Less than five months after the release of folklore, returned with the sister album, evermore, and continued to throw away the system and setups we got used to from the superstar singer-songwriter.
evermore is the second album release of the year, the pandemic, and Swift's pop/folk/cottagecore. All of that is different. folklore introduced us to the surprise release, less than a year after the album that came before. But even Lover to folklore was 11 months. folklore to evermore was less than five. If we weren't expecting the first one, we certainly weren't expecting the second one.
Related: Taylor Swift, folklore Album ReviewAnd then there's the sound and staying with one focus for a second-consecutive album. In a release on her social media channels, T.Swift addressed that part, saying "In the past I've always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one as soon as an album was released. " read the .
She's continued what she started earlier in 2020. Flexing her songwriting muscles, working with strong collaborators, and getting a little dirtier than we're used to, a little deeper than we expect from her, and pushing herself.
Note: If you're from a small town and don't connect with 'tis the damn season, count yourself lucky I guess.
evermore starts with willow, and it has captured hearts and imaginations already. But what caught me immediately, was the callback (intentional or not) to Safe & Sound (ft. The Civil Wars) from The Hunger Games soundtrack in 2012. And I wasn't alone in hearing it. I checked Twitter, naturally, and I'm not alone and I love that.
Taylor Swift - willow
This album is stacked with the names included. Again Aaron Dessner is in the producer's chair and co-wrote with Swift. And this time, The National is in on a track ( coney island), plus we get the return of Bon Iver on evermore to close out the album. But, it's HAIM on no body, no crime that surprised me most.
It didn't surprise me that the Women in Music Pt. III band would team up with Taylor Swift. It surprised me that the acts would come together to record a song that Goodbye Earl singers The Chicks would shout out on Twitter, and that could go to country radio right now. It is wonderful. It is all of the things I love about The Chicks' 1999 smash hit, without the things that have come to grate on me over the decades.
Everyone involved crushed this opportunity.
Taylor Swfit - no body, no crime (ft. HAIM)
However, in an album that folks will connect with for a million little reasons, I'm hooked and affected most by marjorie. Rob Sheffield at Rolling Stone calls it her "heart-shredding masterpiece" - and it is. But for all of the personal attachment and storytelling that this has for Swift's life and her grandmother, it feels personal for me too. And that's the magic of music.
I find myself thinking of my father and my grandmother, who I miss very much, and who both left me with their voices and advice in their own ways. When Taylor Swift sings, "Never be so kind, you forget to be clever, Never be so clever, you forget to be kind" at the start of the song, I feel like I'm hearing words that my granny may have said to me.
When she closes the song with, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were still around, I know better, But I still feel you all around, I know better, But you're still around" I think of my dad and being a dad without him and sharing my life with my son and all of the rest of my personal baggage. And all of that comes from Swift's song and her lyrics. And that is the power of music.
Sheffield's right about the song when he says, "It's one of the best things she's ever done."
She did good. Really good.
Taylor Swift - marjorie
Taylor Swift is now a 31-year-old singer-songwriter that has been at the top in country, pop, and released what many (including me) consider to be an album of the year contender for 2020. And then she released its companion album before the ink was dry.
Now we wait to see what's next. A return to polished pop? What about country? More of the folklore/ evermore era? Another Disney+ special and deluxe album release?
I don't have any of those answers.
Related: 67 Thoughts and Takeaways from Taylor Swift's folklore: the long pond studio sessionsWhat I know is that Taylor Swift found a sound that she couldn't stop creating before she got 34 songs down. And those songs have once again shifted her from one stage, one genre, one home, to the next.
Hit play on evermore now. Enjoy.
Taylor Swift, evermore Tracklist
