Written by Tom Bedding
credit: Beth Garrabrant
After the success of ‘Red’ and the acclaim of ‘1989’, Taylor Swift found herself sitting on a very proud chair that she had been trying to reach since starting out in Nashville. In an era where many pop stars were questioned about their authenticity (has seemed to die down with the likes of Harry Styles), Swift was struggling to find the deserved praise she wanted as a songwriter, simply wanting to be seen as more than just another ‘female pop star’ with just ‘bops’ in her catalogue.
When the synth pop affair of ‘1989’ was released, the LP carried on her universal commercial success and also left many impressed with how the songwriter delivered such a refined, contemporary and sophisticated pop record. However despite most people agreeing that the album did help enhance Taylor Swift’s stature, some were still poorly focused on: it’s just ‘pop music’, that the conceptual premise of it all is her ex boyfriends and also the inexcusable, that she is just a woman.
Obviously these thoughts are poor taste, misogynistic and clearly not areas to use when discussing anyone working on improving on their craft/selves. Though, Im sure Swift wanted to stick two fingers up to such hate by showing off how incredible of a songwriter she truly is.
We then saw her middle finger raised on the interesting and iconic (even if its not as memorable) album that was, ‘Reputation’. The record brought a electro-pop and slight R’n’b sound to her discography, which hey, it’s good to have variety in your diet! Despite the songwriting not being used to fight back against the hate and it also not leaving everyone as satisfied compared to previous releases, it really showed off some bite within her persona as an artist.
‘Lover’ followed and if you had to predict what would be her record to indicate her talents within a pop record, the colourful dress that is her 7th album, fits any prediction that could of been placed. It was a fun and impressive listen, possibly reaching the heights of her best work but the question was, where will this prolific pop star/songwriter go to next?
credit: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for dcp
Sadly the opportunity of her headlining Glastonbury in 2020 was taken away from us all, something that I hope she is able to still do when festivals of that scale are possible again! Naturally that left her and all of us, with a lot of time on our hands and trying not to focus/catching COVID-19. So, What became of that time for Taylor? Well, it led her to read a variety of novels that made such a profound impact on her creative mind, that she dived into contemplating about different narrative standpoints within her own songwriting for the first time.
Before she knew it, escapism and romanticism took her away into a place that led her imagination and writing to go wild, just like she was running freely through a forest. But she could not just hop down to the studio to work with her longtime producer and co-writer, Jack Antonoff. The thought of potentially having to do this in ‘isolation’, felt like a bump in the road for this next release.
Luckily she remembered the conversation she had with a band member of one her favourite bands, The National, on Saturday Night Live. With being a songwriting fanatic, she naturally asked said member, Aaron Dessner, about the bands songwriting. Within that conversation he explained how the band were very comfortable with writing in isolation, away from each other and that it did not impact their quali…..hang on…..wait a second….yes….you guessed it….this could be the key, could it not?
After getting in contact, Dessner and Taylor began conversing through texts and phone calls, with the lead single ‘cardigan’ being the first song completed for the record that would soon be named, ‘folklore’. Eventually, the announcement of the mysterious album came and the biggest surprise from it all was not that it was out, it was in fact what was on the record that left everyone stunned.
‘folklore’ was easily given a 7 by Bring Me The Music, but now after the surprise of it all has settled, should it be slightly higher? Maybe! You can hear so clearly now the ability shown from Swift, which in truth feels truly magical and even more unique due to such a formulaic state the music world finds itself in. The authentic nature of someone like an Ed Sheeran is rightly contested due to the fact that he has used the same tricks and whistles, for nearly 12 years now.
So hearing Taylor deliver a record that brings in new fundamentals of songwriting and also takes away aspects of her own, feels incredibly refreshing. The way her, Aaron Dessner and also Jack Antonoff crafted an indie-folk/chamber pop record, with not coating the usual ‘bops’ of the artists in those styles, felt so beautiful to our ears and senses.
We were also given a sister record, which felt more of a free spirited and energetic album called ‘evermore’, again the announcement blew everyone’s mind! The risk of carrying on where you left off after a SEVENTEEN track record was hugely risky in all honesty, however did it tire out the wheels of the idea behind this change for Taylor Swift, far from it.
34 songs in total fit under this unique umbrella and while similar ‘double albums’ have offered a mixed bag overall, the quality from Taylor’s eighth and ninth album is pretty decent. As previously mentioned, you could of easily predicted ‘Lover’ and despite it still being an impressive release, the albums that followed after were truly a game changer for the artists.
We have seen a pop songwriter do something that a lot of her counterparts don’t seem to do, being unafraid to write from a place of purity to really do something truly authentic and fresh. Will we see others follow suit and to do their own ‘folklore’? Only time will tell.
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