Taylor Swift has gifted catchy and easy listening soundtracks to our lives in the mall, supermarket, or on the radio. Now it is time to look closely at her more personally. In the past few years, she has faced many struggles in her life. Slut-shaming, body-shaming, sexual assaulting, the fraud with Kanye West, and lately with the copyrights issue with her old record rebel ‘Big Machine Records’ are just some examples of what Swift has been through. Scott Borchetta, the CEO of the rebel, makes an offer to Swift that she will have the right to perform her songs from the album that she signed a contract with her old record rebel only if she agrees not to re-record copycat versions of her songs and obviously, she wouldn’t.

On her previous albums, she mostly writes it out from her own love life, experience or feeling. As we are listening to it, it is like we are seeing Swift’s life through her songs as a documentary. Then the whole her-own-experience lyrics have been changed after the release of complete tell-tale album folklore, her latest album evermore is still ambiguously considered as tales. It stands out from the others as the line between fiction and non-fiction is blurry. However, paying attention to the lyrics is not a requirement but rather a suggestion to enjoy more than just a song that runs through your ears but a song that could give us an experience of marvelous stories from numerous perspectives of a storyteller.

                    Swift began her career with the country genre. Her first single in her country era is 'Tim McGraw' on TaylorSwift (debut album) in 2006. A year later, she released her extended plays(EP) Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection followed by BeautifulEyes in 2008. Then she released Fearless in 2008, and Speak Now in 2010. Swift started her pop era with Red in 2012, an album with a mixture of pop and country music. As her once-in-a-two-year release goes on, 1989, a complete pop album, came out in 2014. In 2017, Swift made a striking came back with a single of her new album reputation. Last year, it is time to begin her indie, folk-pop era with folklore, and followed closely by her latest album evermore.

Swift’s 9th studio album evermore working with Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, and Jack Antonoff is, as always, narrated from Swift’s personal perspective. Even though the songs are mostly considered as ‘tales’, not her own anecdotes, it still consists of glimpses of country and pop from her previous albums. 

Jack Antonoff is the lead singer of indie-pop band Bleachers and a producer that casually co-writesSwift’s songs whom Swift trusts to be one of the firsts to listen to her new songs. He was part of Swift’s two 'Album of the Year' winners on Grammys Award 1989and now folklore. He also co-writes and produces songs with many talented artists like Lorde with her outstanding album melodrama and Lana Del Rey with her album Norman Fucking Rockwell!. When his name appears on a song as a co-writer and producer, an expectation of the songs from the fans has been highly increased. His works with Swift were considered successful with amazing songs on Swift’s albums; for instance, 1989’s 'Out of the Woods', reputation’s 'Getaway Car', 'Look What You Made Me Do', and folklore’s 'betty'.

Metacritic, a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, etc, gave evermore 85 metascores and 9.5 user scores. An article on Explore Entertainment points out “Swift's lyric-writing abilities feel leveled-up on Evermore, its characters drawn in pointillistic detail.”

Now, before we officially look closely into the detail of the two albums, cheers to Swift’s third time winning ‘Album of the Year’ at the Grammy Awards with folklore. 

Watch her stunning performance here.

In quarantine, being confined in quarantine, Swift cannot physically go out so she let her mind wander free generating fictional tales together with realistic stories into the two albums. In three months, she finished writing folklore, and then not long after, she wrote its sister album evermore. She confirms that evermore is folklore’s sister album and releasing it feels like she just has a complete conclusion. Folklore is a wondrous assemblage of tales and stories that Swift had made up. The album concept is escapism from reality as the album cover is Swift standing alone in the middle of gloomy folklorian woods in monochrome.

Evermore is more like a sequel of folklore than a polar opposite sister. Folklore is quite an indie album and Swift adds a sense of poetic lyrics to it, and it also inherited to the sister evermore. It gives off a sense of continuity. The music video of evermore's ‘willow’ is corresponding to folklore’s first single in 'cardigan' even the melody carry on. In‘cardigan’, Swift is lured into the piano and it takes her to a wonderful place that she has never been before. Then again, she steps into the stool and it all shifts into a disaster, bad experiences come flushing at her. She holds on to the piano that is the only way to escape from the flood of her bad experiences. When she comes back to her own room, cold and blue, putting on the cardigan. Even though she and her loved one are apart but when she looks back, she thinks about what her loved one used to say as in the lyrics “and when I felt like I was an old cardigan”// “you put me on and said I was your favorite”. It calms and soothes her with its warmth. The melody continues as the song is ending and it connects with the beginning melody of ‘willow’. In ‘willow’, this time, she found her right one. She doesn’t need anything else except for her man that she truly loves, with the lyrics goes as you know that my train could take you home // anywhere else is hollow.

In folklore, 'illicit affair' and 'august' are songs about an affair. 'Illicit affair' indicates what you have to do as an affair. Too many don’ts in the illicit relationship but still keep on doing it because it is too late to pull yourself out, he already got to you. You have to be invisible, cannot leave anything that is yours in his room even your scent. It makes you feel like you are a mess or a fool for even want to ruin yourself for him. And in ‘august’, it is reminiscing temporary happiness with a person who cannot be yours. You have to hide, to meet in a secret place while hoping deep inside that someday the person will be with you. Its lyrics, ‘cause you were never mine // Back when I was living for the hope of it all // “Meet me behind the mall” is quite clear about the story. Then the song 'it’s time to go' from evermore, it is about when you know the place that you’re in isn’t fit for you so it is a sign to withdraw from it. It is like being an affair, it is totally the position that you should stop and get yourself out of it.

Folklore ends with 'hoax' the song that shows how broken one can be. Listening to folklore seems like living in the album cover, standing beneath a gloomy atmosphere and an overcast sky which fit so well with the bonus track 'the lake's'. While evermore album cover is like a looking back to the woods that she just got out. The closing track 'closure' gives off a sense of integrity which shows the growing up from ‘hoax’. It is a healing from the past even though she is still working on trying to move on, it is still counted as a progression. To move on without anyone's permission as in the lyrics from the last track ‘evermore’// I had a feeling so peculiar// this pain wouldn’t be for evermore.

Swift attentively choose a title for each of her album. For evermore she has chosen ‘willow’ for continuity of the story from 'cardigan’' and the melody that is effortlessly get hooked on. Some say the album is a lullaby for making them want to sleep while listening to it for its dullness. Even so, Swift has spectacular abilities to write lyrics that are extraordinary yet relatable to the listeners’ experience. It could be about exes, family, friends, love, or heartbreak.  Give it another try or maybe two and focus on the lyrics for a better experience. Other than the catchiness of the song like repeatedly sings “Oh, no body no crime I ain’t lettin’ up until the day I die” with the change of tense and time as the story goes on.

Listening to evermore can give a compelling mythical experience that Swift delicately wrote out with its excessive use of words could charm the listener by its fancy way of narration. For example, in ‘goldrush’ instead of saying ‘I don’t like being drunk’ she uses ‘I don’t like anticipating my face in a red flush’. Lyrics can be related to almost every story of the listener. Even some who are single still can jam with the songlike they are so in love. Or if one is in a super healthy relationship, they will feel the heat of fighting with their loved ones or even heartbreak. Swift could write sad songs about a life experience that listening to them soothe you or have you go to therapy. For a song that can make you feel things, I'd suggest 'champagne problems'. Champagne problems is a song about a woman who wasn’t ready to accept a proposal from her loved one but couldn’t give the reason. Asin the lyrics, I never was ready, so I watch you go// Sometimes you just don’t know the answers// 'Til someone’s on their knees and asks you. Soon after she refused, people started the gossip about how sick she was// “She would’ve made such a lovely bride”// “What a shame she’s fucked in the head.”

Swift has been writing many genres for an album and gathers them within the theme. She adds a glimpse of previous albums into evermore. Country songs return in folklore's 'august' and evermore’s 'no body no crime' ft. HAIM and give off completely different vibes. People who have been missing her Fearless era pretty much enjoy the songs. Evermore is noticeably an album with coherence in mood and tone. A line that separates states and reality is rather blurry. That blurry line allows Swift to slip country and pop music in evermore to reminisce her prior eras. 

Evermore is remarkably different from Swift’s previous album with its sound and melody that is much darker and gloomier. It might be hard to enjoy it the first time but evermore is an album worth listening to.