Taylor Swift's Folklore is Pure Magic

Fab or drab? FAB, 1000000%

Rating: 10/10

On July 23, 2020, millions of Swifties woke up to a shocking and unprecedented move by America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift. The singer announced through her social media channels that she would be releasing an album called Folklore that same day at midnight. After years of long promotion for her albums and at least two years between each release, Folklore’s surprise announcement delighted fans around the world. When millions of anxiously watched clocks hit midnight, one thing was clear: Folklore was pure magic.

Taylor Swift is no stranger to change. After releasing three highly successful country albums, she made her first transition into different musical genres when she released her fourth studio album Red, which incorporated pop and rock elements. However, Swift completely shifted genres on her 80s inspired album 1989, the most critically acclaimed pop album of all time. Folklore broke the mold yet again. Folklore, stylized as folklore, is the first of Swift’s albums to be classified as folk and alternative. The secrecy behind the album’s release as well as yet another genre shift was a risk for the artist, but it certainly paid off: Folklore is the best-selling album of 2020. With the release of her eighth studio album, Taylor Swift has become a country crooner-turned-pop princess-turned indie icon.

Folklore's magic is created primarily by Swift's unparalleled songwriting abilities. After writing some weak songs on her previous album Lover (I still skip "ME!" and "You Need to Calm Down"), Swift sharpened her pencil and wrote some of the best songs of her career for this record. Folklore does not have a single bad song. Seriously. Every track features thoughtfully crafted narratives supported by emotional metaphors. The song "mirrorball" itself is a metaphor comparing the protagonist to a mirrorball, an object that reflects others’ beliefs in an attempt to please them. The similes in "cardigan", namely “marked me like a bloodstain”, “leaving like a father”, and “I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss” convey feelings of deeply rooted betrayal. Interestingly, the album title and each individual song title are the first among Swift's extensive musical catalogue to be written completely in lowercase letters, showing Swift's emotional vulnerability. Swift thrives as an alternative artist-- she finally made an indie record that's much cooler than whatever Jake Gyllenhaal was listening to in 2010.

Each song on Folklore follows a clearly defined storyline produced from Swift’s imagination. The night of Folklore’s release, Swift teased that three of the album’s songs were connected as a love triangle. Upon the release of the album, it became clear through parallel lyrics that the three songs were "cardigan", "august", and "betty". The theme of adultery is very apparent in all three songs. "August" tells the love triangle’s story from the perspective of the unnamed woman with whom James (the seventeen-year-old boy whose name is revealed in "betty") cheats on his girlfriend Betty. "Cardigan" is a now grown-up Betty’s recollection of her whirlwind relationship with James in which she reveals that she knew of James’s infidelity through lyrics such as “playing hide and seek and giving me your weekends.” "Betty" is James’s apology to his girlfriend Betty for the pain he caused her, saying that he “slept next to her [the unnamed woman] but I dreamt of you all summer [presumably the month of August] long” after the unnamed woman pulled up in her car and told him to get in. This car reference matches "august"’s bridge’s repetition of the lyric “Remember when I pulled up and said get in the car?” Additionally, "cardigan"’s “high heels on cobblestones” lyric from its first verse mirrors "betty"’s bridge lyric “I was walking home on broken cobblestones.” "Betty" also directly references "cardigan" by describing the cardigan the character Betty wore. TL;DR: Taylor Swift has proven once again that she is a genius.

The other vital element of Folklore is its sonic production. Each song relies on piano melodies and string instruments, most abundantly acoustic guitars. Swift employs overall soft vocals instead of piercing vocal riffs or belted high notes, which fit her voice a lot better. The soft vocals give the album an intimate, gentle tone, reminding listeners of telling stories around a campfire and reliving secret romantic memories. I loved Swift’s choice to let her vocals trail off at the end of the words “stolen lullabies” in "my tears ricochet". Besides sounding hauntingly gorgeous, the decision contributes to the song’s meaning, as it is her response to losing control of her first six albums. The production behind Folklore enhances the album’s storylines and differentiates it from Swift’s previous work.

Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore is skillfully crafted. Rich storylines are expressed through figurative language and are backed by delicate vocals and strums on acoustic instruments. Each listen gives fans the opportunity to analyze something new. Folklore’s release may have been a surprise, but Swift’s immeasurable talent was not. Folklore is sure to be passed down to future generations just like the folk stories it emulates.

---

Oh, and in case you were wondering...

My favorite songs: "cardigan", "august", "the lakes" ("the lakes" should have been on the album instead of "hoax" IMO)

My least favorite songs: "hoax" (Earlier, I said this album has no bad songs, but I'm not a fan of "hoax" at all. You really have to be in the mood to listen to this song. Also, it was a really depressing choice for the closing track), "mad woman"

Listen to folklore (deluxe version) on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/1pzvBxYgT6OVwJLtHkrdQK