Mr. Perfectly Fine (From The Vault)

Over a decade on from its release, Taylor is re-visiting her second album with the release of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”. As part of her unprecedented battle to regain ownership of her own music, she is re-recording her first six albums, with “Fearless” being the first to see the light of day. Alongside re-working the album, there are a few surprises – including the unearthing of previously unreleased track “Mr. Perfectly Fine (From The Vault)”. When Taylor announced the song, she wrote:

“Me in 2020: life is chill, writing songs based in fiction to avoid drama, feeling pretty grown up. My 2008 music from the vault, in a goblin voice: ‘REELEEEEEEASE MR PERFECTLY FIIIIIIINE'” — Taylor Swift

LYRICS AND PRODUCTION
Taylor co-produced “Mr. Perfectly Fine” with Jack Antonoff, who also contributes acoustic and electric guitar, background vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion, and synthesizer. Mikey and Evan from Jack’s band Bleachers also contributed to some of the backing instruments. The song sounds like a classic Fearless-era Taylor tale of romantic woe.

Describing the guy as “Mr. Perfect Face,” “Mr. Here to stay” and “Mr. Looked me in the eye and told me you would never go away,” in the first verse, Taylor paints a portrait of a man who says all the right things at the right time, before she gets to know “Mr. Change of heart,” right before he breaks hers. The track goes on to reveal that this Mr., of course, has his “arm ’round a brand-new girl,” and though she was willing to stick it out, she predicts he’ll miss her some day and then, well, he’ll be “Mr. Too late.” Taylor told Amazon Music in April, 2021:

“‘Mr. Perfectly Fine’ is a song that I wrote alone. It was definitely an early indicator of me creeping towards a pop sensibility. I’ve always listened to every type of music and even though ‘Fearless’ is a country album there were always these pop melodies creeping in. But I love this song, I love the bridge, I think the lyrics are just wonderfully scathing and full of the teen angst that you would hope to hear on an album that I wrote when I was 17 or 18, or on that cusp.” — Taylor Swift

FROM THE VAULT
Songs “from the vault” were written when Taylor was between the ages of 16 and 18 in the run-up to the release of album two. Back when she initially released “Fearless” in 2008, these tunes were held back for various reasons, including the fact that you couldn’t cram that many songs onto a physical CD – how very 2008. But in 2021, with the re-recording of her second album, Taylor wanted to let fans “into the entire dreamscape that is my fearless album.” In a post to social media, she shared her excitement:

“I’m counting down the minutes til we can all jump into this brave world together, filled with equal parts nostalgia and brand newness. Head first, Fearless ” — Taylor Swift