Not only the sudden surprise of releasing her 8th album being pretty huge, the material on ‘Folklore’ is another one and most probably the biggest surprise in Taylor Swift’s career. The pop icon has used her time in lockdown, compensating for not headlining Glastonbury, to create an album that takes her music to somewhere we never thought was possible. The indie sound of the whole record is a great change of pace, allowing Taylor to come across as relaxed and pretty content with the gentle instrumentation and relaxing melodies.
She has teamed up The National’s Aaron Dessner and wow has the combination taken Swift to write in a way she has not done before; the fundamentals of the songs where they have teamed up, are very different to what we hear normally from her. However there are still trademark Taylor Swift melodies and vocal delivers, noteably when her longterm collaborator, Jack Antonoff, is credited. What is so fascinating to hear with this album, is how Aaron helps makes something different for Swift and Jack taking the Swiftims, that so many love, into this new category and sound; the blend of their contributions are put together wonderfully by Taylor Swift.
Folklore beings with ‘the 1’ and opens with lyrics that really set the tone of the album, ‘Im doing good, Im on some new shit’. Aaron Dessner’s touch also helps the tone too with gentle guitars and simple piano parts; it goes along so lovely with Taylor Swift’s narrating of myths and stories of love on this song. The single ‘cardigan’ follows and the artists love for Lana Del Ray can be heard with the stretched out melody and dramatic style. The track is the first part of the trilogy of songs that follows the story of Betty and a love triangle she has found herself in. Having a story of characters infused in a love story seems very different from the personal stories of her previous work that makes this body of work, feel so fresh. Yet it’s the opening verses that are so calm and honest, which stand out for me on this song. Taylor comments on the whirlwind of her political stance in the public eye in the first verse and the way it’s delivered (when comparing to how she was delivering her thoughts on what people thought of her Reputation), does show you how far away we are from the usual tricks within her work.
Taylor Swift has always had a fascination with Rebekah Harness who is the main theme of the next song and Taylor sings ‘How did a middle class divorcee do it?’ in a low register on ‘the last great american dynasty’. Her storytelling is over a more similar instrumentation on this song, which reminds me of aspects of her album Red. The comments on the sexism that Rebekah faced, when making her name for herself, shows how Taylor relates to her and the need to tell the story of such a successful woman. The folk esq melody sounds so wonderful and the hook of the song tile is subtle but very catchy….what a song title too!!
‘Exile’ features Bon Ivor, which seems to be the first time Taylor Swift has nailed a collaboration of a song properly for the first time. The song is based on two people seeing each other for the first time after breaking up, it’s chorus sounds so Taylor Swift and the middle eight had to be done by Bon Ivor; the mix of their ear for melodies is a delight. Despite the repetitive keys actually getting to me after a minute or so, the strings that arrive in the home stretch save the instrumentation on this one.
The production of ‘my tears are ricochet’ dominate the song written by just Taylor Swift, which is not a band thing. The harmonies and drum beat within the song are very Melodrama by Lorde, which is obviously a sign of Jack Antonoff. The whole sonics of the song really gives a much needed break on the album and the title name again, is poetry. ‘Mirrorball’ is next and sounds so dreamy, following on from the change in production with Jack. Taylor’s vocals sound great, sadly the melody does not really do much for me. ’Seven’ is a return to an Aaron Dessner collaboration and is a piano basesd track, with a typical spoken delivery by Swift. Here she is singing about her childhood, it is all very sweet.
You can hear how fresh the album is with some of the influences and ‘august’ being one of those with its Phoebe Bridgers nod. It’s a real highlight on the album and the lyric of ‘"August sipped away like a bottle of wine, cause you were never mine” is fantastic. The whole album leaves you lost in the interesting melodies, lyrics and nods to influences. This for me shows how Taylor Swift is a great songwriter, there’s thought and intelligence that not everyone has within their writing.
While you can The National on ‘this is me trying’ and a great representation of how Taylor is fundamentally different at times on this record, it just passes you by with a mid tempo beat and orchestra. ‘Illicit affairs’ (I know another great song name) is a great attempt of bridging a Swift/Antonoff number to fit with the record and is done nicely, with some simple strumming and classic vocal parts of Taylor Swift. However the most Taylor on the LP is ‘invisible string’ which a lot of fans will enjoy!
‘Mad Woman’ is a great take on the perceptions of empowered and passionate woman, how men do not want women to show dominate traits. The narrative follows a widow who is getting gleeful revenge on the town who casted her out, it may fit the Rebekah story from earlier and also the behaviour of some high profile men towards Taylor. The lovely piano hook starts the song and then introduces a drum beat and haunting but subtle backing vocals, all really contributing to a song that takes you on a good narrative.
‘epiphany’ seems to be a comment on the insane chaos and at times violent, period we are living in right now. Subtle seems to be a word that comes up a lot when talking about this album and everything within this song is very…subtle. However we then lose that in the final part of the love triangle about Betty, however from the perspective of James, who went off with someone else. ‘Betty’ has an awesome harmonica on here and is honestly a great show of how good Taylor Swift is at narrating in her lyrics. Also I feel like the end of the ‘yoooou’ reminds me of the recent Fiona Apple record, another sign of how fresh from the cooker Folklore is.
The album concludes with a cool riff in ‘peace’ that is about the artists more mature perception of relationships (yay growth). Then we finally have the melancholy and dark ‘hoax’ which is a very silent punch to finish the album.
It does feel like a long innings to get to the end of the record however there is plenty to talk about on Taylor’s newest album. It may not have anything that you could consider ‘iconic’ but it’s possibly her most consistent and fascinating record she has ever done.
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