In the summer of 2020, Taylor Swift stunned everyone by surprise releasing the album folklore. The album topped both the charts and was high on year end critics’ polls. In another surprise twist, Swift pulled the same trick and released it’s sister album evermore. Once again using Aaron Dessner from The National as a main producer is a continuing departure for the country pop star. The sole track done with long time favourite Jack Antonoff is a stunner, “gold rush” compares “your hair falling into place like dominoes” over a drum machine beat.
Throughout the album, her lyrics and storytelling are often picture perfect. Swift visits her country origins on several songs including “champagne problems” where the protagonist turns down a marriage proposal and imagines another girl will “patch up your tapestry that I shred”. First single, “willow” is laid back and compares her man to a number of different items. “marjorie” is reportedly about her maternal grandmother who was an opera singer and how she left “all your closets of backlogged dreams”.
Like on folklore, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver makes an appearance on the title track which also features a beautiful piano line. The National’s Matt Berninger has been making the duet rounds recently and appears on “Coney Island” while sister group Haim appear on the crime story of “no body, no crime”.
Along with a Disney + release of the folklore special in November 2020, this release of another 17 songs included in the deluxe copy from December shows just how busy Swift was during the pandemic. Whereas folklore was consistently great, evermore is consistently very good. There is a wealth of riches to be found in both release as Taylor continues to expand her sound and empire.
8/10
The Light Appears 