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Folklore

July 24, 2020

"folklore" (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by Taylor, released on July 24, 2020, through Republic Records. A surprise album announced without pre-release promotional campaigns, "folklore" was written and recorded while in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Musically, the album marks a departure from the upbeat pop sound of Taylor's preceding studio albums to stripped-down tunes driven by piano and guitar, with production from Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and Taylor herself. Categorized as an indie folk, alternative rock, electro-folk, and chamber pop record, "folklore" portrays what Taylor called "a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness" rising out of her imagination. It manifests vivid storytelling from largely third-person narratives that detail heartbreak and retrospection.

SINGLES

"cardigan" was released as the lead single from the album on July 27, 2020. "exile", featuring American indie folk band Bon Iver, and "betty" are scheduled to be the second and third singles, respectively. "folklore" received widespread critical acclaim, with emphasis on its sonic coherence, relaxed atmosphere, and lyrics based on fictional narratives. It broke numerous streaming records upon release, including the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day for an album by a female artist on Spotify. The album sold two million copies in its first week globally, 1.3 million of which were sold on its first day.

Earning more than 846,000 units in its first-week in the US, "folklore" debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, giving Taylor her seventh consecutive number-one album on the chart. The album also reached number-one in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and several other territories. All sixteen tracks of the album debuted simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with three in the top-ten; "cardigan" debuted at number-one, giving Taylor her sixth chart-topping single in the US and making her the first act in history to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts in the same week, while "the 1" and "exile" reached fourth and sixth spots, respectively.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Taylor announced "folklore" as a surprise release on her social media accounts sixteen hours before its launch. The album was released eleven months after Taylor's seventh studio album "Lover" (2019), the fastest turnaround for a Taylor studio album, beating the one year and nine months gap between "reputation" and "Lover". Taylor announced that the music video for "cardigan" would debut at the same time as the album's release.

During the YouTube premiere countdown to the music video for "cardigan", Taylor revealed 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". -- Taylor Swift

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 named the self-written track "my tears ricochet" as the first song she wrote for the album.

COMPOSITION

"folklore" has been described as an indie folk, alternative rock, electro-folk, and chamber pop album with elements of indie rock, electronica, dream pop and country. Devoid of any pop songs, it marked Taylor's departure from the contemporary pop sound of her previous works. The album consists of cinematic, downtempo ballads with an "earthy", lo-fi production and elegant melodies that together lend a modern spin on traditional songcraft, largely built around "nearly neo-classical" instrumentals, such as: soft, sparse and sonorous pianos, moody, picked and burbling guitars, fractured and glitchy electronica, throbbing percussions, mellow programmed drums and Mellotron, sweeping orchestrations with "ethereal" strings and "meditative" horns. The album does not completely avoid "digital beats, plush synths" characteristic of Taylor's pop music, but instead "dials them down until they are an almost invisible texture". Rolling Stone Magazine noted that the vibe of "folklore" resembles that of "Safe & Sound", Taylor's single for the "Hunger Games" film soundtrack (2012).

LYRICS AND THEMES

Compared to much of Taylor's older discography, the songwriting on "folklore" reflected her "deepening" self-awareness, formed "vivid" storytelling, and showed a "higher degree of fictionalization" that was less "self-referential". The songs explore points of view that diverge from Taylor's life, including third-person narratives. The imaginary narratives described in "folklore" include a scandalous old widow hated by her whole town, a scared seven-year-old girl with a traumatized best friend, a ghost watching her enemies at her funeral, recovering addicts, and a fumbling teenage boy. Three of the tracks -- "cardigan", "august" and "betty" -- depict a love triangle between three fictitious characters: Betty, James and an unnamed woman, with each of the three songs written from the perspective of each of those characters in different times in their lives. Commenting on the maturity of the album's lyrical execution, NPR's Ann Powers compared the album to releases by other artists when they were thirty years old, such as: The Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main St." (1972), Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" (1974), Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" (1976), Elliott Smith's "Either/Or" (1997), and PJ Harvey's "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" (2000). Many songs on "folklore" also incorporate cinematic imagery in their lyrics.

ALBUM ART

The photos for the album, shot by photographer Beth Garrabrant, are characterized by a grayscale, black and white filter. Taylor styled herself for the photoshoot, including her own hair and makeup. The digital cover artwork depicts her in a misty forest with a morning fog in the distance, standing alone, wearing a long, double-breasted plaid coat over a white prairie dress, gazing "in awe" at the height of the trees meadow. 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 towards her nape.