If you haven’t listened to Taylor Swift’s newest album Folklore, what are you doing?
As an avid fan of her music, this latest album is her best one yet. It combines all aspects of fantasy, love, wonder, and solace together into one magical and whimsy, 17-song soundtrack. Imagine a cottage-core aesthetic in an album. That’s exactly what Folklore is.
What is folklore? It is the tradition of passing down stories through generations by retelling them. Stories turn into myths and legends and lore through whispers, and the lines between truth and fiction blur together.
Taylor wrote this album based on her memories, history, and fantasy, singing both of her own life and stories she created in her mind — stories of her past loves, a love triangle told from three sides, the historical life of Rebekah Harkness, reflections on her own flaws and insecurities, and criticisms of the media and their attacks on women.
A more mature version of her fourth album, Red, sounds and concepts can be related back to older songs she’s written. I understand what you’re trying to say, but it doesn’t quite make sense. Try rewording this section(: (might need to be broken into two sentences)
And of course, we have to talk about the lyrical masterpieces of the songs. Even if you’re not a fan of her, give credit where credit is due. Taylor Swift is one of the best lyricists of this generation despite whether or not her music is for you.
1 – the 1
“We never painted by the numbers, baby
But we were making it count
You know the greatest loves of all time are over now”
2 – cardigan
“And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite”
3 – the last great american dynasty
“Who knows, if I never showed up, what could’ve been
There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen
I had a marvelous time ruining everything”
4 – exile (with Bon Iver)
“You’re not my homeland anymore
So what am I defending now?
You were my town, now I’m in exile, seein’ you out”
5 – my tears ricochet
“I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace
Cause when I’d fight, you used to tell me I was brave
And if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?”
6 – mirrorball
“I want you to know
I’m a mirrorball
I can change everything about me to fit in”
7 – seven
“Your braids like a pattern
Love you to the Moon and to Saturn
Passed down like folk songs
The love lasts so long”
8 – august
“But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
‘Cause it was never mine”
9 – this is me trying
“So I got wasted like all my potential
And my words shoot to kill when I’m mad
I have a lot of regrets about that”
10 – illicit affairs
“Take the words for what they are
A dwindling, mercurial high
A drug that only worked
The first few hundred times”
11 – invisible string
“And isn’t it just so pretty to think
All along there was some
Invisible string
Tying you to me?”
12 – mad woman
“No one likes a mad woman
You made her like that
And you’ll poke that bear ’til her claws come out
And you find something to wrap your noose around”
13 – epiphany
“Only twenty minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you’ve seen”
14 – betty
“In the garden, would you trust me
If I told you it was just a summer thing?
I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anything
But I know I miss you”
15 – peace
“All these people think love’s for show
But I would die for you in secret
The devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me
Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?”
16 – hoax
“You know I left a part of me back in New York
You knew the hero died, so what’s the movie for?
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars
From when they pulled me apart”
17 – the lakes (deluxe edition)
“Take me to the Lakes where all the poets went to die
I don’t belong and, my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I’m setting off, but not without my muse”
Not to mention, she created this entire album in the few months since quarantine and self-isolation started, which is an incredible feat in and of itself.
Folklore transports you to a fantastical world where anything and everything is possible, where dreams become reality, and tales become legends. Taylor wrote this album to escape the world outside, and she does a beautiful job of taking listeners with her to another dimension.