Taylor Swift
evermore
Republic
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Taylor Swift’s folklore was the unexpected chess move of 2020. Conceived and executed in secret during the spring and incipient half of the summer, Swift’s eighth studio album found the songwriter opting to forgo the typical pomp of a traditional long player rollout by announcing the issuance of folklore on the fly.
Audiences were subsequently treated to an intimate, yet sumptuous feast of compositions that saw Swift boldly table the flashier effects of the album triptych that preceded folklore. Critically lauded and commercially triumphant upon its arrival, the album evinced she had found fortune for risking an imaginative return to her guitar-pop roots.
Imagine then the collective jaws that dropped when a second collection was revealed last Thursday; Swift’s plainspoken declaration that prefaced evermore—her ninth record—mirrored the same calm, introductory measure afforded to folklore. With all of the joyful noise currently surrounding evermore, one pauses to wonder if Swift was able to meet the standard she just recently put in place with folklore. In a word: yes.
That Swift leads again as a writer on each of evermore’s fifteen tracks—seventeen with “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time to Go”' housed exclusively on the physical iteration—is no surprise to anyone; she also remains faithfully stationed behind the boards as a producer on the LP.
What is interesting is how she expands her co-writer/co-producer/guest pool ever so slightly with newcomers Bryce Dessner (of The National), BJ Burton, James McAlister and Haim. Returning from folklore are Aaron Dessner (brother of Bryce and also of The National) and Jack Antanoff; Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) and Swift’s current flame—actor Joe Alwyn (alias “William Bowery”)—appear again too as co-writers. Vernon pulls dual duty as a duet partner on the title song. While collaboration is a central tenet to evermore, ultimately, it is Swift’s vision that all those assembled here labor in support of.
Without missing a beat, the rich musical aestheticism established with folklore—acoustic (“willow”), country (“no body, no crime”), chamber pop (“happiness”) and folk (“ivy”)—is deepened throughout evermore’s runtime. There is a surprise though: Swift’s demure usage of electronic paints on “gold rush,” “tolerate it,” “long story short” and “closure.” Because these digital colors are employed for accent purposes, the otherwise natural canvases of these selections are not threatened. Instead, there is a playful tension that springs forward from this quartet because of their opposing organic and inorganic vibes—it provides a necessary twist in a now familiar sonic approach.
In terms of the songwriting of evermore, Swift remains quite the powerhouse. Entries like “‘tis the damn season,” “coney island” (featuring The National’s Matt Berninger) and “marjorie” are fantastic examples of the continued narrative excellence found in Swift’s output; her ongoing combination of gripping character studies and personal tracks is as emotionally sharp as it was on folklore.
In the still-developing slipstream of evermore’s reveal, there has been no shortage of think pieces, mini-essays and countless, fevered social media threads attempting to decipher the exact meaning behind every lyric presented on this body of work. Like the best singer-songwriters to go before her, Swift has always left plenty of room for others to find themselves in the material she releases—this long player is no exception.
evermore manages to build out on the world Swift birthed with its predecessor while achieving some of its own stylistic independence. But, taken within context of the creative hot streak Swift has been on since Red (2012), evermore is another enthralling point in this larger album strata which has cemented her as one of the best and brightest in contemporary pop music.
Notable Tracks: “coney island” | “gold rush” | “marjorie” | “willow”
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