting? The booming, powerful, frantic song is 'The Way I Loved You'. The contemporary country track first started as just a concept Swift thought of — a girl feeling nothing in a relationship with a sensible, nice guy and aching to feel the thrill of a complicated, cat-and-mouse relationship. Sonically, the song mimics the feeling of this type of anxiety-inducing relationship with the constant build-up from each verse to the pounding chorus being compared against one another; the verses are softer when Swift sings about her current drama-free lover, while the chorus is full of tension and is dominating and addictive.

As a product of the '90s, a lot of us grew up with some… interesting depictions in the media of what love and relationships are like. Whether it was changing your entire persona for a guy like in Grease or believing that Romeo and Juliet are romantic, a lot of us ached for the type of dramatic, tumultuous, thrilling type of love shown in those films. The “nice guy” trope is constantly flickering throughout these depictions and juxtaposing them against who the lead character wants despite her best judgement. Taylor took this idea and ran with it. In conversation with BMR, she stated “I got this idea for a song about being in a relationship with a nice guy who is punctual and opens up the door for you and brings you flowers...but you feel nothing. The whole time you’re with him, you’re thinking about the guy who was complicated and messy and frustrating.” 

As a teen, you want to fall in love and expect it to be this all-encompassing feeling; overwhelming, completely invigorating, and theatrical at times. With the decade that has passed since Fearless and 'The Way I Loved You' were released, Swift’s idea of what love is and how it should feel has changed drastically. A younger, teenage Swift longs for what she thinks love should be,  using thunderstorm imagery throughout Fearless to compare it to that whirlwind type of love that has you screaming, fighting, and believing that if you aren’t dramatically kissing in the rain, it’s not true love. With growth (and some healthy relationships), we learn differently, and Swift says this herself on 'Daylight' from Lover — “I once believed love would be (Black and white)/But it's golden (Golden) [...]/I once believed love would be (Burning red)/But it's golden/Like daylight.” 

The song has always been a personal favourite (so much so that I included it in my 11 Underrated TS Tracks), but as I listened more and more to the rerecordings and as I started to scour old forums, tweets, and posts from fans talking about 'The Way I Loved You', I’ve seen how much both Swift and her fandom have grown. Gone are the days where Swift daydreams about a chaotic love but now finds comfort and peace, as she sings on 'Daylight', in a lover that is “sensible, incredible, respects her space.” As a songwriter who writes a lot about love, Swift has always been able to perfectly encapsulate every feeling, moment, and every other niche experience in her songs, making them universal for the rest of us to explore, relate to, and help ourselves better understand our relationships and what we want out of them. Love, at its core, is a trial-by-error experience; you date and date and date until you find someone who just fits. 

With 'The Way I Loved You', a song that is a declaration of thinking you need and want more, Swift knew that despite doing everything right, her current partner wasn’t working. Although she has her rose-coloured glasses on when she talks about her ex-partner in the song it’s clear that she is attempting to figure out what she needs and is writing her way through it to figure it out. With songs like 'Daylight', she doesn’t need to reminisce about the way she loved someone in the past — it feels & sounds like she’s found it.