Folklore
Folklore is the best album made by Taylor Swift. Many critics
like to argue “Taylor Swift only knows how to write about exes” but
this album proves their words wrong.
The songs were all based on Swift’s imagination rather than a
mirror of her own life. Her previous albums stood as certain
moments in time, whereas Folklore is transcendent. It can take place
anywhere and it can take place anytime. The album is one giant
story.
Due to the entire album being made during a pandemic, Swift
focused more on lyrics rather than music making the album more enjoyable. This paid off because
with Folklore, Swift earned five grammy nominations. She earned Album of the Year and is her
3rd album to get this award. Swift is one of 3 people to hold 3 albums of the year. It was a great
comeback after her 5th album Reputation received no nominations and her 6th album Lover only
received 1 nomination.
However with this album her goal wasn’t fame. In her past albums she would usually
spend months promoting the album, teasing fans with easter eggs, and would release a few singles.
With Folklore she announced it the day before the album came out. Her low key approach on this
album ended up shining a lot of light on this release. In fact Folklore was the biggest album debut
by a female artist on Spotify with 80.6 million first day streams. (beat on Nov. 12th by
Red (Taylors Version). It is also her bestselling album selling more than 1.04 million copies.
This album is very different from others which consist of country and pop. She took a
different approach and focused on telling stories and focusing on new perspectives. Track 3 titled,
“The Last Great American Dynasty”, is a beautiful story about Rebekah Harkness, the woman
who previously owned her Rhode Island mansion. In Track 5, “My Tear Ricochet” she uses
some funeral imagery to talk about a failed relationship. These put the listeners in the main
character’s shoes so they can experience the emotions, rather than just listening to her sing about
them.
The stories in this album were so beautiful that she had to continue them in her 9th studio
album “Evermore.” Evermore dubbed as Folklore’s sister album was released 4 months after
Folklore. There are some great tracks on there including my favorites “Champagne Problems”
or “No Body, No Crime.” Both albums are beautiful and amazing in their own ways but
Evermore is just a copy of Folklore that didn’t really workout. With Folklore each song flows
beautifully into the next. For example in her song August she uses the lyrics “Meet me behind a
mall” implying meeting behind everyones back or an illicit affair, which is the title of track 10 on
Folklore. Whereas Evermore features a bunch of different styles like some upbeat songs, medieval
styles songs, and even a sort of holiday song. A song that’s often ranked last on this album and I
very much agree with is “Cowboy Like Me.” It’s a very lifeless song about a romance in a
saloon? I don’t even know what this song is, it’s just very weird. I also don’t like cowboy’s. I
honestly even just forget that song is even there. Another not so great song on Evermore is the
deluxe track “It’s Time Go.” This song has no hook, no passion, no life and it’s the worst way to
end an album. Of course there are some ok lyrics in this song but it’s definitely not a good way to
end a song. It’s very all over the place a little disorganized if you ask me.
My own sister is arguing for Evermore being Swift’s best album which makes me very
embarrassed we even share a last name. She has been known to say that Reputation is the best
Taylor Swift album numerous times, but isn’t arguing for that album? Folklore is the sister most
people enjoy and I am the sister more people like, so it is very fitting that she is arguing for
Evermore. Evermore is also like a bad sequel and my sister really has a thing for bad sequels. In
fact she has said many times that ‘Thor: A Dark World’ is better than “Thor”. I know.
Disappointing. All I have to say to close this argument is that Evermore is a bad sequel.
Now let’s talk about 1989. I’ll admit I did say it was the best album and I wanted to
write about it instead. But my feelings have changed. My argument was so compelling I changed
my own views. In both albums Swift changed her music style. Both are very remarkable era’s
and remarkable albums with amazing songs. The only difference is that 1989 has a few skips.
Swift definitely has a way with lyrics but there are some songs in this album that say otherwise.
Take Track 8 “Bad Blood” for example. If you haven’t heard it, let me break it down for you. It
is three minute of Swift saying “Cause baby now we got bad blood, You know it used to be mad
love, So take a look at what you’ve done, cause baby now we got bad blood” and then Kendrick
Lamar raps a few verses. There is literally nothing to this song. I honestly don’t even know why
it’s even included in her discography. This album consists of a few amazing songs such as,
“Clean”, “Style”, “Blank Space”, “I know places”, and “Wildest Dreams” and they’re just
mixed in with a bunch of meaningless filler songs. I think the reason this album did so well is
because of its beautiful deluxe tracks which are by far some of her best deluxe tracks.
Now let’s compare how well the three albums performed. As I mentioned before, Folklore
debuted with 80.6 million first day streams whereas Evermore debuted with 67.4 million
streams. I do not know the exact number for 1989 but it isn’t even in the top ten. Folklore debuted
at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed for nearly 8 weeks and broke the record for the most
cumulative weeks at no.1 for women. Folklore had 12 songs with over 100 million streams, 1989
has 7, and Evermore has 4. 1989 has been around for 6 years longer than Folklore, so that’s just
sad. This is just a small fraction of the records that Folklore smashed in its short time on this
planet.
As I near the end of my argument I do want to point out that both my fellow writers used
English teacher Mr.Hokannen as a “source” to endorse their arguments. While I appreciate him
allowing us to write this article, he never fails to admit that he regrets letting us write this, so we
can’t ever trust anything that comes out of his mouth. In fact he has lied many times saying he
used to be a part of a rock band. He also has admitted thousands of times that he doesn’t even like
Taylor Swift, so I do not think he can be used as a “trusted source.”
To conclude, Swift has 9 amazing albums containing amazing music. But Folklore is
definitely the shining star.