TAYLOR SWIFT’S ‘EVERMORE’
Her Second Album of 2020 + New Music Video
We were all caught off-guard when Taylor Swift surprise-released her eighth album, folklore, in July. It came less than a year after her last album, Lover. But in December, Swift dropped another bombshell –– another album.
Evermore is Swift’s ninth studio album, her second release in six months, and her boldest musical endeavor to date. Folklore shattered our expectations of the artist Swift has become, and evermore ensured we’d never again doubt her ability to shock and delight us.
In her social media posts announcing the arrival of evermore, Swift called it folklore’s sister album. It further explores the character study-style songwriting Swift embraced when she created folklore. But evermore feels unique, with many of its songs radiating a mature sadness, unlike anything she’s written before.
Evermore’s first single dropped along with the album, as did its accompanying video. “Willow” has a freeness to it and a delicate acoustic melody that makes listening feel like wandering through a sunlit forest. Its video is the perfect match. The visual seems to be a continuation of the “cardigan” music video. It shows Swift climbing into her piano and following a golden thread (an “invisible string” reference, perhaps?) through a fantasy world until she finds her beloved.
There are three features on the album, each different from the last. “No body, no crime” features the Grammy-nominated girl group HAIM and is incredibly comparable to The Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.” Aaron Dessner is listed as a writer and producer on almost every song on the album. His band The National is credited as a featured artist on “coney island,” a definite highlight of the album. Finally, the album’s title track “evermore” features Bon Iver and is a devastatingly sad indie song.
Other album highlights include some of the most reflective and sorrowful tracks. “Champagne problems” and “‘tis the damn season” each capture how it feels to be heartbroken in a particular way. “Cowboy like me” is a backward, beautiful kind of love song that almost sounds like country music. And last but not least, “long story short” is Swift’s essential celebration of surviving the fires of heartbreak and public shame to find happiness.
We’re still overcoming the shock of two Taylor Swift albums this year, but if 2020 brought us anything positive, it’s folklore and evermore. Swift’s teaches us she’s capable of dazzling in ways we would never have expected. We don’t want to sound greedy, but we can’t wait to see what she does next.
