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You All Over Me (From The Vault)

Single | Feat. Maren Morris | Fearless (Taylor's Version) [2021]

“You All Over Me (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]” is a song recorded by Taylor for her album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) [2021], which is a re-recording of her 2008 album Fearless. The song was originally written by Taylor and Scooter Carusoe in 2008, and was produced by Taylor and Aaron Dessner in 2021. It was released as the second single and the first “From The Vault” track on March 26, 2021, and features background vocals from American singer Maren Morris.

Background and Release

Following the dispute regarding her masters, Taylor announced the first of her re-recorded albums, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), a re-recording of her 2008 album Fearless, on February 11, 2021. Alongside the announcement, she revealed she would release six songs, all dubbed “From the Vault” that did not make the 2008 album. Taylor explained several reasons for the scrapping of the vault tracks, including not wanting too many breakup or down-tempo songs on the album, and the limitations of how many songs could fit on CDs in 2008. In her announcement of the album, Taylor wrote “I’ve decided I want you to have the whole story. See the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album.”

On March 24, 2021, Taylor announced that one of the scrapped songs, titled “You All Over Me” featuring vocals from American singer Maren Morris, would be released on March 26 as the second single from Fearless (Taylor’s Version). She wrote:

«I wanted to let you know that the first ‘From The Vault’ song I’m releasing from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is called ‘You All Over Me (From The Vault)’. One thing I’ve been loving about these ‘From The Vault’ songs is that they’ve never been heard, so I can experiment, play, and even include some of my favorite artists. I’m really excited to have Maren Morris singing background vocals on this song!!»

Taylor Swift

Lyrical Theme

Taylor originally wrote “You All Over Me” with Scooter Carusoe in 2005. A demo recording of the song had previously been leaked online in 2017. Lyrically, “You All Over Me” details Taylor’s inability to move on from a lover, constantly being reeled back in to the memories of the relationship. The song, and particularly the lyric “‘Cause no amount of freedom gets you clean”, was described as a prequel to “Clean“, the concluding track from Taylor’s 2014 album 1989, in which she describes finally feeling free of a romantic relationship. The song concludes with Taylor accepting the end of the relationship:

«'You All Over Me' is a song that I wrote with a writer that goes by the name Scooter Carusoe – his name is Travis Hill. This was one of the songs that I remember us painstakingly going over the lyrics and trying to come up with all these different symbolic, imagery references to how it could feel after you have your heart broken. Just to feel like you’ve been ruined by the whole thing. And I think that’s one of the hardest things about heartbreak: feeling like it’s damaged you. And now you carry that damage with you. So I was really proud of this song back then, I’m still proud of it now. And I think it actually makes more sense that a 31 year old person be singing it. So all’s well that ends well. And I was really excited because Maren Morris was gracious enough to sing backup vocals on it and she’s one of my favorite artists.»

Taylor Swift

Production

Listening to “You All Over Me” is a bit like musical déjà vu. It’s filled with country instrumentals: soaring fiddles and lilting guitars, and backing vocals provided by Maren Morris. She elaborated how much it meant to her to be featured on the song:

«I always think that I have some grip on Taylor’s Swift’s magnitude and then I’m always surprised. I mean, I’ve done songs like 'The Bones' and 'The Middle' which have been played all over the world, but this is probably the most gigantic star of our time, influence-wise. [...] And she just has the bandwidth emotionally and mentally to leave all these easter eggs, and hidden messages, and artwork, and videos, and I just can’t even see ten feet in front of me most of the times. I’m always proven wrong by the massive magnitude of her fanbase, and her reach, and influence. And to be part of something so historic, like the re-release of the record that was 'Album of the Year' ten years ago, and her wanting to do that for her fans, and for herself, and her own songwriter livelihood... It’s probably the first of its kind for some artist of her level to do something like this and re-record an entire record. I just felt, as a fan myself, so extremely lucky to be asked to be apart of it.»

Maren Morris

Live Performance

“You All Over Me” received its first live performance acoustically on guitar on June 3, 2023, in Chicago during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour“. Maren Morris was the surprise guest and also accompanied her on a second guitar. Taylor introduced Maren and the song by saying:

«Tonight I'm going to play a song I've never played live before, so that's fun! [...] What I do when I re-record my albums is I put these songs on the album that almost the album. Like, songs that were written in that time and used to be on the album and then somehow in the process of narrowing down the songs didn't make it. But if I look back on a song and I'm proud of it, when I re-record the album and I'm proud of that song I'll put it on the record. And I'll call it a 'From The Vault' track. So, when I was doing Fearless as a re-record I just thought it would be so cool to have one of my favorite artists sing on one of these songs that was 'From The Vault'. And we are so lucky Chicago, because not only did that artist say yes to sing on the song...Maren Morris is actually here tonight! [...] It was so nice and generous of you to lend your voice to the very first re-record that I had because nobody knew if that was gonna be a success or a very embarassing project to be a part of. [...] I just cannot wait to watch what she does for the rest of her career. Everything she does is so thoughtful and brilliant. You are one of the best songwriters ever!»

Taylor Swift

The two had previously shared the stage, when Maren surprised the crowd in Houston in 2018 during Taylor’s “reputation Stadium Tour.” They performed Maren’s hit song “The Middle” together.

Critical Reception

“You All Over Me” received acclaim, with critics praising its authenticity and Taylor’s return to her country roots. Ellie Bate, writing for BuzzFeed News, described the song as a “cozy, nostalgic trip down memory lane”, highlighted the similarities between the opening line and the opening line of the title track of Fearless, and noted the fact that both lines reference rain on a sidewalk. Writing for NME, Hannah Mylrea rated the song 4 out of 5 stars and described it as “a time capsule of the Fearless era” and “musical déjà vu”, comparing the song to other Fearless tracks “Come In With The Rain” and “Forever & Always“.

Commercial Performance

“You All Over Me” entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at No. 6, scoring Taylor her 25th top 10 entry on the chart; it is also the second consecutive single from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) to land inside top-10, after “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” debuted at No. 1. The song further arrived at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the 130th Hot 100 entry of Taylor’s career, extending her record for the most entries among women.