It’s only been five months sinceTaylor Swiftdelighted fans with her eighth studio album,folklore, and it’s no surprise the superstar hasn’t been sitting idle since. Now she’s back withevermore.
Over the last several weeks, the singer has been dropping hints — as Swift does — that she hasn’t fully left her nostalgic, witchy, woodsy dreamscape.
Indeed, onher ninth studio album, Swift, 30, continues weaving her musical magic with all thosefeelings: gut-wrenching heartache, overwhelming love, terrifying isolation, to name just a few.
Taylor Swift.Beth Garrabrant
Kicking off the album with the lovestruck “willow,” Swift careens into heartbreak withevermore’s second track, “champagne problems.”
The devastatingly sad song — its delicate piano chords bringing to mind Swift’s quietly romanticreputationballad, “New Year’s Day” — was co-written with therecently unmasked William Bowery. (Inher Disney+ film,folklore: the long pond studio sessions,Swift revealed her boyfriend Joe Alwyn, who also contributed to “coney island” and “evermore,” was her mysteriousfolkloreco-writer.)
The Grammy winner has compared their split to a messy divorce. While those songs captured Swift’s heartbreak and fury, she appears to have found some peace … or at least indifference.
Onevermore’s penultimate track, “closure,” Swift seemingly responds to a letter (perhaps from Borchetta?) about a distressing situation: “It wasn’t right the way it all went down / Looks like you know that now / Yes, I got your letter / Yes, I’m doing better / It cut deep to know you, right to the bone / I know that it’s over / I don’t need your closure.”
As she has since she was a teen, Swift employs her vivid storytelling throughout. (See: the wistful standout “‘tis the damn season,” which makes us wonder ifBetty ended up with Jamesafter all.)
And Swift has proven to be an effective nonfiction writer as well. Onfolklore, she paid tribute to the former owner of her Rhode Island house, Rebecca Harkness (“the last great American dynasty”), as well as her WWII veteran grandfather (“epiphany”).
This time around, she honors her beloved grandmother, an opera singer, on the moving “marjorie,” as she extols family values the namesake passed down: “Never be so kind you forget to be clever / Never be so clever you forget to be kind.”
Introspective, imaginative, exquisite — Swift has delivered another timeless tome to her modern classic canon.
source: people.com
