When Taylor Swift surprised us with her eighth album, 11 months after her previous album, the world was grateful for new music to revel and enjoy. However we were not truly expecting to be stunned and experience one of the most impressive twists in modern pop music. ‘folklore’ has reinforced and properly showed off that Swift is indeed a fantastic songwriter, yes a woman can be songwriters like Noel Gallagher and Ed Sheeran guys.
One of the other surprises was how she had collaborated with The National’s, Aaron Dessner, on the album too and he really helps define the record. When we hear about how artists are doing something different, the fundamentals of their sound are still there, however, Aaron totally flipped the construction of the star’s songwriting. As a listener, we were listening to something fundamentally different on the ninth album and what left people asking, what was next after this dynamic shift?
Well in a surprise but the not surprising announcement, Taylor Swift announced her new album, ‘evermore’, which is seen as a sister of its predecessor. For the first time, the singer was sticking to a previous ‘era’ on her next release, it's both brave but positive in my view. However, if you had to be picky with the LP that came out only a few months ago, it may of went on for too long; so releasing the same kind of music very soon after…..would it hold up as a big album still? In response to that, we find ‘evermore’ as the younger sister indeed, it has a sense of freedom and exploration that offers aspects that we have previously heard on ‘Lover’, ’1989’ and her earlier albums.
With those aims to stretch the legs and offer more dimensions on the album, you do not feel like you are listening to leftovers or a long home stretch of music in this vast new world that we find Swift in. We have ‘folklore’ that makes you want to sit down with some red, to revel in its brilliance; ‘evermore’ makes us want to leave the cabin for a fun walk and to fit better at her future pop concerts.
‘willows’ begins the record and it enters like an open hug, welcoming us back into the woods where so much of this ‘eras’ aesthetic is found. No surprise you can hear Aaron Dessner’s production on here, the gentleness of the piano is delightful. Here Taylor is singing about the deep desire of wanting someone, how naturally you bend into someone's wind and with the funny lyric of ‘But I come back stronger than a 90’s trend’, the song indicates that this release is more of a youthful approach to this current era of the artists work.
Next with champagne problems’, it has a piano playing so playfully, weirdly relating to the story of youths falling flat on a failing marriage proposal. With Taylor’s 9th album and the second half of this period of her career, we return to more a Swift songwriting style. The key change in the bridge is a flawless touch and potentially we have a reference to the girlfriend in the infamous ‘Black Space’.
‘gold rush’ begins with a beautiful orchestra and the most pop opening we have experienced this year, no surprise that Jack Antonoff is credited on this track. It really sounds beautiful and its delivery to feel more like dream gazing, stripped-back pop, does offer us for the first time that ‘evermore’ having a varied layer of styles.
It is like we are turning left and right through the words at pace as, ’tis the dam season’, has an electric guitar sound that takes us away from what we had previously in great fashion. The song tackles how a character returns to their home town for Christmas, also going back to an old love interest. It feels incredibly relatable, that sense of taking it back to another chance and being stuck in the same narrative in your hometown.
The piano opening feels so brutal and honest on ‘tolerance’, straight away we are hit with this emotion that really hits you hard and so does Taylor’s delivery. There is a sense of a lack of appreciation in the lyrics for the female character stuck in a relationship within the song, the whole narrative is typical Taylor that just shines so well here. Also, you can hear the exploration that she, Aaron and co did this time around; it feels more youthful, it has an extra skip in its step with the time signature change and delicate synths.
‘nobody, no crime (feat. Haim)’, this one made me so so so so happy! It was needing a fuller band sound at some point on, ‘evermore’, I was finding, just to make this more spicy LP properly into that direction. Thankfully, it arrives and includes some great tones of backing vocals by HAIM! The story of the man having an affair and the sass levels here is UNREAL! The instrumentation of the guitars and harmonica are delicious, it really has a great mood to it and the strutting nature of it does feel very HAIM like. It is possibly the highlight of the record, it offers such a great range of elements and includes a great narrative.
Off the batt with the ‘happiness’, I thought of Lorde with the synth touches on the song. The lyrics tackle that universal puzzle of debating ‘will I find happiness’ after experiencing it with someone who sadly leaves. The sheer worry of this and the isolation of that feeling echoes around this song, the lyric of ‘there is happiness in our history, across our great divide, there is a glorious sunshine’, sends shivers down your spine. There is a lot of comment on how we are back to a younger Swift on the LP, however, this songs goes back and forth from the maturity of ‘folklore’ and the innocence of previous efforts, but having a conclusion of the intentions and answers Swift has on ‘folklore’.
Some say that ‘doretha’ is about Selena Gomez, I don’t have a clue sadly but I do take the lyrics as being about a girl leaving a boy at school, going off to Hollywood. The vocal melody really does take us back to the very old Swift style that will be enjoyed by die-hard fans. One of the standpoints for sure this song is the delicate piano playing is a restraint which still has that essence of youth in. Production wise it is truly wonderful, the way it introduces so much but does not overpower to distract us from the core of the song, incredible.
‘coney island (feat. The National)’ has references of past relationships, though it does not come across as too petty or anything like that. I do have to say, the vocals do not match very well and it feels really out of place within the lyrics. You do get to this point and wonder, have I heard this before?
We may find a wife looking down her alive husband on ‘ivy’, as the narrator does say they are grieving for the living. The backing vocals do stand out so well, they are a great sound and the middle eight feels classic. It was always bold to offer us more from this whole period of her songwriting and having such a successful album from it already. I was worried that early on on the album we will feel that there aren’t enough ideas to do another big album. Fortunately, as there are different purposes and aims within the songs, it keeps us interested with its forever meandering changes of substance,
Then with, 'cowboy like me’, it is a slow burner but as previously said, the aim to take each song somewhere else does wonders for this song. Sadly, the sluggish nature of the song really makes you pondering again (just ever so slightly), have we hit a wall now? Of course not…thank god……..’long story short’ is a solid indie-pop song, which really makes me wonder if Taylor thought she would need folklore’ songs that can fit in a pop concert?
Next, we have the truly amazing ‘marjorie’, a beautiful tribute to her dead grandmother. It really hits you and potentially reminds me of your own pain of something similar, we hear Taylor question how one could have died but you are not dead, as they still live in my mind. The mixing of the instrumentation is subtle, it really ensures it can help enhance the tone of the song but not distract the listener from the lyrics.
The way they have tried to make ‘closure’ disjointed leaves me so curious, you can feel how focused all involved were on shifting these ideas to somewhere unexpected. It may leave people unsure of how to take this song but for me, it's fascinating and just something interesting to tackle.
The album closes with the song ‘evermore’, it is both so pretty and calming. Taylor comes in with
some great delivery of her vocals, feeling up close and wanting to capture your imagination and feelings. It’s so dramatic and then the moment of ‘…..evermore’, urghhhh dat is so powerful. Then, Bon Ivor arrives with some interesting vocal mixing, which is not too surprising due to the previous production choices on the LP. The song leaves from being a very Phoebe Bridgers song to being classic 09 of the feature, which could leave some people finding it overwhelming.
Written by Tom Bedding
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