Final Grade: 9.7/10
Ahlgrim: Truthfully, I'm in awe.
I'm clearly a Taylor Swift fan, and I've always considered her one of our generation's preeminent songwriters. But I am under no illusion that she's a faultless artist; she's had her hits and misses, like the vast majority of major musicians.
I never expected her to produce a 16-track, no-skips album of cohesive, shimmering, emotional folk-pop. And yet, this feels like the Taylor Swift album I've been unconsciously awaiting for years.
Top to freaking bottom, "Folklore" is a masterclass in storytelling and poetry. The new sonic direction fits her lyrical talent like a tailored pair of vintage jeans. By scaling back the production and leaning on more subtle textural details, her precise writing and world-creation shine brighter than ever before.
And just to add another layer of awe, Swift began working on this album in April. That she was able to write some of her best lyrics ever in a matter of mere months, record and produce these songs entirely in quarantine, and craft a mellow tracklist with nearly zero lulls or cringes or moments of lost intrigue? Like I said before, whoa.
I can't wait to listen to this album again, over and over, for the rest of my life.
Larocca: Full disclosure: I named "Red" the album of the decade for Insider in December 2019. I have cultivated an entire identity around being a Taylor Swift fan and I can honestly say, with enough sentimental attachment, "Folklore" could supersede "Red" to becoming Swift's magnum opus.
It's exactly why I love Swift. This is what I've pictured for her since "Red" was released in 2012, and it almost doesn't feel real that it's out in the world.
I knew she was capable of crafting this singer-songwriter folksy acoustic album full of lyrically marvelous ballads and I can sigh a breath of relief knowing that everything I've been trying to explain about Swift for the past 14 years of my life has so concisely come to fruition in this hour-long perfect package.
And as bad as the world is, I don't think this album ever would have existed without the confines of quarantine freeing Swift from every structure that constricted her songwriting process.
Like, what does Swift's music look like when it doesn't need to lead to a worldwide stadium tour? What does she sound like when no one can hold a top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for longer than a couple of weeks? Who is she when the fate of next year's Grammys is up in the air?
"1989," "Reputation," and "Lover" were all mere detours on her path to her true destiny. If "Folklore" doesn't break a single Billboard record or earn a single Grammy, it doesn't even matter — because she made an album for the ages.
This is the kind of work that we'll look back on wistfully 10, 25, and even 50 years from now. It's like she listened to Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and said, "Hold my white wine."
And for a work that pulls lyrical inspiration so directly from previous albums, it's astonishing how non-diaristic it is, how it's meant to be consumed so differently from any of its predecessors.
Folklore is stories that get passed down by generations, and due to the very nature of that decades-spanning game of telephone, one will never truly know how much of it is based in fact or fiction.
Did any of this happen to Swift herself? Did she and Joe Alwyn break up?
We may never know the truth behind each tale she spins — but isn't it just so pretty to think she had this in her all along?
Worth listening to:
"The 1"
"Cardigan"
"The Last Great American Dynasty"
"Exile (feat. Bon Iver)"
"My Tears Ricochet"
"Mirrorball"
"Seven"
"August"
"This Is Me Trying"
"Illicit Affairs"
"Invisible String"
"Mad Woman"
"Betty"
"Peace"
"Hoax"
Background music:
"Epiphany"
Split decision:
N/A
Press skip:
N/A
*Final album score based on songs per category (1 point for "Worth listening to," .5 for "Background music," .5 for "Split decision," 0 for "Press skip").
"best" - Google News
July 25, 2020 at 03:36AM
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Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' might be the best album of her entire career - INSIDER
"best" - Google News
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