《Fearless》是年轻的乡村女歌手泰勒·斯韦福特（Taylor Swift）的第二张正式专辑，与她那张慢热的处子专辑《Taylor Swift》相隔了两年时间。在美国上市首周，《Fearless》共售出了大约59万2千张，轻松在本周的Billboard 200专辑榜和Top乡村专辑榜中折桂。这张专辑不仅在上周的全美唱片市场上称王，还成为了过去一年当中美国唱片市场上单周销量最大的乡村专辑，仅次于去年11月由老鹰乐队（The Eagles）的回归之作《Long Road Out of Eden》创下了的一周71万1千张的销量纪录。

《Fearless》首周的数字下载销量大约有12万9千张，在2004年Nielsen SoundScan开始记录下载销量以后的总销量排行榜上名列第四。与此同时，这张专辑中本周有六首单曲同时打入到了Billboard Hot 100单曲榜中，其中，成绩最好的《White Horse》名列第13位。在2008年当中，《White Horse》已经是Taylor Swift第六首打入Hot 100单曲榜前20名的单曲，这也创造了Hot 100单曲榜历史上的一项新纪录。在《Fearless》专辑当中的13首歌曲中，有11首已经在Hot 100单曲榜中上过榜。

毫无疑问，Taylor Swift是过去一年中名气与地位飙升最快的乡村女歌手，即将年满19岁的她不仅得到了上届格莱美奖的提名，还在多项乡村音乐奖中屡有展获，成为年轻一代乡村/流行女歌手中的佼佼者。两年前，在《Taylor Swift》刚刚面世的时候，很多乐迷还不认识Taylor Swift，后来，随着她的一首首出色的单曲在乡村单曲榜中屡创佳绩，Taylor Swift的名字和声音开始被大家所熟悉。相比两年前的《Taylor Swift》，这张投入了更大制作成本的《Fearless》整体水平上也提升了一个档次，13首歌没有任何一首是为了凑数而存在的，怪不得其中11首都能打进Hot 100单曲榜。另外，Taylor Swift参与了专辑中全部13首歌的创作，对于一位不满19岁的女孩来说这是多么难得啊。


by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Taylor Swift abandons any pretense that she's a teen on her second album, Fearless -- which isn't to say that she suddenly tarts herself up, running away from her youth in a manner that's all too familiar to many teen stars. Swift's maturation is deliberate and careful, styled after the crossover country-pop of Shania Twain and Faith Hill before they turned into divas. Despite the success of her self-titled 2006 debut, there's nothing at all diva-like about Swift on 2008's Fearless: she's soft-spoken and considerate, a big sister instead of a big star. Nowhere is this truer than on "15," a kind warning for a teen to watch her heart sung from the perspective of a woman who's perhaps twice that age -- a sly trick for the 18-year-old Swift. There may be a hint of youthfulness to her singing but that's the only hint of girlishness here; her writing -- and she had a hand in penning all 13 tracks here, with six of them bearing her solitary credit -- is sharply, subtly crafted and the music is softly assured, never pushing its hooks too hard and settling into a warm bed of guitars and keyboards. Like many country-pop albums of the 2000s, the pop heavily outweighs the country -- there aren't fiddles here, there are violins -- yet Fearless never feels garish, a crass attempt at a crossover success. It's small-scale and sweetly tuneful, always seeming humble even when the power ballads build to a big close. Swift's gentle touch is as enduring as her songcraft, and this musical maturity may not quite jibe with her age but it does help make Fearless one of the best mainstream pop albums of 2008.