Taylor Swift - folklore

[PushyBakerFriend]

Overall, it's better than I expected, just not quite what I hoped.

The lyricism is stronger than her past two albums, but it's still inconsistent. The fallback-formulas/patterns that let her down sometimes are still present here, and can't be solved just by going into hyper-detail. And considering that this style of music lends more focus to the lyrics, the evolution present isn't quite as extreme as some are making out.

After Lover, I felt that she and Jack should take a break from each other, and my feelings haven't changed now.

Still: Cardigan, Exile, Seven, August, This is Me Trying. All top-tier Taylor. And she and Dessner combine very well here.

 

[Bobbyrae]

The fact she plonked this in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere winter. The timing! And during lockdown 2.0 - her mind!

 

[aniraz]

The Cardigan music video got a bit lost among all the responses to the album, but it is so beautiful.

 

[Milotic]

I can tell a lot of care and artistry went into this album, but I'm not sure it's for me yet. Going to give it another go with some good headphones when I'm less distracted.

 

[An Insider]

Stan goggles off, she’s created a lot of new metaphors and imageries but intentionally keeps the High School/teen romance stuff to cater to that audience. They are music’s main consumers after all. I personally don’t have issues with it because I stan a businesswoman, I just want it done intelligently and preferably in new ways.

 

[Subwaykid]

I finally watched the Miss Americana documentary last night and a lot of this album seems to fall in line with the theme that she needs to “catch up” with her age. It adds weight to the mentions of childhood that she had previously run dry.

 

[Jwentz]

I feel like I’m in the minority of thinking Cardigan is the best thing on here?

 

[kermit_the_frog]

As someone who casually likes an occasional Taylor Swift song, I am enjoying this record. I still need to sit with it but I think my favorites are "The 1", "Cardigan", "My Tears Ricochet" and "Hoax". I think the album is unnecessarily long and it all kind of bleeds together at one point, but I'm not sure what I'd cut yet either.

As someone whose relationship with Taylor Swift is "3 tracks from Red + Style + Blank Space" I am both excited and shocked that I'm falling in love with a Taylor Swift album...

 

[BrokenHearts]

Listening Melodrama now after this. Jack Antonoff what a king.

 

[Rem]

August is so fucking good.

 

[bonnieetclyde]

I feel like she could've cut 3 or 4 tracks to make it super-packed release with all killer no filler but the overall result is anyway great. What an easy listen and a wonderful change of pace for her! I was a bit worried after Lover release that she wouldn't know where to go next, but as we can see she definitely knew.

I'm so glad that she took the risk and step into the right direction. The writing is better than it was in past few years and I'm wondering why it wasn't present during making of Lover.

I thought the same but then I wouldn't know which songs to cut... nothing here is bad.

 

[Jonathan27]

I feel like I’m in the minority of thinking Cardigan is the best thing on here?

It's one of them for me at least! I was a bit surprised to see the mixed reception because I think it's the best example of finding middle ground between the broader strokes here and the pop songwriting she's been honing up to this point.

 

[Suburbia]

I wonder if this is in part a break-up album. It sure sounds like it.

 

[Aidan]

The production on My Tears Ricochet is kinda Jack by the numbers

 

[eatyourself]

If this album was a drink it would be a 20L gallon 2% sugar 98% water solution. It's all very juvenile and cute, like a Birdy album, or a The Voice runner-up having her folkish debut. Black and white imagery has never served an album so well. If anything I wish it was more folk and less... muffled pianos and half-breathing guitar tracks. I also expected a lot more of the Bon Iver track as it features Bon Iver but it's just your average Taylor piano ballad.

That aside, I like the production in 'the last american dinasty' and 'betty', 'illicit affairs' has beautiful melodies that sound new for her (to me) and I have to congratulate her on using a lot less of the infatuated schoolgirl shtick she loves, even though it's boldly present in some tracks. 'peace' in particular sounds very, very honest and I wasn't expecting it. It might be just my impression but the second half of the album sounds less calculated. Overall it's probably her strongest album (again, to me!) but I wish they wouldn't think that filtering the songs down would make them sound more honest, 'mirrorball' sounds especially unfinished because of that. I'm getting an overall feeling of those "[pop track] but you're outside the gym on promo night (slowed and reverbed)" youtube things that exist among the youngsters. I understand where she's going, it's just a bit cheap.

And I'll finish my post saying that 'seven' is one of the best things she's ever done. Let's celebrate that!

 

[HairBodyFace]

I'll write more in a bit but Holy SHIT. What a wildly creative, interesting album that showcases her talent so well. I'm seriously floored and such a proud fan right now.

 

[Jwentz]

I wonder if this is in part a break-up album. It sure sounds like it.

I thought the same thing, swifties seem to think otherwise.

 

[ElectricKnight]

Been listening to this on a loop all day. It's so so gorgeous - the melodies, the lyrics, the production, her voice - the whole thing is just beautiful. Exile is completely & utterly stunning - their voices together, God! Mirrorball and August are other standouts so far for me, but really the whole thing is incredible from start to finish. There's so much to explore it'll be a long time before I leave this alone.

 

[Truce]

august in particular is really hurting my feelings this morning.

 

[Heartthrob]

Not Miss Jack got me crying too!

What a triumph this album is.