I try to block out most memories from my awkward middle school days, but I distinctly remember my 13-year-old self waking up early on October 25, 2010 just to catch my dad before he left for work so he could sign into iTunes and I could buy Speak Now.
I was introduced to Taylor Swift through Love Story and Teardrops on My Guitar and soon became obsessed. I listened to all of her non-radio hits like White Horse on my little blue iPod, as well as her unreleased songs like Lucky and I’d Lie on YouTube (true Swifties know what I’m talking about). I went to her Speak Now, Red, and 1989 concerts, and she inspired me to want to play guitar. Her poignant lyrics, drama with other big celebrities, and marketing genius have kept me on board for the past 12 years.
Taylor Swift is the only celebrity I care enough to follow on Instagram and waking up to posts announcing a surprise album not once, but TWICE has gotten me giddy like a kid on Christmas Eve during this otherwise dull and disappointing year.
I’m elated to tell you that my 9th studio album, and folklore’s sister record, will be out tonight at midnight eastern. It’s called evermore.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 10, 2020
📷: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/xdej7AzJRW
After listening to the album on repeat for a week, I have determined that folklore is the older, wistful, little house on the prairie older sister, while evermore is the edgier, more free-spirited sister. I love that there are so many songs that remind me of her previous work throughout her different eras and genres. Evermore has easily become one of my favorite Taylor Swift albums. Although Taylor has mainly written these songs through different lenses, and they don’t sound like they’re pages of her diary or notes from a therapy session, her music is still just as intimate. With details like “but you’ll find the real thing instead, she’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred” (Champagne Problems) and “now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life, drawing hearts in the byline,” (Tolerate It) her writing is still as emotional as ever, connecting to fans from around the world.
willow: I think this song made sense as the first song and single of the album, as it immediately pulls you back into the fairy tale of folklore. In my mind, cardigan and willow sound a lot alike, but maybe it’s just because the music videos were so connected. The most obvious lyrical connection to cardigan is the line “show me the places where the others gave you scars,” paralleling cardigan‘s “you drew stars around my scars.” However, willow does sound more folky than cardigan, and I honestly wouldn’t have been shocked to learn that Taylor wrote part of this song with Ed Sheeran and it was originally supposed to be on his Divide album along Galway Girl and Castle on the Hill. This song is not my favorite of the album, but it does include the most iconic line of the album that is now Taylor’s Instagram bio: “I come back stronger than a ’90s trend.”
champagne problems: The instrumental immediately makes me think of New Year’s Eve from the Reputation. It’s simple and beautiful piano, and it’s another song about a time that should be loud and big and celebratory, but it isn’t. Champagne problems tells the story about a girl who says no to her boyfriend when he proposes, “your mom’s ring in your pocket, my picture in your wallet, your heart was glass, I dropped it.” On first listen, I liked it, but after reading the lyrics, it painted a picture in my head, and it’s grown on me a lot.
gold rush: Like Cruel Summer from Lover, there are rumors that this song is about her relationship with Karlie Kloss. Also like Cruel Summer, gold rush has one of the catchiest beats on the whole album, but I don’t think it will be a single. I could definitely tell that Jack Antonoff had a part in making it, since it’s more pop-y and has a lot more layers of production than the other tracks. It also gives me flashbacks to False God and Getaway Car, also co-written and co-produced by Jack, but also of her more upbeat dance songs like Welcome to New York and Delicate.
’tis the damn season: I had to listen to this one a few times before I really appreciated it. I like that ’tis the damn season is distinctly wintery, as Taylor sings “it’s the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass” and “the holidays linger like bad perfume.” She even refers to the popular poem by Robert Frost “the road not taken looks real good now.” It’s the story of a girl who moved to LA and came back to her hometown and re-connects with an ex. It’s got me feeling like Come Back, Be Here and I Almost Do. It’s definitely become one of my favorite songs on the album.
tolerate it: Ah, another strong track 5. It’s emotional, packed with imagery, devastatingly beautiful. It’s reminiscent of Speak Now‘s track 5, Dear John, as it’s another song about a guy who didn’t love a girl right, “I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it.” In relation to folklore, it makes me think this could be the song from the perspective of the young wife of the man from illicit affairs. She takes his affair “all in good fun,” while he’s having “clandestine meetings and stolen stares” with another young woman. I do wish the bridge went up a little more, but it’s still a strong song.
no body, no crime: This is just so fun to listen to! Taylor’s written a lot of story songs (think Starlight, Last Great American Dynasty), but none of them were ended in murder. From the first few seconds, it reminded me of Undo It or Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood, but the lyrics were more like Miranda Lambert. It’s a dark double mystery where a friend confronts her husband about his cheating and he kills her, so Taylor kills him and his mistress is blamed, “I’ve cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene.” It conjures up the Gone Girl aesthetic, and I honestly think this song could and should be turned into a movie that I’d pay $17.50 to see on a Saturday night.
happiness: I feel like this song could’ve been on folklore. It has a similar sound and slower cadence like hoax and peace. It’s about someone realizing there was good in a relationship even though it ended painfully for both sides, and there will be more happiness in the future. The chorus and melody are a little too simple for me, but maybe I just need to listen to it more. It sounds like a sad song, but the message is kind of uplifting and kind of sounds like a song that could apply to 2020, “leave it all behind and there is happiness.”
dorothea: I love the bright and airiness of this song! I could totally picture this playing in a romcom movie where Rachel McAdams or Amanda Seyfried or Zooey Deschanel or someone like that is going through pictures of their old friends. It’s about a girl named Dorothea who chased her dreams to LA and “got shiny friends since you left town.” It’s probably sung from the perspective of a hometown lover, but some think it’s a song about Taylor’s friendship with Selena Gomez.
coney island: This is a song of loneliness, of losing love and wondering if you’re at fault. Coney island is her first collab on the album, featuring Matt Berninger from the band The National. Maybe it’s because I can’t get over how much I loved exile from her previous album, but I didn’t love the mix of Taylor and Matt’s voices. I almost think it would’ve sounded better without a guest vocalist at all. The song just sounds like a rainy day, “lost again with no surprises disappointments, close your eyes and it gets colder and colder.” I feel like I might need to wrap myself in blankets and put this one on repeat and watch the rain pour down from these Seattle clouds.
ivy: This song gives me similar vibes to willow. It’s very dreamy and ethereal and just a very pretty for a song that is about a woman who is cheating on her husband and fantasizing about being with another man, “I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland.” It’s easy to sing along to, similar to more of her songs on Speak Now. I really like how catch the hook is and it’s definitely a song that stood out for me since my first listen.
cowboy like me: I am all for Taylor Swift going back to her country roots, but this is not my favorite one of her songs. It’s a nice, but I really think it sounds like something she’d write for another hard core country artist, the way she wrote Better Man for Little Big Town. I could imagine a deeper, fuller woman’s voice singing “you’re a cowboy like me perched in the dark, telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear.” I’d love to see this performed at a music award show as a duet with Martina McBride or Faith Hill.
long story short: I don’t think there will be, but I kind of hope there will be a music video to this one. There’s some childish whimsical references from Alice in Wonderland, “right down the rabbit hole” and Cinderella, “if the shoe fits.” It’s kind of like the culmination of all of Taylor Swift’s long line of famous boyfriends throughout the years, “long story short it was the wrong guy,” but now she’s found Joe Alwyn. This one reminded me immediately of The Story of Us and a high school relationship. There are similar elements in the bridges, “this is looking like a contest of who can act like they care less” and “I would lay my armor down if you said you’d rather love than fight,” from a The Story of Us and “no more keepin score, now I just keep you warm, no more tug of war, now I just know there’s more” from long story short.
marjorie: The first lines, “never be so kind you forget to be clever, never be so clever you forget to be kind,” are the type of wise words that a grandparent would utter. It’s fitting since this song is about Taylor’s grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, who passed away when Taylor was 13. I honestly can’t imagine another person singing “what died didn’t stay dead” without sounding dumb, but it sounds natural for Taylor. I think it’s sweet but very sad, as her grandma never got to see all of her success. It definitely makes me think of my grandpa, “you’re alive, you’re alive in my head.”
closure: Taylor typically includes a cute simple catchy song on her albums (think Stay Stay Stay and Paper Rings), and this is one of them, but closure isn’t about being in love. It’s pretty much the opposite of coney island where the character is so over someone, they don’t need any questions answered. This one has a simple couplet rhyme scheme for the chorus, “Yes I got your letter, yes I’m doing better, I know that it’s over, I don’t need your closure.” This is one of the few faster-paced songs of the album and it easily got stuck in my head.
evermore: Oof this song got me in my feelings. It’s the anthem of 2020 and just reminded me of my grandpa and all of the pain of this year, “cannot thinking of all the cost and the things that will be lost.” I loved her other song with Bon Iver, exile from folklore, and this one although wasn’t as grand, it was still incredible. I think Taylor sounds great on this song. Her voice sounds soft and vulnerable, and I’ve always thought she was talented with the lower notes. This song also sounds like winter, definitely a December kind of song. The song ends on a positive note, “I had a feeling so peculiar this pain wouldn’t be for evermore.”
As of December 16, this is my ranking:
1. evermore
2. dorothea
3. no body, no crime
4. ’tis the damn season
5. champagne problems
6. gold rush
7. closure
8. willow
9. ivy
10. marjorie
11. tolerate it
12. long story short
13. coney island
14. cowboy like me
15. happiness
Have you listened to evermore yet? What are your favorite songs? Let me know in the comments below!
