Longtime Swifties may want to know how Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” re-recording is different from the original. Swift released her re-recording of “Love Story”—which is retitled as “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”—on Friday, February 12, with a lyric video of photos of her with fans from her 2009 Fearless Tour.

As Swifties know, “Love Story” was first released in 2008 as the lead single from Swift’s 2009 album, Fearless. In an Instagram post on Thursday, February 11, Swift revealed that she’ll be releasing a re-recorded version of Fearless—titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version)—on April 9, 2021, according to a secret message decoded by fans. The album will include 26 songs, including six unreleased tracks that Swift wrote for Fearless but never put on the final album.

“This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music,” she wrote. “I hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it.”

She continued, “When I think back on the Fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face. This was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. So before I say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you.”

Swift’s decision to re-record her music comes after Scooter Braun acquired the master versions of her first six albums from her former record label, Big Machine Label Group. Though Swift tried to buy back her masters, she eventually decided to re-record them.

“Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” is the first re-recorded song that Swift has released. For the most part, the song is the same. However, there is one key difference. In pre-recorded videos she sent to country radio stations, Swift revealed that she planned for re-record “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” with the original band she recorded and performed the song with at the time. However, in the end, that plan didn’t work out and she had to re-record with different musicians.

“I really wanted my touring band to get a chance to play on this version, because you know they spent a lot of years playing this song over and over again, so it was really important to me to have my band who have toured with and shared a stage with for so many years playing on the record,” she said.

Another major difference that fans have noted is Swift’s voice. Swift is 31 now. At the time of “Love Story’s” release, Swift was 18. It’s been 13 years since then, which means that Swift’s voice has matured, and that shows in the new version of her song. The sound is also crisper than the original version thanks to new and modern technology. Other than that, the lyrics are exactly the same. (Though there are theories that Swift changed one of the lyrics from “Baby, just say yes” to “Baby, I said yes” to hint at her rumored engagement to Joe Alwyn, though that theory hasn’t been confirmed.)

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is available for preorder at Target.

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