Mr. Perfectly Fine

After signing a new contract with Republic Records, Taylor Swift began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020. By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use and therefore substituted the Big Machine–owned masters. On February 11, 2021, Swift announced the first of her re-recorded albums, ''Fearless (Taylor's Version), a re-recording of her second studio album Fearless'' (2008). In addition to re-recordings of the original album's tracks, ''Fearless (Taylor's Version) contained six previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks, which are songs written for the original album that did not make the cut. Swift explained that these songs were left out of Fearless'' for various reasons and that including them on the re-recorded album proved that "the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work". One such song was "Mr. Perfectly Fine", which Swift wrote in 2008, but she ultimately excluded it from the final track-list. On April 4, 2021, "Mr. Perfectly Fine" was confirmed to be one of the "From the Vault" tracks after Swift teased it in a clip containing the title in scrambled anagram the day before. The song was released for download via Swift's website on April 7. The song is listed as track number 22 on the album, which came out on April 9, 2021. In the following weeks, "Mr. Perfectly Fine" was featured on the ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)-themed streaming compilations The Halfway Out the Door Chapter and The From the Vault Chapter''. On June 16, 2023, Swift performed the track at a Pittsburgh show as part of her Eras Tour (2023–2024). She sang it again as part of a mashup with "Red" in Milan on July 14, 2024 and "Better than Revenge" (2010) at a Toronto show of the tour on November 21. == Composition and lyrics ==

"Mr. Perfectly Fine" is 4 minutes and 37 seconds long. NME, Spin, and The Telegraph categorized the song as a pop rock tune, while American Songwriter The Line of Best Fit Horton Ross said that it featured a little bit of both country and rock and roll. Lipshutz stated that the song had similarities with Fearless and Speak Now (2010), highlighting the country pop-styled drums. For The Independent, Alexandra Pollard thought it evoked "late-Noughties country-pop". Jordan Moreau from Variety said the song recalled the country pop aesthetic of Fearless. In the lyrics, a narrator experiences heartbreak after a fallout with a lover she thought was the ideal figure for her. The song uses wordplay with the ex-lover addressed as "mister" while the narrator is labeled as "miss". The first verse recounts the ex-lover's seemingly perfect personality: "Mr. perfect face. Mr. here to stay. Mr. look me in the eye and told me you would never go away". The wordplay is also utilized to describe the contrasting emotions between the two characters. In the chorus, the narrator recalls the tumultuous feelings the former lover gave her ("I've been Miss Misery since your goodbye") and displays him as indifferent to the situation ("And you're Mr. 'Perfectly fine"). Later in the song, she discovers that he has a new lover and tries to ignore it, but she ultimately says that he will miss her and be too late when he realizes. The lyrics also included the line "casually cruel", which many critics noted to be the second time Swift has used it, after the song "All Too Well" (2012). == Critical reception ==

Many critics considered "Mr. Perfectly Fine" a classic track from Swift and attributed it to the songwriting and production. A few thought that the song revived the scornful side of Swift. Zoe Haylock of Vulture wrote that it was "a 2008 time capsule". Curto said that the song is one of the more "cheekier takes" of Swift's breakup tracks and believed that the "lyrical formula that could be cheesy in someone else's hands" created its well-made catchiness. Some critics deemed "Mr. Perfectly Fine" reminiscent of the original Fearless but with Swift's growth as a musician. Harbon stated that it was "a perfect collaboration between her old and new self" that blends her early songwriting with the more complex compositions from her indie works. Also from The Guardian, Alexis Petridis thought the song took "new resonances" and highlighted the "relish" in Swift's voice expressed a satisfaction that mitigates her anger. Other reviewers only focused on the track's content. Hannah Mylrea of NME deemed it a "bop" laden with "swooning melodies and typically Swiftian lyrics". Variety Chris Willman thought it contained a "sheer zipiness" in its theme of "teen heartbreak". and Jess Cohen from E! News opined that the lyrics "don't disappoint". Critics have included "Mr. Perfectly Fine" in their lists of Swift's "From the Vault" tracks. It was ranked among her ten best vault tracks by Lipshutz, Jack Viswanath of Bustle, Nylon, Time, and Josh Kurp of Uproxx. Viswanath lauded the song as one of the "most clever, witty, and catchy songs Swift has ever written". == Accolades ==

With 14.2 million streams, "Mr. Perfectly Fine" reached atop the US Billboard Country Streaming Songs and marked Swift's fifth number-one entry. The song rose to its peak of number two on Hot Country Songs from its opening week at number 30 and became her 26th top-10 chart entry. The song along with 18 tracks from ''Fearless (Taylor's Version) extended her record of the most entries in one week, surpassing her own 12 with the album Red'' (2012). It received a double-platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). == Personnel ==

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)''. • Taylor Swift – lead vocals, songwriting, production • Jack Antonoff – production, programming, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, keyboards, modular synthesizer, percussion, recording • Evan Smith – saxophones, synthesizers • Michael Riddleberger – percussion • Mikey Freedom Hart – 12-string guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel, B3 • Sean Hutchinson – drums • Laura Sisk – recording • John Rooney – assistant recording • Jon Sher – assistant recording • John Hanes – engineering • Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering • Serban Ghenea – mixing • Randy Merrill – mastering == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications ==