The coronavirus pandemic can be divided into cultural moments -- the glee of staying home to binge on “Tiger King,” the longer-term acceptance and homesteader cosplay of the great sourdough starter stretch, and now the summer of sadness and Taylor Swift’s new album, “folklore.”
Swift gets how exhausting this whole thing is -- she can’t even get up the energy to use capital letters.
A lot has been written about Swift’s grown-up turn with this new album. She’s 30 now, so those silly days of high school boyfriends or getting excited about New York City are over. Now we are ready for historical fiction, listening to The National and saudade.
I, for one, cannot stop listening.
The mood is just right for this lonely summer.
But what is there to do with the cultural artifacts that bring us joy, besides critique and dissect them to avoid spinning out on the future? So here is my ranking of the songs on the album, from best to slightly less best.
1. “exile”
Look, Bon Iver has been making me cry since 2007, so it isn’t a huge surprise that my favorite song on this album is a duet between him and Swift about bad communicators.
“You were my town, now I am in exile seeing you out.”
I get it, Taylor. I’ve been 30, too.
2. “august”
This album is full of themes and motifs and one of the threads Taylor keeps returning to is a love triangle between three kids.
This song is the story from the perspective of what amounts to the other woman. It’s full of that heightened romance of wanting something you can’t have -- “To live for the hope of it all, cancel plans just in case you’d call and say ‘meet me behind the mall.‘”
This summer, aren’t we all just living for the hope of it all, really? Wouldn’t we all just love to go to the mall?
3. “the last great american dynasty”
This song is the story of the woman who owned a house that Swift later bought in Rhode Island. Her story is a great allegory for Taylor’s story -- “I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”
This whole album is full of great figurative language, actually, and this song is a very sing-a-long-able example of that.
4. “seven”
In this song, Swift tells the story of little girl love. Like that kind of love you feel for a kindred spirit as a little kid, that perfect moment of knowing someone totally gets you, finally.
It’s moody and full of evocative imagery and it makes me feel very sad, so I love it.
5. “epiphany”
This song is literally about doctors treating coronavirus patients.
“Someone’s daughter, someone’s mother/Holds your hand through plastic now/Doc, I think she’s crashing out/And some things you just can’t speak about.”
For a tragedy that can feel so removed, these lines are devastating. And the song is full of open space, to let the words sink in.
“Only 20 minutes to sleep but you dream of some epiphany/Just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you’ve seen.”
6. “this is me trying”
“I’ve been having a hard time adjusting,” Taylor sings, and we all agree.
“I just wanted you to know that this is me trying,” should be the subject line of every email and the name of every Zoom meeting.
“At least I’m trying,” should be our sign-off.
We are trying and honestly, what else can we do?
7. “mirrorball”
Here’s a song all about caring too much what people think about you, and since I am still over-analyzing things I said weeks ago, it hits home a little bit.
“When they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns,” she sings, “I’m still on that tightrope, I’m still trying everything to get you laughing at me.”
“I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try,” she continues. “I’m still on that trapeze. I’m still trying everything to get you looking at me.”
Sing as many songs as you want about trying, Taylor. These are trying times.
8. “betty”
This song, in the voice a 17-year-old boy named James, starts with some Bob Dylan harmonica and honestly you had me at the Bob Dylan harmonica. This song is classic Taylor Swift, in terms of telling a story about young love with zero artifice. But it’s sweet and catchy and basically a teen movie in a song.
9. “invisible string”
This song is a little bit ... upbeat? Hopeful? Positive? Bouncy, even? But I’ll take it.
“Time, mystical time, cutting me open, then healing me fine,” is a good reminder that time passes and pain fades and maybe, next year, we’ll be out at a park sharing food with friends.
10. “the 1”
“I thought I saw you at the bus stop/I didn’t though,” is one of those quick lines that tells an entire story in two sentences. Has Swift’s songwriting ever been like this before? Because that right there is a perfect line.
11. “my tears ricochet”
Apparently this song is about Swift’s former record label and honestly, yes. I approve of turning her usual talk about ex-boyfriends-thing into calling out a former employer. Another hallmark of being in your 30s, I think, is feeling more wronged by someone mistreating you at work than by a boy.
12. “Illicit affairs”
This song has some good lines like, “A dwindling mercurial high/drug that only worked the first few hundred times,” and “What started in beautiful rooms ends in parking lots.”
But, in terms of illicit affairs, “august” is just a far better song.
13. “cardigan”
This is the first single off the album, and while I will listen to it at least four times a day, it does fall back on some boring Swiftisms like describing clothes in a vague way -- “dancing in your Levi’s,” “an old cardigan under someone’s bed.”
What kind of Levi’s? What color cardigan?
But still, this song is the perspective of the not-other-woman in the teenage love triangle, the ethical and moral one, which is probably what it’s the most boring of the three songs.
14. “mad woman”
I like the sentiment here -- “When you say I seem angry, I get more angry,” is just very true. But in terms of this album, it just isn’t as great as the other songs.
15. “peace”
One of the great things about a lot of the songs on “folklore” is the concrete details. This song is a little vague, but Taylor’s voice is nice!
16. “hoax”
This is the last song on the album, which doesn’t do it any favors, because it means I have listened to it far fewer times than most of the songs. But it’s fine!
-- Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
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Tracks on Taylor Swift’s ‘folklore,’ ranked from best to slightly less best - OregonLive
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