Taylor Swift – Folklore

By: Robert Warren

Taylor Swift has released her latest album, the 2020 piece titled Folklore. It’s another narrative style storytelling, recorded entirely during self-isolation in times of COVID-19. It’s an 11-month follow-up from her 2019 album Lovers. Being Swift’s eighth studio album, this one delivers a new genre of work from her as she takes on Indie Folk and Chamber Pop. Swift tackles this album through Republic Records, with production by Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and Swift herself. It’s kind of quiet for a Swift album and doesn’t deliver quite the loud notes that she can be known to break like her song “We Are Never Getting Back Together.” This one really runs more of as a background music album than a “let’s sing to it in the car” one. Folklore is an album that you listen to the songs and the time just flies by. This is a we can relax, sleep in all day, let’s listen quietly to the song list album. When it comes to Folklore, Taylor Swift invites us to her dreamy folk hideaway to listen along as she plays some smooth new tunes.

What makes Folklore interesting is it was released as a surprise album, only announced via social media hours before it dropped. The first single off this album, “Cardigan,” is quite an interesting one. The story behind it is about a lost romance. It’s believed to be part of Taylor Swift’s “Teenage Love Triangle,” which is a three-person perspective at different times in their lives. The second song believed to be part of this triangle is “August” and third is “Berry.” This song is one of those tracks that if you listened to with headphones and in a quiet room you could feel quite sad. It’s never very good to feel like, “Peter losing Wendy, I knew you, Leavin’ like a father, Running like water,” as the lyrics go. What’s special about this sad song “Cardigan,” though, is that it tugs at your emotions. It’s definitely worth being the starter track behind this album.

The song that seems to pop the most in its sounds on this album is “Exile” (feat. Bon Iver). It’s a beautiful tune with drums, piano, and layering vocals. It’s got repeated lyrics that grow on each other as well as a harmony that blends well. This song really captures how well Swift can mix with Bon Iver. It’s definitely the best sounding item on this track list.

An element that you can see throughout this album is growth. Folklore has sounds that build upon one another. You can see that through songs like “Exile,” “My Tears Ricochet” and (a song that I really enjoyed) “Peace.” What makes “Peace” good is that it truly shines on Swift’s voice. Fans of her older music will probably be fonder of this. It’s more similar to the tone we see Swift normally produce, but it the tone and sounds seem almost like a staircase going up one note at a time or down one note at a time to reach a peak point. It also has a real flare and feels deeply personal when you hear it. The question with this song is who can’t she give peace to? There’s a lot of debate on this. One thing that should be agreed though is that “Peace” is a really good song as it does highlight an older Swift musical style and her voice well.

If there’s really a way to describe this album it is lo-fi songs that you wanna cuddle up and listen to next to a fire at night. It leaves you thinking, imagining and trying to engage in the mind of the brilliant Taylor Swift. It’s got a much more laid-back demeanor than most of what we are used to from her. It’s a total new approach on her sound. It’s pretty good actually and, in fact, I was quite impressed. But, as I’ve said, don’t be prepared for a sing-a-long next car ride.

Overall, I think that Folklore is an album that you should check out. It’s a new take on the Swift sound, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised. We can certainly tell that the pandemic and self-isolation had her thinking very deeply. It’s also got really good personal reflections in this album with standout songs in “Cardigan” and “Exile.” It’s got a good voice as well when it comes to songs like in “Peace.” So, the fact that it has all these nice elements should make for some easy and enjoyable listening. With that said, you’ll want to snuggle up, close your eyes, get a hot chocolate and put in your headphones to listen to Swift’s new album Folklore.