folklore by Taylor Swift
Folklore (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on July 24, 2020, through Republic Records, exactly eleven months after Swift's seventh studio album, Lover (2019). The album was conceived in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, with production from Aaron Dessner, her long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff and Swift herself. Folklore is a surprise album, announced on social media hours before its release. Background and release Folklore was written and recorded in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Swift "poured all of whims, dreams, fears, and musings into" the album, collaborating with some of her "musical heroes". Aaron Dessner, guitarist of the American indie rock band The National, was approached by Swift in late April to co-write some songs remotely. Dessner worked on eleven of the album's sixteen tracks with Swift over the next several months, while Swift wrote the remaining five songs with Jack Antonoff, William Bowery and Bon Iver. Dessner remarked that he "thought it would take a while for song ideas to come" and "had no expectations as far as what we could accomplish remotely" but was pleasantly surprised that "a few hours after sharing music, my phone lit up with a voice memo from Taylor of a fully written song—the momentum never really stopped." He commented, "There's a palpable humanity and warmth and raw emotion in these songs that I hope you'll love and take comfort in as much as I do." The album was a surprise release, announced by Swift on her social media accounts hours before its launch, on midnight of July 24, 2020. It followed her seventh studio album Lover (2019), released eleven months prior. Folklore initially came with eight one-week limited-edition deluxe CDs and vinyls, all of which featured different cover artworks and photo collections. During the YouTube premiere countdown to the music video for "Cardigan", Swift revealed that the album lyrics contained many of her signature Easter eggs: "One thing I did purposely on this album was put the Easter eggs in the lyrics, more than just the videos. I created character arcs and recurring themes that map out who is singing about who... For example, there's a collection of three songs I refer to as the Teenage Love Triangle. These three signs explore a love triangle from all three people's perspectives at different times in their lives". She referred to the album as "wistful and full of escapism. Sad, beautiful, tragic. Like a photo album full of imagery, and all the stories behind that imagery" and described "My Tears Ricochet"—a self-written track—as a the first song she wrote for the album and one that explores "lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently in our memories". Promotion Folklore marked the first time that Swift strayed from a traditional album rollout, opting instead to release the album suddenly because " gut is telling that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world". Swift first announced the album on Twitter, 16 hours prior to its digital release. An accompanying music video for the track "Cardigan", directed by Swift and produced by Jil Hardin, was released along with the album.
A mere 11 months passed between the release of <i>Lover</i> and its surprise follow-up, but it feels like a lifetime. Written and recorded remotely during the first few months of the global pandemic, <i>folklore</i> finds the 30-year-old singer-songwriter teaming up with The National’s Aaron Dessner and long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff for a set of ruminative and relatively lo-fi bedroom pop that’s worlds away from its predecessor. When Swift opens “the 1”—a sly hybrid of plaintive piano and her naturally bouncy delivery—with “I’m doing good, I’m on some new s**t,” you’d be forgiven for thinking it was another update from quarantine, or a comment on her broadening sensibilities. But Swift’s channelled her considerable energies into writing songs here that double as short stories and character studies, from Proustian flashbacks (“cardigan”, which bears shades of Lana Del Rey) to outcast widows (“the last great american dynasty”) and doomed relationships (“exile”, a heavy-hearted duet with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon). It’s a work of great texture and imagination. “Your braids like a pattern/Love you to the moon and to Saturn,” she sings on “seven”, the tale of two friends plotting an escape. “Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.” For a songwriter who has mined such rich detail from a life lived largely in public, it only makes sense that she’d eventually find inspiration in isolation. This <i>long pond studio sessions</i> Deluxe Edition also includes live versions of each of <i>folklore</i>’s tracks, performed with Dessner, Antonoff and Vernon.
