Score: (8.5)/10
For once, I’m reviewing an album while it’s still relevant, and also reviewing an album that isn’t only listened to by either bespectacled Pitchfork readers or the e-girl that sits beside you in your chemistry lecture. Enjoy. Also, for once, I feel no need to give a brief background on the artist, because unless you have been living in the war-torn mountains of Afghanistan (in which case best of luck and how do you have wifi) everyone already has their opinions on Taylor Swift and at least one of her songs. Personally, I’m partial to Lover and 1989, appreciate but haven’t listened to much of her earlier country/folk records, think Red is a bit of a guilty pleasure despite the fact that it is a tad overrated, and absolutely abhor Reputation (Come at me Swifties). With that in mind, let us dive into this hour-long (but somehow not her longest) album and see what it has in store for Swifties and non-Swifties alike.
When I first saw this album, I was concerned, but cautiously optimistic. The choice that Taylor made by styling all of her song titles in pure lowercase screams “I’ve gone indie”. While for most pop artists this would likely be a move to sell out (again) and go to a genre which is now “hip” and “with it”, Taylor’s background in folk and being an actual singer-songwriter gave me a sliver of hope that this album would not be another Reputation-sized dumpster fire. Also, Jack Antonoff , who I have gushed over with praise due to him producing a decent chunk of 2 of my top 5 indie pop albums of all time, produced a decent chunk of this album as well. Also Look What You Made Me Do, but that song was designed by committee and he also produced the one good song on Reputation (I’ll let you guess which one that is) so to me, his record is still intact. Aaron Dessner of The National fame is also here, and is the main producer for the album. Though I knew of The National, I didn’t really know what to expect out of Dessner’s production work, at least until I began listening to the album.
Given all of this, it came is no shock when the first song of this album trades in the bombastic beats and sarcastic tones of songs like …Ready For It and I Forgot That You Existed for a stripped down piano and guitar duet, accompanied only by some light strings and the barest of bare drum machine beat. That initial flavour is not entirely indicative of the entire sound of the album, but does set the listener firmly in the mindset that this is, indeed, an indie album, as if the titles and lack of singles hadn’t already given enough hints to that end. If I had to put this album into a genre, it would be indie folk, with a touch of indie pop thrown in to the mix. But even that obscures the true intent of the album: it is a story and aesthetic album. With her latest EP, Taylor is beginning once again to lean heavily into the songwriter half of her singer-songwriter persona. Setting things apart from other Taylor albums specifically, however, is the fact that the story being told on this record is not one that is centered on the artist herself. Instead, Taylor has taken a fictional narrative, and fully integrated it as the centerpiece of the work. Due to this, the album experience is, to an extent, the “correct” way to listen to this record. And one can’t help but wonder if this is simply a ploy by Taylor to move in the Spotify-oriented, self-reflective direction of current musical trends, or if it is an expression of self that comes from the different circumstances of quarantine under COVID-19. Knowing Taylor’s history, it’s likely a blend of both.
The album begins, as I wrote above, with some soft indie folk, decorated with resonant piano chords, soft but bouncy guitar, and the sparest of spare drum beats and string flourishes. Though the production on the 1 stays static for much of the song outside of the bridge and the string flourishes, it certainly never feels grating, though it does fail to generate much in the way of zest for the song. However, given how strongly balanced the production is towards the vocals, this basic yet atmospheric backing track fits well as a complement to the main course: the world’s most famous singer-songwriter. However, despite a technically and emotionally strong vocal performance from Taylor Swift, the major stumbling block of this intro song is the comparatively subpar lyricism when measured up to the rest of the album. While a small handful of lines establish motifs that reoccur throughout the album, the swearing (in this song specifically) feels like a statement rather than prose, and many of the lines are rather formulaic, cliche, and and offer little spice to this song, which, given the spare and mostly static instrumentals, really needed to carry the weight of the song’s interest. While it may not be the most explosive start to the album, however, it certainly sets both the mood and the audience’s expectations of this album, and to do that successfully is no mean feat.
cardigan, the first “single” of the album, may be the first Lana Del Rey song to ever get major radio airplay. Of course, it’s not fair to say that this song is a total rip-off of Lana, but it’s clearly both influenced by and evocative of the less famous singer-songwriter’s style, from the production choices, to the breathy and terraced way that Taylor sings her lines, to the deeply poetic musings about imperfect love. It may simply be the fact that the indie stylings of the song bring out a comparison that was always there in both artists’ lyricism, or perhaps it is Taylor taking influence from the major artists of a genre she is experimenting in. Either way, this far less solipsistic take on the moody indie “love?” song has quite a lot going for it. The soft sound effects that introduce the song and give a small-town, rustic feel to the song is swiftly overtaken by a warm piano melody, eventually accompanied by a dark and reverb-heavy drum machine, sharp but soft guitar, and scraping sound effects. The instrumental here, with its contrast between glitchy electronica and traditional folk timbres, grants the song an otherworldly mood. It is given enough time to breath, while never overstaying its welcome; deeply atmospheric and emotional, perfect for this type of sombre love song. And what love song would be complete without deeply touching lyrics. Taylor delivers her words about wild romances in a breathy, but articulate, and quite heartfelt monologue that is both emotionally and sonically pleasing, smooth, and rich with feeling. The lyrics, too, are incredibly evocative, pleasant, and melodic. Poetic juxtaposition riddles the verses with the complexities and oxymoronic facets of love, while the first two paint an image of its beauty and joy. The titular cardigan, meanwhile, serves both as literal and metaphorical representations of love, and is placed in beautifully crafted lines. My favourite lines, however, come in the last chorus. It is wonderfully layered with rhymes, metaphors, and deeply moving imagery, all working in unison to deliver a singular emotion of heartbreak. And all this lacks any mention of the fact that this song is one of several that makes up a larger fictional narrative that connects much of the record together, detailing a love triangle that ends in a fascinatingly ambiguous fashion. With all that said, this song both stands on its own and as a homage to the best indie singer-songwriters. It is emotionally packed and poetic, with strong production choices.
After the first good Taylor Swift lead-off single in years, we come to the last great american dynasty. This is one of the most pop of the songs on this record, and frankly I think Taylor hit it out of the park with this song, both in terms of narrative and production. The piano and guitar still hang around, but the drums are more prominent, if only because everything else has been either stripped back or reduced in volume. and the snares give a sunny mood to the song, complemented by Taylor’s semi-ironic delivery of her tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Towards the end, a multi-layered array of guitars and strings grants a cheery, rich, and slightly dreaming feeling that crests and falls until it fades out. Though sparer than many of her top hits, I think it does a wonderful job of setting a mood while still having plenty of melodic interest and having that zest factor that one needs in a story song. The melodies of the song are hooky, but lack a bit in the way of staying power. However, Taylor uses that space to immerse the listener in a beautifully crafted, and clearly dear to her heart story. The story of this song, while likely not directly connected to the main story of the album, may have given inspiration. More specifically, this song dives into the story of Rebekah Harkness, the wife of one of America’s largest oil barons, patron of the arts, free spirit, and former owner of one of Taylor Swift’s many houses. With lyrics that detail the life of Rebekah Harkness, filled with ironic commentary on those in society that reach above their station, especially women, as well as women who refuse to respect traditional gender norms, Taylor, near the end, turns the song on its head and draws the comparison between herself and Rebekah. The song is a subtle earworm with masterfully constructed lyrics, and for those reason I find it to be one of the best songs on the record.
The fourth song on this album is exile, featuring the frontman of legendary indie folk band Bon Iver, Justin Vernon. This song fits firmly into the genre of piano ballad duet, a category with as many wonderful entries as truly awful ones. Fortunately, this particular tune at least strives to the heights of the exemplars of this style. The song opens with a melancholic piano melody, soon followed by Vernon’s gruff baritone, which provides a wonderful gritty texture to this coarse breakup song, contrasted directly with Taylor’s breathy and light texture that she applies to her voice in this song. These contrasting vocal textures are the highlights of this song, giving a very real feeling to the expressed emotions within the song. The strings, which appear often in this album, and the featherweight drum pad beat both provide welcome touches that layers over the piano and vocals with just the barest touches of tone, decorating an otherwise spare instrumental. The parts where Taylor’s airy voice and Vernon’s crackling voice either play off of each other or sing together are wonderfully balanced, and the whole song builds up to a crescendo that nevertheless still feels hurt and heartbroken. Lyrically, the song shows some great ideas, but also drags to a degree. Furthermore, some of the metaphors are extremely janky, including the main one of a lover being a “town” or “crown”. The verses, as expected provide some nice song-writer details that illustrate life well, and the chorus lines about a love affair being a “film” that both of them can guess the ending to is a powerful metaphor. However, the bridge sounds like a generic breakup ballad, and the outro is essentially the same as the bridge. This leads me to my biggest critique of this song: it stretches on for too long, and does not feel like it earned that time with interesting rhythmic, melodic, or lyrical content. Even the crescendo is only done by an 8th note pulse and some mildly irritating choral vocals. In this almost 5 minute song, there are 4 main lyrical stanzas, and I can count on one hand the number of interesting instrumental decisions. Overall, however, it’s still a worthy song, if only for the twin voices of Taylor Swift and Justin Vernon.
my tears ricochet is the fifth song of the album, and has a graceful, ethereal, and fittingly funerary sound. Soft and gentle choral voices, accompanied by misty organs and strings, announce the beginning of the song, with Taylor’s breathy and straining delivery of the lyrics effectively setting the dreamy and floaty atmosphere of the track. However, the lyrics clearly imply this to be a post-mortem ethereality, something that seamless changes to a triumphant reprimand as the drums begin to kick in, leading to a full emotionally resonant crescendo in the bridge, with Taylor channeling far more emotion into her singing, accompanied by reverberant vocoded vocals that are the peak of the song’s energy. After this jubilant declaration, the instrumentals drop out again, but build up once again to a flow-of-consiousness-like final chorus, before finally having the instruments fade out from treble to bass, as if leaving the pain physically behind in the past. Though the actual number of instruments used is low, the movement between the multitude of lines allows the song to keep both a consistent mood while not losing melodic interest. The peaks and troughs of the song also feel natural and butter-smooth. Furthermore, the lyricism and symbolism is excellent as well, with the intertwined funeral and war imagery providing thematic consistency, while the multitude of metaphors give the song a textual richness that means the lyrics never feel repetitive. Lines like “We gather stones, never knowing what they’ll mean/Some to throw, some to make a diamond ring” show off how Taylor Swift songwriting ability is still as sharp as ever, while by giving time for the instrumentals to breath and to have their moments, neither the lyrics nor the instrumentals ever feel stale. This song is an excellent little piece of indie, that fully embraces the aesthetic while still being undeniably Taylor Swift.
Mirrorball is a glittery but somewhat hollow song like, well, a ball made out of mirrors. It is saccharinely sweet, with metallic shakers, plucky electronic and acoustic guitar, buzzing synths that float above the rest of the instruments, and drums crisper than a fresh pear. However, it all blends together into this sparkly backing track that I actually quite like. Much of this inscrutable production comes down to the thick layer of reverb applied to the entire backing track, which serves to thread all the sounds together. However, it’s a different story regarding the technique being applied to Taylor’s vocals. Firstly, they are too high in the mix to be above the instrumental, while not being fully integrated into the backing track like many indie songs do. Furthermore, the massive amounts of reverb applied onto her voice is unpleasant, and though it serves to emphasize the sparkly aesthetic it does not make me enjoy the music more. During the verses and bridge, the rich production underneath allows it to at least fit in, but in the chorus, where the production is stripped down to synth, drums, and the occasion guitar twang, it simply seems overindulgent. For similar reasons, I dislike the lyrical content of this song. For many, it may be very enjoyable, but personally it is so sickeningly sweet and shiny that I find it difficult to not feel emotionally manipulated. The theme of being a disco ball has potential at first glance, but gets old very quick. Some lines, such as “I’ll show you every version of yourself tonight” have some strong emotional impact, but others are heavy-handed or extremely ill-fitted to being put to record. The bridge is lyrically so strange that it takes the strength of the extremely established aural themes to prevent the song from feeling extremely jarring. Finally, and I’ll likely catch some flak for this, but the chorus is so glittery as to be verbally blinding. Despite this, the songwriting is good, and rhythmically it flows well. It’s just sweet to the point of parody, in my opinion. Overall, this song has great production, but in the search for a perfectly unified aesthetic the song creates its own set of goofy choices that leaves it feeling subpar, especially after the incredible string of songs that comes before it. I may rate it lower than most due to my dislike of its production choices, but still, it’s not a bad song, merely one with a handful of flaws.
seven is, as you would guess, the seventh song on the album. It is about being, as you would guess, seven years old. It is also extremely folk, from its lyrics to its production to the way that Taylor sings it. To start with the latter, Taylor puts on her best innocent falsetto, that she only drops out of for the occasional almost spoken word segment. It doesn’t quite put on a foolproof facade of childhood, but at the very least it evokes it quite well. The songwriting also attempts to evoke the feeling of childhood, and in fact successfully does this, while still having very strong lyrics that are evocative and feel deeply personal. The lyrics paint a picture of a childhood that is detailed in the specifics, but emotionally universal, all topped with a veneer of childhood naivete and ignorance, giving the song a soft touch. This emotional strength and deeply personal narrative certainly bleeds through to Taylor’s performance of the song, and that melange of emotions and small touches in her inflection and the rhythm of the song alchemizes lines that would otherwise feel hackneyed like “Your braids like a pattern/Love you to the Moon and to Saturn” into contributing to the feeling of the song rather than diminish it. In terms of structure, this song follows the standard pop song formula, but due to the way in which it is presented, feels as if it plays fast and loose with that structure, which I quite enjoy, as it provides a wider array of lyrical and melodic components to be put into a relatively short track. However, despite all the praise I have heaped on the Taylor’s performance in particular, the instruments are also given a prime placement, and one that is rightly deserved, as the collection of piano and guitar melodies blend into a warm and welcoming instrumental, accompanied by some subtle drums and synths in the second half and well placed strings which are given plenty of chances to shine, especially in the end, where the have a Coldplay-esque melody that leads to a slow fadeout. My final judgement on this song? It is one of the best tracks on this album, period.
august is the eighth month off of the album, and begins with a rustic and warm feel, combining a rattling drum set, soft guitar, and the faintest whiff of horn, which after being introduced to a booming piano in the choruses and even more guitar suddenly feels a lot more pop. The second chorus fades into this cool synth fade with muted drums and a touch of echoey effects work on Taylor’s voice, which gives a chilling feel. By the bridge, the original chorus instrumentation joins the synths, which leads to this pleasant dreamlike instrumental by the synths and horns. Once the bridge begins, it grows to this bombastic pop crescendo, eventually coming back down to earth and returning to the initial blend of instruments. The guitars once again begin to build towards the outro, where the song full transitions to a summer pop jam, with all the instruments being turned up to 11, and some tangy electric bass and lush strings providing the final cherry on top on the brilliant instrumental track. If you can’t tell, I really love this instrumental, as it is interesting, given plenty of time to breath and grow, with many different sounds and components all working together in harmony to create a superbly pleasant aural experience. It never feels boring, rising and falling when necessary in order to capture your attention and interest. It is complex, rich, and rewarding to listen to. However, while the backing track on this song is solid and sounds great, and while Taylor’s singing as it would sound unfiltered is great as per usual, the shimmering effect on this song is once again distracting, and unlike mirrorball, does not fit with the rest of the instrumental. The detached singing style of Taylor also does not fit with the indie folk aesthetic that much of this song uses, and the extremely loud singing in the bridge fits even less, feeling overbearing after the well-tuned indie that has preceded this song. The outro combines both of these problems, but by this point the song has gone full pop and it once again works to a degree. I suppose the issue here is that for much of the song, the vocals try to be pop while the instrumentals are firmly indie, leading to an awkward disconnect, with neither being able to display its positive attributes fully. It is caught in the liminal space between genres, without making its own path, instead trying for the best of both worlds and being neither, with the exception of the outro which at least fully commits to one style. I suppose I should also address the lyrics, but to be frank they are merely serviceable. There are few brilliant metaphors or detailed descriptions of life events, instead relying on standard platitudes on love and repetitive lines that are drilled into your head by the overbalanced vocals. Outside of the first line of the song, the writing never sucked me in to the world of the music, with lines feeling dull or predictable. If I had to compare this song to anything, it sounds like a mediocre song off of 1989, but given how good that album was, that isn’t the worst criticism in the world. I’d say the instrumentals save the song from being awful, but unfortunately they do not completely counteract the issues with this track.
this is me trying seems to take every bad idea that has been presented in the album so far and slathers them over one another like the world’s least appealing layer cake. To be fair, Antonoff’s instrumental is actually quite strong when it isn’t being overpowered by SUPER-REVERB Taylor Swift, but unfortunately, except for a few moments when the full score, with its warm strings, powerful horns, and choral voices comes together to build this beautifully lush orchestration, much of the instrumental is reduced to a bland combination of echoey drums, droning synth, and the plainest of plain in orchestral accompaniment, which is allowed to sit, stagnant, for far too long in this already short song, further reducing any interest I might have for this song outside of the instrumental sections and the bridge, where the full orchestration is wonderfully allowed to express itself. As I quickly mentioned above, Taylor’s voice in this song is covered in ungodly amounts of reverb and is either too quiet or too loud, the exact opposite mood that you would theoretically want in a restrained and contemplative song about the pain of failure. Melodically, both the verses and choruses both sound like the same lines repeated over and over, with transitions seen in hundreds of other pop and indie songs. The bridge gives a bit of flow, but it is gone far too quickly. The lyrics, then. Much of it read like an pretentious teenager’s poetry. As you can guess, that is not a glowing review. If I am to deconstruct the few lyrics of this rather short song, several lines have that sense of being put into the song only to fulfill the rhyme, and even more have rhymes that feel awkward instead of flowing. The sentence structure is halting and stiff, and much of the second verse is made out of extremely ungainly metaphor which makes the song feel very disjointed. If you disagree, do try reading the lyrics outside of the context of the music, and then try listening to the song again. Furthermore, even if one would argue that such lyrical content comes from a position of purposeful satire, Taylor never leans into anything like that either melodically or intralyrically within the song, and almost of the album is extremely sincere regardless, so I find fault with such an interpretation. This is the first bad song on the album, but at least it comes at a blissfully sweet three minutes. The album is not ruined by a single bad song, but it certainly does not elevate anything about the record.
illicit affairs is a very traditional folk song in almost every manner, driven by guitar and piano, with the faintest whiff of choral and orchestral parts sprinkled into the texture of the track. I actually do find the instrumentals to be very good, fitting both the aesthetic, and sitting comfortably under the main focus of the song: the lyrical content. It is allowed to build up and down in volume and intensity, following the peaks of the song’s emotional content, with just enough time to shine that it feels fresh without feeling either rushed or clingy. It sets the mood and is interesting enough without being distracting. Taylor’s vocals, likewise, contribute to the folk aesthetic of the track, having the reverb being passed over in exchange for a bare, natural, and gentle presentation of her voice, with just enough earthiness and emotional rawness to not make it too innocent for a song about infidelity. Near the end, there is just the touch of echo placed on the vocals, giving a choral feel that makes the bridge feel so much more impactful. So, while this track isn’t the most harmonically complex, the simple arrangement allows for the lyrics to take prime placement. Said lyrics, generally, do indeed live up to the expectations placed on them by the extensive trappings of folk music in this track. The verses are the high points, with lines that could compete with some of the best material Taylor has ever written, wonderfully painting a mental picture of the titular activity. The chorus flows well, and as it only appears twice, doesn’t overstay its welcome. The only weak point is the bridge, which gets a bit too big and feels a bit repetitive towards the end. Nevertheless, this song is a great folk track, with all the bits and bobs being well-polished and expertly executed on.
invisible strings is the eleventh song on this LP, and like mirrorball is a candid confession of love to Taylor’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. However, unlike mirrorball, instead of being cloyingly sweet like a mouthful of Splenda, it is instead breezy and airy like a nice seltzer. Instead of being PDA on a crowded bus, it’s a summer drive in a convertible. The twangy sound of the banjo and bass, accompanied by a light and crisp drum machine beat, is refreshing after the lush instrumentals of Antonoff that have made up five of the last six tracks. Given just enough time to embed itself into your head as a reassuring presence, with enough melodic complexity to last through a four minute song, it stands out enough from the rest of the album up to this point that, while it lacks much in the way of new ideas after it reveals its existence apart from a handful of string accoutrements, it feels fresh throughout, mainly thanks to the focus once again being on Taylor Swift’s pleasant voice and her rich lyrics. Once again, Taylor’s unaltered voice is allowed to express itself in all its emotional weight, and the song is sung in her most sanguine tone. It feels honest without being vulnerable, and joyous without being overbearing. The melody is catchy without being annoying, but is consistent enough to feel familiar and comforting. There is just enough weight on the bridge to feel impactful, while the third verse is filled with positive emotion. Lyrically, the song has every hallmark of some good Taylor Swift poetry, with verses filled with specific but fitting details about whatever she sings about, thanks to the way that she connects the various experiences together through both sentence structure, theme, and some inspired rhymes. The chorus is pleasant and sweet, and endlessly catchy, with lyrics that modulate enough to feel familiar but always new. Finally, the bridge is filled with well-chosen metaphors that ties it seamlessly to the rest of the song. This song is a true pleasure to listen to, and is a standout on the album. It is a love song that is simultaneously deeply personal and deeply relatable.
mad woman is an interesting song from the perspective of Taylor’s public persona, but unfortunately it’s not a very good song by itself. This song is essentially a middle finger to her former label, and specifically to Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta. In that respect, by airing her grievances in the public forum as well as in her music, she’s making a very strong statement about how angry she is at her former collaborators. Lyrically, it’s very clear about its intention. However, subtlety often belies wit, and this song is merely a collection of statements about her anger, juxtaposed with some animal imagery and commentary about perceptions about angry women. The commentary is confusingly spread out, so it fails at being a social cause song, while the metaphors are either bad or boring, and despite the song being about her personal struggles, the song feels strangely emotionless and uninspired. It’s too general to be about her PR struggles and only about that, but also too specific to be a cry of support for disenfranchised women in general. It has a bit of that tonal disconnect between two separate points, like for example You Need To Calm Down, although clearly to a far lesser degree here. The words “mad”, “angry”, and “crazy” are also used in a way that neither makes them purposefully punchy nor subtle commentary, and simply gets grating after a while. There’s just no subtlety or poetry, and it’s not so strikingly obvious as to be in your face and aggro. To move on to the sonic components, the songs is mainly driven by piano and an extremely twangy guitar that is slightly awkwardly placed in the mix. A subtle drum machine; some light orchestral strings; a choir: elements that have been seen time and time again on this album, and used to great effect previously, but it simply does not click here. The guitar is a bit grating, to be frank, and while the piano melody is…nice, I guess, it doesn’t stick in the brain nor give a particularly interesting performance at any point in the song. Even the crescendo near the end of the song simply feels…lesser than the other ones that have already been heard on the album. Regarding the vocals, the melody of the line is not great, with no real hooks or dramatic moments, nor particularly technical sections, instead repeating the same boring patterns over and over again. Taylor’s singing is also rather flat, with neither the breathy nature of the more indie songs, the strong pop choruses of the more upbeat songs, nor the emotionally charged bellows of the most personal songs. Strange, because of theoretically how personal this song would be to her. This is the second song on the album that I find bad, but given that’s only 1 in 6 songs, this album still has a pretty good track record. And because of what this song stands for, I don’t mind it being on the album, even if it is a skip from me.
epiphany is a instrumentally rich tribute to medical staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a dreamy atmosphere interspersed with war metaphors. The production is synth-heavy, with airy but substantive orchestral instruments and a ringing piano that feels expansive. Meanwhile, with the synth-focused production, the reverb-filled and echoey effects on Taylor’s voice does actually work on this song. The melody is soft, measured, and reminiscent of a lullaby, which fits the song well and is easy on the ears. Taylor gives a restrained but still emotionally wrought performance, perfect for the floaty, high register vocals of the song. Overall, it is a slow and meditative song, with the the lushest production on any song in this album, but it never feels like it’s overwrought. The lyrics are well-crafted, tugging at your heartstrings as they remind you of those who sacrifice their lives and effort for the greater good. The metaphors regarding war are well-crafted, and the mentioning of PTSD and other stress-related issues is something that I deeply respect Taylor for doing. In the tradition of great tribute songs to societal workers, it is restrained and simple, letting one’s personal experiences resonate emotionally with the song. Though it lacks any defining lines, it doesn’t need them. It is a simple song that allows you to feel, and sometimes that is enough. Though it is not the best crafted, the most complex, nor the most poetic song on the album, it is a song that deserves to exist, and does an admirable job at what it seeks to achieve.
betty is the most obviously connected song to the central love triangle story that is the focus of songs such as august and cardigan, as well as influencing many other tracks on the LP. Another rich folk song, this song is led by a couple of warm guitars and accompanied by harmonica. There’s some other accents, but the rich harmonies of the guitars combined the rustic edge of the harmonica give off a brilliant folk vibe that is warm and inviting, without sacrificing aural interest. The instrumental is brilliant, simultaneously firmly creating a powerful aesthetic while also being intriguing and avoiding the extreme cliches of folk music. In particular, the richness of the guitar harmonies allows for the guitars to go off on some very nice melodies, keeping the song fresh for the entire nearly 5-minute runtime. The vocal melodies in this song are also great, with hooky melodies and modulations that make the song feel both familiar and novel. It feels liberating and free, much like the ideas of young summer love that permeate the album. Taylor’s performance has just enough sincerity and imagined self-deprecation to fit perfectly with the lyrics of the song, largely due to how well this song fits Taylor’s singing voice. This song is not filled to the brim with powerful emotion, but the subtle tastes of feeling, in many ways, are just as good, and when Taylor does hit the most potent notes of her range, it hits even harder. The quiet parts, too, are delicate and soft, as they should be. The largely unadjusted vocals give off a sense of openness and active vulnerability, which just locks in with the folk aesthetic and the themes of the song. All this praise comes before I have even said anything about the lyrics, which include some razor-sharp lines. The verses are filled with those details that mark a good folk artist, while the chorus has the catchiness of pop with the sincerity of the best country songs. To cap it all off, the bridge gives off just enough mildly regretful guilt to spice up the song, and the outro is brilliantly jubilant, tying the story that begins with cardigan up. This may be my favourite song on the album, but to be honest there are so many incredible songs on this album that it’s hard to choose a favourite.
peace is a softer and very dreamy song that features a ticking pulse, some very interesting guitar work, and… nothing else, except for a bit of piano near the end. However, though this song feels somewhat bare, this song pulls off this aesthetic by fully committing to the chill indie vibe. This does not mean I think the song is perfect in terms of instrumental, however. In fact, perhaps they should have made it even more spare, as the pulse is distracting and gets annoying very quickly. I do like the guitar work, however, though perhaps it could play more than one pattern. The piano is also slightly overpowering. So, though it pulls off the vibe, the instrumental in my opinion is still not great. It also gets too many sections where the only things you hear are the pulse and the guitars, which just sounds bad. Taylor’s subdued vocal delivery and the relatively simplicity of the vocal melodies also do not suit her talents, and end up sounding bored and uninspired. Where this song stitches the whole thing together is in the lyrics, at least to a degree. While most of the lyrics show some good flow and are at least emotionally evocative, some of the lines are painfully poetic, and others come across as silly or strange. Fortunately, this song works better as a whole than when you take it apart, but even still it is little more than mediocre. Though it shows some potential, especially in its aesthetic, ultimately it feels like filler, with no direction and nothing interesting to offer.
The album closes out with its sixteenth track, hoax. This song may be the purest piano ballad in the entire album, with almost its entire instrumental being a simple piano melody, with the occasional string flourish. Though simple, it is to be expected from a piano ballad, which often merely serves the purpose of preventing the track from being an acapella. And thankfully, the vocal performance from Taylor is frighteningly good in its expression and emotional tension. Though the melody of the song, Taylor’s delivery is filled with melancholic vulnerability that digs deep into your soul. It is ethereal yet grounded, feeling like the embodiment of pure, yet very human emotion. This, along with the simple but effective piano and strings tugs far more at your heartstrings than it has any right to. The lyrics, as well, are incredibly tender, with some very real pain visible when reading or listening to them. The verses are filled with a list of fragmented images of pain, strung together by Taylor’s tender voice, while the chorus is equal parts literal and metaphorical, hopeful and tragic. Finally, the bridge is filled with poetic lines, which rend the heart when sung by Taylor’s powerful but fragile inflection. I’d say that this song is a worthy closer, demonstrating if not the actual best parts of the album, at least the most memorable, those of course being Taylor’s voice and her writing. Furthermore, it may be the song in this album that most successfully captures the emotion of sadness, which may be a strange way to end an album, but it does capture the zeitgeist.
I think this may be my second favourite Taylor Swift album, behind 1989, Actually, I do think this album is better put together than 1989, but personal preference, and the dual factors of me knowing more outstanding indie albums than pop albums and my deep personal connection to several songs off of 1989 eke it out for me. Regardless, this album is a great artistic step for Taylor Swift, and despite a couple bad or uninspired tracks, the best songs on the album more than make up for the ones that lag behind. The aesthetic has now been proven to work, and I can only hope that, as good as this album was, this will be the Red to her next album, and perhaps we will get a truly 10/10 album from Taylor Swift, perhaps once she takes some time off between recording and releasing to get some sets of fresh eyes on the project to make sure that it is as good as it can be. Regardless, this album shows just how much more Taylor Swift can give the the musical community, and I will await the next album with bated breath. And for the love of god, keep your producers!
PS. Taylor Swift has basically confirmed the suspicion that folklore features a sapphic love triangle, given the fact that she admitted the characters are named after Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s daughters. Congrats, Twitter!
