Album Review: folklore Taylor Swift(2020)

When Taylor Swift surprised her fans by dropping folklore in July last summer, I was very intrigued to find out where she would take her sound. As someone who has been a massive fan of her’s for about 13 years now, I have throughly enjoyed every era of music Taylor Swift has written thus far. In my opinion, folklore is not only my favorite album to come out last year, but it also has some of the best songs Taylor Swift has ever written.

Taylor Swift wrote folklore with Aaron Dessner of The National, and her long time collaborator Jack Antonff a member of the band Bleachers. While all the songs on this album get better and better the more I listen to them, I am going to highlight three of my favorites from the album below.

The first song I’d like to discuss is exile. This song is incredible for a few different reasons. The first reason I love this song is because of the melodic piano part that helps carry the story of the song along. I also love the way that Taylor Swift and Bon Iver(Justin Vernon) chose to write the lyrics in the bridge of the song in a call and response style.

The next song I’d like to highlight is this is me trying. Once again, Taylor Swift relies on her ability to be a great storyteller. This song has very sparse instrumentation which allows the listener to really focus in on the message she is trying to portray in the lyrics.

The third and final song I want to discuss is illicit affairs.This song has one of my favorite lyrics from the entire album. “Don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby, look at this idiotic fool that you made me, you taught me a secret language that I can’t speak with anyone else”… is just a portion of the really powerful and meaningful bridge section in this song, that I can not stop listening to.

Overall, folklore is a incredible album full of great melodies and texture throughout. If you have yet to listen to this album, or Taylor Swift’s music at all for that matter, I hope this review gives you a reason to.