Folklore (Taylor Swift album)

''Folklore'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was a surprise album, released on July 24, 2020, via Republic Records. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Swift cancelled the concert tour for her seventh studio album ''Lover'' (2019). During quarantine, she conceived ''Folklore'' as "a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness", and worked with producers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff virtually, recording her vocals at an inbuilt studio in her Los Angeles residence, while Dessner and Antonoff operated from Hudson Valley and New York City, respectively.

Departing from the mainly upbeat pop production of its predecessors, ''Folklore'' consists of mellow ballads driven by neo-classical instruments, pursuing indie folk, alternative rock, and electroacoustic styles. Influenced by loneliness during quarantine, Swift explores themes of escapism, empathy, nostalgia and romanticism in the album, using a set of characters, fictional narratives, and story arcs, in contrast to the autobiographical tone of her previous projects. The title was inspired by the lasting legacy of folk songs, whereas its visual aesthetic reflects cottagecore.

Upon release, ''Folklore'' broke the record for the biggest opening day on Spotify for an album by a female act. Three of its tracks reached the top 10 of the record charts in eight countries, namely " Cardigan", "The 1" and "Exile", the first of which is the album's lead single and marked Swift's sixth number-one song on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''Folklore'' topped the charts in various countries and is certified platinum in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was Swift's seventh number-one album on the US ''Billboard'' 200, where it reigned atop for eight weeks and became the best-selling album of 2020.

''Folklore'' received widespread critical acclaim, centering on its emotional weight, poetic lyricism, and relaxed pace. Critics found its introspective essence timely for the pandemic and regarded its sound a bold reinvention of Swift's artistry. The album was featured on numerous 2020 year-end rankings, often referred to as the quintessential lockdown record. It won Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making Swift the first woman in history to win the honor three times, following her wins for ''Fearless'' (2008) and ''1989'' (2014). She discussed ''Folklore'' and performed it live in the Disney+ concert documentary '' Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'', premiering on November 25, 2020, and released ''Folklore'' sequel record, '' Evermore'' (2020), two weeks later. Several music artists cite ''Folklore'' as a source of inspiration.

Background

In April 2020, Taylor Swift was set to embark on Lover Fest, her sixth concert tour in support of her seventh studio album ''Lover'' (2019), which was cancelled following the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 23, 2020, nine photos were uploaded to Swift's Instagram account, all without captions, forming a black and white image of the singer standing alone in a forest. Subsequently, she made another post across all her social media accounts, announcing that her eighth studio album would be released at midnight; Swift stated: "Most of the things I had planned this summer didn't end up happening, but there is something I hadn't planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, ''Folklore''". She confirmed the image as the album's cover artwork and revealed the track list. ''The Wall Street Journal'' opined that the surprise announcement "caught fans and the music business off-guard". ''Billboard'' stated that it "blindsided the pop music world", arriving as "exciting news" during lockdown. ''Folklore'' was released eleven months after ''Lover''—the fastest turnaround for a Swift studio album at the time, beating the one year and nine months gap between ''Reputation'' (2017) and ''Lover''. In another post, Swift announced that the music video for the track " Cardigan" would release at the same time as the album.

During the YouTube premiere countdown to the "Cardigan" music video, Swift hinted that the album lyrics contained many of her signature Easter eggs: "One thing I did purposely on this album was put the Easter eggs in the lyrics, more than just the videos. I created character arcs and recurring themes that map out who is singing about who... For example, there's a collection of three songs I refer to as the Teenage Love Triangle. These three songs explore a love triangle from all three people's perspectives at different times in their lives". She referred to the album as " wistful and full of escapism. Sad, beautiful, tragic. Like a photo album full of imagery, and all the stories behind that imagery", described "Cardigan" as a song that explores "lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently in our memories," and pointed-out the self-written track, " My Tears Ricochet", as the first song she wrote for the album. ''Uproxx'' narrated, "on Thursday night, that hand-drawn 'T' and 'S' could be seen up and down the timeline. Music fans and critics across genres unveiled hot takes, quoted lyrics like Myspace teens writing on the back of textbooks or crafting the perfect AIM away message, and debated ''Folklore'''s place in the unimpeachable Taylor Swift canon."

Conception

Swift did not expect to create an album in early 2020. After the cancellation of Lover Fest, Swift quarantined herself, during which she watched numerous films, such as ''Rear Window'' (1954), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997), ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006), ''Jane Eyre'' (2011), '' Marriage Story'' (2019), and '' The Last Dance'' (2020), and read more books than she ever did, books that "dealt with times past, a world that doesn't exist anymore", such as ''Rebecca'' (1938) by Daphne du Maurier. The fictions inspired Swift to venture beyond her usual autobiographical style of songwriting, and experiment with different narrative standpoints. In isolation during the lockdown, she let her imagination "run wild", ensuing in a set of imageries and visuals that consequently became ''Folklore''.

Some of the imageries the singer developed include: "An exiled man walking the bluffs of a land that isn't his own, wondering how it all went so terribly, terribly wrong. An embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of obsession. A seventeen-year-old standing on a porch, learning to apologize. Lovestruck kids wandering up and down the evergreen High Line. My grandfather, Dean, landing at Guadalcanal in 1942. A misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out". Swift "poured all of erwhims, dreams, fears, and musings" into the songs, and reached out to her "musical heroes" to collaborate with. She initially planned to release ''Folklore'' in early 2021, but it "ended up being done" sooner, and released in July 2020 without giving it second thoughts. She approached the album's creation without subjecting herself to any rules, and explained that she "used to put all these parameters on erself like, "How will this song sound in a stadium? How will this song sound on radio?" If you take away all the parameters, what do you make? And I guess the answer is ''Folklore''."

Writing and recording

Swift's songwriting drifted towards escapism and romanticism for ''Folklore''. She enlisted two producers to achieve her desired sound—her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, who worked with her on ''1989'' (2014), ''Reputation'', and ''Lover'', and first-time collaborator Aaron Dessner, guitarist of American indie rock band the National. Due to COVID-19 concerns, Swift, Antonoff and Dessner quarantined remotely, separate from each other, creating ''Folklore'' by continually exchanging digital files of instrumentals and vocals. The album ensued from a DIY process, mixed and engineered by personnel scattered across the US.

Swift had previously met the National on a ''Saturday Night Live'' episode in 2014, and attended one of their concerts in 2019, where she talked to Dessner and his twin brother Bryce. She asked Aaron Dessner about his songwriting technique, because it is her "favorite thing to ask people who I'm a fan of", and he replied his band members live in different parts of the world, and that he would make instrumental tracks and send them to the lead singer, Matt Berninger, who would write the lyrics—this ignited Swift's idea to create music in quarantine.

Due to the pandemic, all recording studios were closed, so Swift built a home studio at her Los Angeles residence, named Kitty Committee, with help from engineer Laura Sisk. Antonoff, with whom Swift worked on five songs from the album, operated from New York City while Sisk recorded Swift's vocals in Los Angeles. "My Tears Ricochet" was the first song written for ''Folklore''. Swift wrote it about her ties with Scott Borchetta, founder of her old record label, coming to an abrupt end. Antonoff compared the writing process of "Mirrorball" and "August" to that of " Out of the Woods" (2016). Swift wrote "Mirrorball" following the cancellation of Lover Fest, as an ode to fans who find solace in her music and concerts. She wrote "August" about a fictitious mistress, and " This Is Me Trying" based on multiple narratives, such as dealing with addiction, and her own mental health in 2016–2017 when she felt she was "worth absolutely nothing."

In late April, Swift approached Dessner to co-write some songs remotely. He worked on eleven of the album's 16 tracks over the next few months. Dessner "thought it would take a while for song ideas to come" and "had no expectations as far as what we could accomplish remotely", but was surprised that "a few hours after sharing music, my phone lit up with a voice memo from Taylor of a fully written song—the momentum never really stopped." Swift and Dessner "were pretty much in touch daily for three or four months by text and phone calls." He would mail her folders of instrumentals, and she would write the "entire top line"—melody and lyrics, and "he wouldn't know what the song would be about, what it was going to be called, where hewas going to put the chorus." The first song the duo wrote was "Cardigan", which is based on one of Dessner's sketches called "Maple". "Cardigan" was followed by " Seven" and "Peace". Upon hearing the composition of "Peace", Swift felt an "immediate sense of serenity" that roused the feeling of being peaceful, but felt it would be "too on-the-nose" to sing about finding peace; she instead wrote about complex "conflicted" feelings contrasting the track's calming sound, and recorded it in one vocal take.A few weeks later, when Swift and Dessner had written "six or seven" songs, she explained him her concept of ''Folklore''. She told him about the work she had done earlier with Antonoff, concluding that both of her works resonate as an album. Swift and Dessner also wrote " The Last Great American Dynasty", " Mad Woman", and " Epiphany", the first of which has an array of electric guitars inspired by Radiohead's 2007 surprise album '' In Rainbows''. The lyrics document American socialite Rebekah Harkness, whom Swift had been wanting to write about ever since she bought the Holiday House in 2013. Dessner composed the piano melody for "Mad Woman" with his earlier work on "Cardigan" and "Seven" in mind. On "Epiphany", he slowed down and reversed the sounds of different instruments to create a "giant stack of harmony", and added piano for a cinematic trope. Swift wrote the song based on the experiences of her veteran grandfather, and healthcare workers in the pandemic.

Swift wrote two songs, "Exile" and "Betty", with her boyfriend, English actor Joe Alwyn. She developed "Exile" as a duet, and Dessner recorded a draft of her singing both the male and female parts. Swift and Dessner ran through candidates for the male partner, and Swift liked the voice of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, who is one half of the American indie rock band Big Red Machine along with Dessner. Dessner sent the song to Vernon, who liked the song, added his own lyrics and sang his part. "Betty" is the only song on the album produced by both Dessner and Antonoff; Swift was influenced by Bob Dylan's ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963) and ''John Wesley Harding'' (1967) for its composition. Alwyn used the pseudonym William Bowery for his credits. Upon the album's release, mainstream media and fans pointed out Bowery's lack of online presence, and presumed the use of a pseudonym for Alwyn. Swift later confirmed that Bowery is indeed Alwyn, and that he penned the chorus of "Betty", and the piano line and first verse in "Exile". The last two songs written were "The 1" and "Hoax", the first and last songs on the album respectively; Swift wrote both in a span of few hours. Speaking about his collaboration with her, Dessner commented "there's a palpable humanity and warmth and raw emotion in these songs that I hope you'll love and take comfort in as much as I do."

In a November 2020 ''Rolling Stone'' interview with Paul McCartney, Swift stated she began using words in the album's lyrics that she always wanted to use, not worrying about whether it would suit radio. She used "bigger, flowerier, prettier" words such as " epiphany", " elegies" and "divorcée", just because they "sound beautiful". Swift disclosed that she maintains lists of such words, and recalled using one such, " kaleidoscope", in " Welcome to New York" (2014). In a December 2020 ''Entertainment Weekly'' interview, Swift said the lyrics, melodies, and production of ''Folklore'' are the way she wanted them, without subjecting to others' expectations.

''Folklore'' was written and recorded in secrecy. Swift, her boyfriend, family, management team, Antonoff, and Dessner were aware of the album's creation; she did not disclose the news or play the album to her friends like she did with her previous works. Near the end of ''Folklore'''s recording process, Dessner reached out to his regular collaborators, including the National bandmates, to provide instrumentation remotely. Bryce orchestrated several songs, while Bryan Devendorf performed the drums in "Seven". Dessner kept Swift's involvement confidential from his family and colleagues until announcement. While filming the "Cardigan" music video, Swift wore an earpiece and lip-synced to the song to prevent it from leaking. Dessner stated that Swift's label, Republic Records, was unaware of the album until hours before its launch.

Music and lyrics

The standard edition of ''Folklore'' is about an hour and three minutes long, consisting of 16 tracks, while the deluxe edition adds a bonus song, " The Lakes", as the seventeenth track. Bon Iver is featured on "Exile", the fourth track. ''Folklore'' was written and produced by Swift, Dessner, Antonoff, and Alwyn, with additional writing credit to Vernon, the lead vocalist of Bon Iver, on "Exile". It is Swift's first album to carry an explicit content label.

Composition

Critics mostly categorize ''Folklore'' as an alternative, indie folk, and electro-folk album departing from the pop maximalism and synth-driven sound of Swift's previous works. It also incorporates indie rock, electronica, dream pop, country, and folk rock elements. '' NME'' Hannah Mylrea wrote the album "dives headfirst into the world of folk, alternative rock and indie", while the same magazine's Gary Ryan classified it as indietronica and chamber pop. Kaelen Bell of ''Exclaim!'' said ''Folklore'' is a laid-back pop record, ''Variety'' Chris Willman and ''Pitchfork'' Jillian Mapes specified it as chamber pop, Michael Sumsion of ''PopMatters'' described it as a blend of chamber-pop and alt-folk, and Raisa Bruner of ''Time'' deemed it "alternative pop-folk". Music journalist Amanda Petrusich, reviewing for ''The New Yorker'', felt ''Folklore'' is a "genre-less" record that drifts toward atmospheric pop rather than folk. In disagreement, ''The New York Times'' critic Jon Caramanica called it an atmospheric rock album abandoning pop. Spencer Kornhaber of ''The Atlantic'' said the album "swims through intricate classical and folk instrumentation" held together by electronic music.

Devoid of radio-friendly pop songs, ''Folklore'' eschews the mainstream sound of Swift's older works. It consists of mellow, cinematic, slow-paced ballads, with a minimal, lo-fi production, and elegant melodies, together lending a modern spin on traditional songwriting. It is built around neo-classical instrumentals, such as: soft, sparse and sonorous pianos, moody, picked and burbling guitars, glitchy and fractured electronic elements, subliminal, throbbing percussions, mellow programmed drums, Mellotron, sweeping orchestrations with ethereal strings and meditative horns. The album does not fully avoid plush synths and programmed beats characteristic of Swift's pop music, but instead dials them down to a subtle texture, delivering an electro-acoustic soundscape, which highlights Swift's voice and lyrics. ''Rolling Stone'' stated the album's tone resembles " Safe & Sound", Swift's 2012 single for '' The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond''. The Ringer noted that Antonoff confers a synth-based style to the record, while Dessner contributes a piano-leaning sound, and linked ''Folklore'' to two songs on ''Lover''—" The Archer" and "It's Nice to Have a Friend"—as Swift's albums "usually have a couple tracks that harken back to the previous album or wind up connecting them to the next".

Themes

''Folklore'' consists of songs exploring points of view that diverge from Swift's life, including third-person narratives written from perspectives of characters that interweave across the tracks. Its songwriting style combines balladeering with autobiographical experiences and character-driven storytelling, and is primarily distinguished by themes of wistfulness, escapism, nostalgia, contemplation, and empathy. Although Swift opted for a new sound, the album retains stylistic aspects of her trademark songwriting, such as mournful delivery and bildungsroman passion.

Compared to much of her older discography, ''Folklore'' reflected Swift's deepening self-awareness, introspection, and vivid storytelling that showed a higher degree of fictionalization and fewer self-references, culminating in an outward-looking approach. The lyricism is both personal and fictional, and a blend of both at times. The emotional and narrative range of ''Folklore'' is widened by expanding the focus from Swift's personal stories to imagined characters and personifications.

The narratives described in ''Folklore'' include a ghost finding its murderer at its funeral, a seven-year-old girl with a traumatized friend, an old widow spurned by her town, recovering alcoholics, and a love triangle between the fictional characters Betty, James, and an unnamed woman, as depicted in the tracks "Cardigan", "Betty" and "August", with each of the three songs written from each of the character's perspective in different times in their lives. NPR's Ann Powers defined ''Folklore'' as a "body constructed of memory, a shared sense of the world, built of myths, heard stories", based on the idea that "we each have our own folklore", with the album being Swift's folklore. Many songs on the album exude a cinematic quality in their lyrics, and reference objects and phenomena in nature, such as a solar eclipse, Saturn, auroras, purple-pink skies, salt air, weeds, and ''Wisteria''.

Songs

"The 1", the opening track, is a soft rock tune driven by a bouncy arrangement of piano, minimal percussion, and electronic accents. In the perspective of Swift's friend, "The 1" describes a new-found positive approach to life and past love, wishing they could have been soulmates. The slow-burning "Cardigan" is a folk ballad driven by moody, stripped-down instrumentals consisting of drums and tender piano; Swift sings from the perspective of a fictional character named Betty, who recalls the separation and enduring optimism of a relationship with a boy named James.

"The Last Great American Dynasty" is an alternative indie pop tune with classical instruments like slide guitar, viola, violins, drums and glitchy production elements. The satirical song tells the story of Harkness, the founder of Harkness Ballet, when she resided in Swift's Rhode Island mansion. It details how Harkness married into an upper-class family, was hated by the town, and blamed for the death of her then-husband and heir to Standard Oil, William Harkness, and the fall of his family's name, and draws parallels with Swift's life. "Exile" is a gospel-influenced, indie folk duet with Bon Iver, fusing Swift's soft vocals with Vernon's growling baritone, serving as an unspoken, argumentative conversation between two former lovers. It begins with a plodding piano and reaches a dramatic climax accompanied by strings, synths and harmonies.

Sung from the perspective of a deceased lover's ghost, "My Tears Ricochet" is an icy arena- goth song that reflects on the tensions following the end of a marital relationship, using funereal imagery—a metaphor for Scott Borchetta and his sale of the masters of Swift's older catalogue. It encompasses a music box, backing choir, reverbed ad-libs in the bridge, and reaches a tumultuous climax over shuddering drums. "Mirrorball" is a folk-tinged dream pop song, driven by pedal steel and twanging guitars. Its lyrics portray Swift as a disco ball, pertaining to the reflective quality, describing her ability to entertain people with her music by making herself her vulnerable and sensitive.

In "Seven", Swift sings in an innocent tone, reminiscing about an abused friend from her childhood in Pennsylvania, whom she cannot fully remember but still has fond memories of, over a resonant arrangement consisting of flurrying strings and piano. "August" is a gloomy dream-pop song that captures the summer affair between two young lovers—a naive girl who is seen holding on to a boy that "wasn't hers to lose"; the boy is revealed to be James, later in the album. The song depicts the girl grieve and yearn over her love, using Swift's light and breezy delivery, "yo-yoing" vocal yelps, and a grandiose production driven by acoustic guitar, glistening vocal reverb, and key changes.

The ninth track, "This Is Me Trying", is an orchestral pop song detailing the accountability and regret of an alcoholic who admits feeling inadequate. It contains Swift's "ghostly", reverberated vocals and a gradually growing, dense production. Over an acoustic arrangement of finger-plucked strings and soft horns, "Illicit Affairs" unfolds the infidelity of a disloyal narrator, and highlights the measures they carry out to keep the affair a secret. " Invisible String" is a folk song that provides a glimpse into Swift's love life with Alwyn, recounting the "invisible" connection between them that they were not aware of until they met, alluding to an East Asian folk myth called the Red Thread of Fate. It comprises an acoustic riff, thumping vocal backbeats, a distinct passive writing style, and references her older songs.

"Mad Woman" tackles the taboo linked with female anger, using sarcastic remarks at sexism, as ''Folklore'' moment of vituperation. It metaphorically describes Swift's dispute with Borchetta and Scooter Braun, painting the story of a deviant widow getting revenge, with references to witch hunts. "Epiphany" is an ambient hymn. It depicts the devastation of the pandemic, paying homage to healthcare workers, with whom she empathizes, comparing them to traumatized military soldiers, such as her veteran grandfather, Dean, who fought at the Battle of Guadalcanal (1942). The song is carried by a glacial piano, and a howling brass.

The fourteenth track, "Betty", is a country and folk rock song with prominent harmonica. It describes the relationship narrated in "Cardigan", but in the perspective of the cheating boyfriend James, who had a summer fling with the female narrator of "August". James apologizes for his past actions but does not fully own up to them, citing excuses. Its characters (Betty, James, and Inez) are named after the daughters of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. The R&B-inclining "Peace" features jazzy vocals with a complex vocal melody. over a pulse juxtaposed with three lushly harmonized basslines, complemented by minimal synths and a drizzling piano. Lyrically, "Peace" is an ode to Swift's lover, dissects the effects of hectic stardom on her relationship and warns the subject of future challenges.

The standard edition of the album closes with "Hoax", a slow piano ballad with emotionally raw lyrics that detail a flawed but everlasting relationship, ending the album on a despondent note of sadness. The deluxe bonus track, "The Lakes", is a string-laden midtempo song that introspects on Swift's semi-retirement in England's Lake District; the location is also mentioned in "Invisible String". Imagining a red rose growing out of tundra "with no one around to tweet it", Swift fantasizes about a social-media-free utopia, referencing William Wordsworth, an English poet known for his Romantic writings.

Art direction

''Folklore'' album art, packaging, and lyric videos were created through a DIY approach. Swift collaborated with photographer Beth Garrabrant for the artworks, without a technical team due to COVID-19 concerns. The photoshoot marked a change from Swift's older shoots, where she would have "100 people on set, commanding alongside other people in a very committee fashion." She styled herself, including hair, makeup and wardrobe, and prescribed Garrabrant a specific moodboard. The photographs are characterized by a grayscale, black and white filter.

Cover artwork

The standard cover art depicts Swift as an 18th-century pioneer sleepwalking in a nightgown. She is seen standing alone in a misty forest covered by morning fog, wearing a long, double-breasted plaid coat over a white prairie dress, gazing at the height of the trees. On the backside cover, she stands turned away from the camera, wearing a slouchy flannel-lined denim jacket slumped around her arms, and a white lace frock, with two loose braided buns low over her nape, similar to American Girl doll Kirsten Larson

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