Folklore is One of Taylor Swift’s Best Albums and Here’s Why

The only good thing about 2020 so far has been Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, Folklore. The dreamy landscape of her new album leads with Swift’s strong storytelling, charming vocals, and vivid images of lost loves and souls, broken pieces and promises, and small tokens of history. Like its namesake, the narrative behind the album is passing down the stories of Swift’s own life, as well as those she has never met but dreamt of.

It brought fans back to 2012 when the Red album dropped. Red was the height of Swift’s country career, and in my opinion, the cream of the crop of all of her albums. With similar storytelling vibes, Folklore is Red’s calmer counterpart. It contains less relationship drama – or at least less of Swift’s relationship drama, as she’s been with her currently boyfriend, Joe Alwyn for three years – and vanished the ferocious girl Swift once was (as now she has learned civility, as she sings on “seven”). Folklore might be the B-side of Red, but it showcases a more mature Swift, who is less keen on grinding her axe against the boys her broke her heart (as she sings on “invisible string”), and more keen on showing the small, beautiful parts of love. Although it wouldn’t be in true Swift fashion without showing off the bad parts of every relationship (“betty,” anyone?), Folklore dedicated those moments to showing redemption, self-acceptance, and emotional intelligence. This was once lost in the Red era, but added beautifully to the Folklore album.

Her lead single, “cardigan” illustrates a young woman accepting her cheating boyfriend back after his summer fling with another girl. The song is one of three songs off the album that Swift dupes as “The Teenage Love Triangle,” and this particular song is from Betty’s perspective. The music video takes a different turn, and instead of focusing on Betty and James’ relationship, it focuses on Swift herself. As she travels through a forest and almost drowns in a body of water, Swift clings to the only thing that’s always been there for her: the piano, and in turn, her music.

Folklore is more than just dreamy songs and toned down vocals that mirror the mood of isolation (Swift wrote most of the songs in quarantine), but funny stories, like “the last great american dynasty” which details out how the former owner of her Rhode Island home dyed the neighbor’s dog green, and sad personal history of Swift’s grandpa in the war that’s detailed out in “epiphany,” and the lonely and angry feelings of losing everything in “exile” and “mad woman.” Folklore garners so many feelings, turning inward at a time where all we have is our past mistakes and our unforeseen future. Swift truly captured the moment and emotional weight of isolation and quarantine and brought forth an album that only could have done as well as it has in a time like this. Matching the international mood would have never worked in her current pop genre, and if I do say so myself, indie quite suits her.

Stream Folklore on any streaming platform, and be as crazy as me, and spending $73 on merchandise.

• betty
• Cardigan
• epiphany
• folklore
• indie music
• music
• seven
• Taylor Swift