Folklore Review
folklore was a total brand shift for Taylor. What are your thoughts on the new vibe?
[Kolya] The moment I first saw the first Instagram post announcing this post, my mind went to cottagecore lesbian. Notwithstanding the colonial vibes that can accompany cottagecore spaces, I was very excited. She delivered. Taylor’s merch game has always been a little weak, but the 8 different covers for the deluxe editions of the record were fantastic. My personal favorite features Taylor looking down at the camera imperiously with a patterned overcoat falling down beside her. Similar to how Troye Sivan retreated deep into his mind on his quarantine release, Taylor probed stories of childhood, summer, and nostalgia with this new woodsy imagery highlighting her turn away from pop bombast. Her post-album statement about the title, where she suggests these songs and stories see writes will become folklore in of themselves is more than a bit of a stretch, invoking the occasionally cringe-worthy faux-deepness Taylor Swift usually is able to avoid but sometimes falls straight into, as with the phrase “you drew stars around my scars,” perfect middle school white girl Instagram caption fodder. I think this album is great, but as its inconsistent cultural longevity has illustrated, I don't think many people are going to be passing these songs down to their children as cherished artifacts. However, asides from this typical Taylor-like melodramatic branding, she built up excitement for this surprise release very well.
[Laura] I really second Kolya’s thoughts on this one. The cottagecore elements stood out to me as almost a more mature way of expressing her country and acoustic roots. My favorite thing about this brand shift, though, wasn’t the aesthetic change but rather her approach to marketing the album. Previously, Taylor has always had tons of fanfare accompanying any release. There’s the classic 3-single lead up, complete with music videos, remixes, and acoustic versions. This time, Taylor just put out a body of work and let it speak for itself. There was definitely marketing behind it, don’t get me wrong, but it was done in a way that felt supplemental to the music rather than like the main event. I guess what I’m trying to say is, with the folklore era, she let the songs determine the brand rather than have the brand determine what she does with her songs. I’ve also been living for all the mysterious forest imagery, but maybe that’s just me.
How do you think folklore compares to Taylor’s past albums?
[Kolya] Alright, I'll step into the fray. Without further ado, here are my Taylor album rankings:
1. 1989.
2. Red
3. Folklore
4. Speak Now
5. Reputation
6. Fearless
7. Taylor Swift.
1989 is consistent, focused, sleek, and just very good pop songwriting. Red is Taylor at her highest highs, but suffers from some stylist whiplash — not that I don't love EDM Tay. How does Folklore fit in here? It’s maybe a song or two too long, some of the production gets a little muddy, and there’s still a bundle of corny Taylor-isms, including calling herself a cardigan, the most clunky metaphor of them all, but it features some of her most innovative imagistic writing and is for the most part, blissfully free of Taylor-Swift-the-celebrity drama. Folklore also includes some of her most devastating songs, from “Mirrorball,” to “This is Me Trying,” and the best Taylor Swift wedding song since “Paper Rings,” “Invisible Strings,” and the stellar historical noir of “the last great american dynasty.” However, what keeps me coming back to Taylor is her ability to write perfect , emotionally impactful, and culturally important pop songs. “Betty” delivers, as does “August,” to some extent. The best thing I can say about folklore is that I was able to say so much about so many songs from folklore, something that’s very hard to do abut Reputation, or Lover — bloated and inconsistent albums that included both career bests and garbage pop filler. The return of consistent Taylor Swift is a blessing.
[Laura] Right off the bat, I can say that folklore is SO refreshing. With her previous two albums, Reputation and Lover, you could tell Taylor was writing for radio hits and stadium shows. That’s not to say they were bad albums, but it is to say they felt rather contrived. With folklore, I think we’re still seeing the old clichés that Taylor loves to bring into her writing (think “mad woman” and “cardigan”), yet somehow they work perfectly here. The circumstances of this release also provided Taylor with an audience that was ready to sit down and appreciate an album in full, and that can’t be underestimated. While Taylor’s always been an expert at crafting a narrative, now that we’ve seen folklore her other albums feel surface-level in comparison. Yes, 1989 and Red were both cultural moments in their own right, but neither offered pop music the reset that folklore has. The production is minimalistic yet powerful and the lyrics are deeply personal and introspective while also conveying universal truths. Honestly, Taylor smashed it.
This album came out of absolute nowhere. What do you think that kind of move tells us about where Taylor’s at in her career? What does it signify for her in general? Do we like the concept of a surprise album?
[Kolya] I posit that Taylor is moving into the real album stage of her career. There was one kind-of single off folklore, “cardigan,” which was released with the album as a whole, muting it’s individual impact. The surprise release and lack of build-up signaled that Taylor believed in this project as a whole greater than the sum of its parts, an artistic statement, something deserving of critical appraisal and acclaim. In the future, she’ll release singles and do promo, but I doubt we’ll see another “Bad Blood,” or “Shake It Off,” or “I Knew You Were Trouble.” She’s starting to build her, well, reputation as a legacy artist, with deep songwriting cops and cultural import. She’ll sell well, and chart alright on the radio, but I think she’s looking for critically acclaimed albums and fan service at this point. It’s weird to talk like this about an artist just over 30, but she’s bee in the industry so long, and talked extensively about the stresses of the constant reinvention a female pop star has to go through to stay relevant, which I think signals a move towards working at a slower pace on projects that she believes in for her and her fans, not for global superstardom.
[Laura] Again, I’m on the same page as Kolya. To me, the way Taylor released folklore signals one thing: she’s ready to do what she wants. She’s hit the typical career milestones and is now ready to dig deeper into projects that she genuinely enjoys working on. Rather than writing for the Billboard charts, she’s writing to hone her craft and push her limits. As a fan, I couldn’t be more excited to watch this phase of her career progress.
Lyrically, many are lauding folklore as Taylor’s best offering yet. Thoughts?
[Kolya] It’s certainly her most consistent album thematically, and takes more risks than much of her previous work. I still think it doesn’t include her best songwriting of her career, as she is truly the best as a teenager writing about a small-town teenage dream with lyrics so imagistic and just non-specific enough to be powerfully universal, even through questionably plot-aware allusions to Shakespearean plays. Taylor telling stories about teenagerers as a 30-year-old still works pretty well though, especially on the yearning tense “betty”. Her power remains centered in her bridges, from the emotional ballast of classic “All Too Well,” the sky-high vocals of her best song, “Style,” (yeah I said it) and one of folklore’s best moments, when Taylor sings that all she does it “try try try,” on the woozy “mirrorball, using her relationship with a partner to inspect her obsession with cultural acclaim as a celebrity.
[Laura] That’s a tough one. I mean, “exile” is, to me, her crown jewel thus far. Yes, “All Too Well,” “Cruel Summer,” and her earlier albums all are wonderful examples of her lyrical prowess, there’s just something about the effortlessness of this album that captures me. You can almost tell that she’s writing from a different place. While many of the songs on folklore definitely follow that consistent pop-song structure, songs like “this is me trying” show her letting go of the “rules” of songwriting and instead conveying only what she feels needs to be said. On this album, Taylor jumps from writing stories in vivid detail to merely using a few words to craft phrases that manage to hit you like a truck (“i just wanted you to know that this is me trying” will never not make me cry).
Sonically, folklore feels really stripped yet somehow so powerful. What elements of the album do you think helped her achieve this?
[Kolya] The moment I say much of this album was produced by Aaron Dessner, I knew I was going to love the production. I’m a huge The National fan, and Dessner’s electronic plinks and clatters — straight out of his band’s softer songs on 2017 project Sleep Well Beast — work quite well with Taylor’s introspection on this album. Some songs get a little muddy, but producer superstar Jack Antonoff’s more traditional piano-leaden production on the other half of folklore’s song help balance the haze of Dessner’s work.
[Laura] The first thing I’ll say is that I loved the sparse, atmospheric sounds on folklore. Further, the way Aaron was able to tastefully include electronic adornments to piano and guitar driven tracks really helped drive home the overall maturity and introspective vibe that this album achieved. The production on the album was soft and measured while also including just enough chaos to help push the writing over the edge. What you initially hear is poise and composure, but upon another listen, you realize that there’s much more brewing beneath the surface.
Some people are talking about folklore like it’s a return to her country roots? Do you agree with this assessment?
[Kolya] Not really. Sure, it’s more acoustic than her past work, but if anything it’s more a turn to indie pop or indie rock more than country music. Even though she performed “betty,” at the American Country Music Awards recently, folklore feels more indebted to the ballads nand synth noodling of Lana Del Rey’s Antonoff-produced Norman F*cking Rockwell than Tim McGraw. Obviously Taylor has none of the business or popularity indicative of indie music, but the sound of her album, muted and lush, is similar to many modern indie pop acts. In terms of writing and style, it’s certainly closer to Red than Reputation, and feels like less of a bid for sugary pop superstardom, so in that respect it’s seems like a bit of a return to her older days,
Alright, this one has to be talked about: folklore has been claimed by the LGBTQ+ community as queer canon even though none of the songs are explicitly about queer issues. Why do you think this album has been so important for the community?
[Kolya] Beyond the fact the gays really like Taylor — as any even brief viewing of the crowd at her Reputation Concert Film will tell you — Taylor is focused on telling stories on this album, which means she is putting on masks, trying on personalities and identities, which is implicitly a queer thing to do. It helps that one of those personalities is yearning after a woman, especially because the person who loves this girl is named James, and Taylor Swift herself is named after James Taylor. Also note the focus on rumors, subterfuge, secrets, kissing in front of “all your stupid friends,” subverting norms, “meeting behind the mall,” longing, unrequited love. What could be more queer than that?
[Laura] Yeah, okay, so basically my thoughts on this are as follows: somehow, through tracks like “August”, “Betty”, “Seven”, “Mirrorball”, and honestly the whole damn album, Taylor has managed to capture the emotions of literally every closeted queer out there. I swear, listening to “August” had me feeling like I was right back in the closet again hiding a crush that nobody knew about. And also, can we just TALK ABOUT “BETTY” PLEASE??? To sum up my thoughts, I will share a quote of one of my favorite TikToks: “Literally all of Taylor’s music is like ‘I LOVE WOMEN!’ (he said).”
What was your favorite song on the album? Why?
[Kolya] Let’s not beat around the bush. “Betty” is the best song on the album. It’s the only song that can stand up to the Taylor bests: “All Too Well,” “Enchanted,” “Love Story,” “Style,” “Fifteen,” “Clean,” “Cornelia Street,” Blank Space,” and yes, I’m going to say it, “Getaway Car,”. “August” is a close second with the pure yearning of “meet me by the mall,” but the top 3 bridge of “Betty” and the incredible build up and release put it on top.
[Laura] My favorite hands down was “this is me trying.” I dunno. Something about the production on that one hits home. A close second would be “Betty,” but I think that’s just my little gay heart talking.
Any last words?
[Kolya] I could talk about Taylor’s career, discography, cultural impact, and story for a very long time, but I think I want to end by placing this moment in Taylor’s career in context. Just a few years ago, liking Taylor Swift was not cool. Even beyond the baseline sexism prevalent whenever a woman decides to do feel something, say something, and get success because of it, and even without considering the misogyny that loves to rear its ugly head whenever girls, especially teenage girls, like and enjoy something, Taylor’s Reputation Era was filled with negative reviews, cultural oversaturation, and hatred of a woman talking about how they’re viewed and perceived in society. Kanye had seemed to win the culture war with his violent misogyny. Taylor didn’t do that much for her own case either; Reputation is simply not a great or compelling album, bangers and all, and she doesn’t look great in her 2020 documentary Miss. Americana, often seemingly accidentally presented as a naive child even into her late 20s.
However, Taylor’s absence from the cultural zeitgeist for a few years, and critical reappraisal of her work by fans and publications like Pitchfork, combined with the expansion of a culturally influential generation of kids, many queer, raised on Taylor, has contributed to this cultural moment where liking Taylor Swift is cool. This may not seem like a big deal, but the incessant and mostly undeserved hatred of one of the most talented songwriters and pop artists of our time was a frustrating artifact of still-present and still-virulent misogyny. Every time I see someone wearing Taylor merch, or unabashed scream-singing along to Taylor Swift, I smile and remember that refusing to like someone because they’re popular certainly doesn’t prevent us Swifties from having fun.
[Laura] I think Kolya really covered everything I’ve been thinking as well, so I’ll just say this: folklore was a cultural reset. I really hope that after folklore, we’ll start to see more big-name artists delving into their true creative side and putting out music that’s less for radio and more for the craft. I love seeing an artist pull out all the stops and do what they do best. I personally don’t care about the danceability of a record, I care more about what it truly says, stands for, and makes me feel.
