Category: AlbumListens

Ya know, for a girl who:

• Turns on Spotify to start her day every day
• Owns more than one guitar
• Gets on her childhood piano every time she goes home
• Has been writing songs since she was 11

I don’t talk enough about music in this space. It is genuinely the ribbon that has weaved itself through my life, in the background and center stage at different points. I could go through my history with music, from my mom taking me to buy that piano to my dad helping me pluck out notes on a guitar, to singing “Don’t Stop Believin'” at a summer camp talent show. The hits, if you will. Instead, I will focus today on the girl who guided me through my musical journey: Taylor Swift.

I first heard of her in middle school, when her debut album was gaining popularity through the Myspace world. 2006. Two. Thousand. and Six. Fourteen years later, here she is, almost all grown up (do we really have it all together in our thirties? Whomst can say) with every place to go.

We’re in a pandemic (have I mentioned that yet?). In the time in isolation, Taylor wrote folklore after releasing Lover last year, a shorter turnaround time than her usual distance between records. The album is quieter, mature, and quite honestly, stunning. It sounds like dawn and feels like courage.

I listened to it all the way through tonight (after listening to a few of the tracks on my own). Here are my thoughts on folklore, song by song.

the 1
This song opens with a stunning piano melody, the first of many on this album. It’s still weird to hear Taylor swear in a song, but it brings levity. The song hits my soul (Taylor usually does). She talks about the roaring twenties and a lost love, with a line that pierces: “You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.” This album isn’t as self-referential/autobiographical as her previous albums are, according to the album’s prologue. This song could be about anyone, even someone that doesn’t exist. I feel like the song plays homage to “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway.

cardigan
I heard this song before I sat down to listen to the whole album. It’s the first single off the album, and it deserves it. The music video is stunning, considering they had minimal resources at the ready in quarantine. This one also has a stunning piano melody. This song made me reflect on how Taylor has grown up in front of my eyes (and I’ve grown up with her, too), mostly because of the oft-repeated line: “When you are young, they assume you know nothing.” We’re not thirteen anymore, tracing hearts around our crush’s names in a notebook. We’re writing their names next to ours on wedding invitations.

the last great american dynasty
This song was a highlight! It’s a story. I love songs that tell stories. It’s the story of Rebekah Harkness, a socialite who moved to Rhode Island to marry an oil man after her first marriage ended. Together, they bought a gorgeous house named “The Holiday House.” Her second husband died of a heart attack, after which point she “had a marvelous time ruining everything,” from cleaning her pool with expensive champagne and playing cards with Salvador Dali. Her presence was scandalous to the town. That said, she lived her best life, and thirty years after Rebekah died, Taylor bought the house. Coincidentally, she bought the house to be closer to her then boyfriend, a Kennedy. I actually thought the song would have been about Jackie and JFK, but, I was much more excited about the actual story. Taylor’s presence in the town wasn’t warmly welcomed, either. Well, I like Rebekah, and I like Taylor. Party in Rhode Island. Let’s do it.

exile
BON. IVER. I could just stop there. I think this song appeared randomly in my “Recommended” list on Youtube. I promptly broke the replay button listening to this song. “exile” is another strong piano melody with a beautiful bridge/outro. It is possibly my favorite song on the album. Bon Iver and Taylor have great harmonies together!

my tears ricochet
Apparently, this was the first song Taylor wrote for this album. At first, I thought it was about a relationship, but the more I listened to the lyrics, the more it seemed to be about Scooter Braun and Taylor’s departure from her first label and inability to own her own music. Honestly? Rude. In my notes, before I figured this out, I wrote “she shouldn’t be crying over him.” I STAND BY MY SENTIMENT REGARDLESS. I love the line “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.” The bridge of this song sounds like something out of “1989” or “Speak Now.” And I LOVE it.

mirrorball
This one sounds like it could be in a nineties teenage romantic comedy. It sounds like “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer. A classic. C L A S S I C. I think this song could be about Joe Alwyn, her boyfriend, or rather her relationship and its place in her life. The lyrics sound like everyone loves to watch her, but look away when she crumbles, but even when she does, she always wants him to look at her. I felt like this was pretty, but there were too many metaphors. She’s a mirror ball, a dancer on her tiptoes in high heels, a trapeze artist, and I would have liked if she picked one. That said, it would have gone against the theme of reflecting “every version.” I feel that, too.

seven
This song is about a friend from Pennsylvania (where Taylor lived before moving to Nashville). It’s written with fondness for being young, when problems were easier to solve (family life stinks? Okay let’s move to India, done!). I hope, if this friend is real, she is out there and feeling okay. Growing up is hard.

august
Okay STAY WITH ME HERE. Apparently this song is part of a “love triangle” within the album. I didn’t notice it when I was listening to it, but listening to it again, it makes perfect sense. The song is from the perspective of a girl experiencing a summer love. Part two comes later, and it’s a doozy. This song is peppy, happy, and feels like summer love! It fits right in with other songs by Taylor, and if you told me it was a song on “1989” or “Fearless” I would have believed you.

this is me trying
This song opened with a drumbeat, which is new on THIS album! It’s about a girl in a relationship, owning up to the fact that she isn’t perfect and she’s trying (eh?) to be better. It deals with alcoholism, and I genuinely don’t think this is about Taylor. I would like to know who’s story it is, though! This song had another good bridge. There’s a lot of good bridges here. It’s like New York.

illicit affairs
So, at first, I thought this was a metaphor for Taylor’s relationship with Joe, and how they have to hide their relationship from the world. It’s not. It’s about an affair. She utilizes the line “million little times,” and it reminds me of her song “Death by A Thousand Cuts” from “Lover.” This song makes me angry and upset (WHO CHEATS ON THEIR PARTNER JUST BREAK IT OFF YOU LOON), but it’s so pretty and she uses the word MERCURIAL. I LOVE the word MERCURIAL.

invisible string
Truth time: I missed the meaning of this song entirely the first time I heard it. It’s a reference to the Red Thread of Fate, an ancient belief that lovers are tied together with invisible red strings. The song is about all the little steps, heartbreaks, and stories lead you to that person tied to the other end of your string. For that, I love this song. It sounds like 2006 Taylor Swift, but like she’s a grown up version of her. I know that sounds silly (Wow, this Taylor Swift song sounds like Taylor Swift), but in my head IT MAKES SENSE.

mad woman
OKAY. HM. THIS ONE. WHAT A. OKAY. Taylor Swift rears her beautiful feminist head. She SWEARS. Le gasp. I couldn’t tell if this was about Kanye, or Scooter Braun, or Trump? I think it’s subtly about Scooter, but it could just be about all of them, and more. Earlier this year, a documentary came out about Taylor, and it includes a vignette of her decision to be more politically active, instead of just the pretty girl who plays the guitar and sings songs about boys. I think this song is about that choice. Much like Taylor, it’s quietly strong. That said, the song builds at the end, until it sounds like a march. A women’s march? We gonna fight? Should I grab my bat? I’ll go buy a bat.

epiphany
This song hurt my heart. It starts off sounding like something you’d hear in a pretty church service, but it’s about war, or rather, bloodshed. She was inspired by her veteran grandfather, but the song is about being a doctor during COVID-19. They don’t teach you how to handle a pandemic in med school. It made me cry. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a doctor right now, or ever, when people are dying and they beg you for help and you don’t know how to help. How do you get past that?

betty
Country boy, I love you… not. This is the third part of the “love triangle” in the album, told from the perspective of the cheating boyfriend, James. He reflects on his bad choices, and how much he’s hurt the eponymous “Betty.” He goes to her house to apologize and beg him to take her back, but he sees that she is thriving without him. This song has guitar and harmonica, and it sounds like “Tim McGraw” from the first album Taylor wrote. I hope it’s modern-day Taylor reaching out to 2006 Taylor to let her know that she is bigger than the boys in homeroom who break her heart.

peace
I think this song is about Joe Alwyn, her boyfriend. It feels like the shortest album on the song (even though I don’t think it is), and it leaves me wanting more, in a good way. That said, if Taylor’s earned anything, it’s privacy (and the fact that she has to “earn” it is depressing).

hoax
Purposefully, Taylor and Aaron Dessner (who co-wrote and produced the album with her) chose this song and “the 1” to bookend the album. This makes sense, musically (it has a nice piano melody), but I at first wondered why end the album on a sour note, when the song preceding it was about loving someone worth it. Dessner explains that between “peace” and “hoax”, you get the feeling of accepting love at its best and its worst. That’s life… and he’s right.

Stray Thoughts:

• All the piano melodies! I loved the frequent use of piano.
• The indie feel was so strong. I love anything that sounds like it could have been on the “Twilight” soundtrack.
• Apparently the love triangle songs were “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” I thought “illicit affairs” before “cardigan,” but “cardigan” is the triangle from Betty’s perspective.
• I missed a handful of nuances about this album, but I think that just means I need to listen to it six more times.
• I want an FX miniseries about Rebekah Harkness

Overall, I would say this is probably (definitely?) my second favorite Taylor Swift album. The emotions, the honesty, and the way it was stripped down, was absolutely perfect in every way. My favorite album of Taylor’s is “1989,” but I had that album during the roughest emotional healing time of my life, so I clutch it like a security blanket of strength. Is it time to let go? I don’t know. I better listen to this album seven more times just in case.

Thanks for this one, T-swizzle. You are my favorite.