As soon as the first leaf hits the ground and all the coffee shops have started brewing their autumnal drinks, there is only one thing left to complete the happiness felt while wrapped in a jean jacket and plaid scarf: putting on your favourite album reminiscent of fall. For many of us, that album is Taylor Swift’s 2012 masterpiece Red. Though a handful of songs from each of Swift’s albums recount the end-of-summer days and imagery of the “pumpkin patch and the tractor rides” beg us to question “why all the trees change in the fall,” nothing compares to the sixteen tracks from that album.
From the opening drums of the first track “State of Grace” to the acoustic guitar and accordion of the closing of the song “Begin Again,” fall wouldn’t be the same without this album. With lyrics like “autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place” (and basically every single lyric of “All Too Well”), all the listener wants to do is drive a new Maserati down a street admiring “the colours in autumn so bright just before they lose it all.” And for the past eight years, this album seems like the closest I’ll ever get to being hugged by our Lord and Saviour, Miss Swift. It was a hug that lasted for two years before she broke away in August of 2014, when she announced that her next album would be her “very first documented official pop album.”
On October 27 of that year, 1989 was released, in which her usual accompaniment of the banjo, violin, and steel guitar were replaced with trumpets, a snare drum, and a synthesizer. For those of us who grew up with Swift grinning about Music Row, the Bluebird Cafe where she was discovered, and the slew of women in the country genre, we always thought she’d stay our pop-country princess forever. This shift wasn’t much of a surprise for anyone who had been a dedicated fan, as each album has had pop versions of the country singles, and Red was the final hurrah of teasing fans for the eventual crossover. Though 1989 broke records and created a song that will never go out of style, would she ever consider transitioning back to country music? In 2014, several media sources and critics predicted that one day she would eventually put out something reminiscent of her roots— perhaps an acoustic album? However, subverting these predictions that she would retreat to her original genre, Swift’s following two albums, reputation and Lover, proved that she was not finished with pop music.
The reputation album itself held nearly no indication of her country roots, besides prompting me to dream of what a stripped-down version of “Call It What You Want” would sound like. The era of this album, however, held many surprises for country fans. On March 31, 2018, Swift performed at the legendary Bluebird Cafe, where she was discovered by the founder and CEO of Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, back in 2004. Starting with “Better Man” —which she gave to Little Big Town, along with other hits—she didn’t stop there for the resurgence of yee-haw Swift. The Reputation Stadium Tour saw Swift performing with country legends Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Maren Morris, and Sugarland. Yet, one of the best things that came from this era was arguably the video for “Look What You Made Me Do”, which broke the internet and hit a record for the most views (43.2 million) within twenty-four hours. The most intriguing part of the video was Swift making me recall a tweet from 2012 where she stated, “I’ll never change, but I’ll never stay the same either,” as a pyramid of “old Taylors” fight to climb their way to the top. From the Junior Jewels camp shirt featured in the “You Belong with Me” video to the Ringleader costume worn for The Red Tour, seeing all of these “old Taylors” might have been her way of saying goodbye to the personas she formed under the contracts with her former label, Big Machine Records. On the other hand, all of these “versions” of Swift standing together was also a reminder that there is no “old Taylor,” but rather they unify all of the aspects that make her the artist and woman we love.
And just like clockwork, two years later, we received Lover; the album that makes you love love, and which also almost convinced me to fly out East to find my own “London Boy”. When “ME!”, the first video and single of the album was released, Swift scattered a myriad of references to the upcoming Lover era throughout the video. From the not-so-hidden album title to the portrait of three chicks, connecting to a collaboration with The [Dixie] Chicks on track twelve (also hinting at their eventual return to the music industry), I was at least convinced that there might be a song reminiscent to a track from Fearless. This album was also more lyrically connected to Swift’s previous work, such as realizing that love might not “burn red,” but that it is in fact “golden.” Even “Paper Rings” sounds like a matured version of “Speak Now”. So, what was next for Swift, especially as the pandemic saw the cancellation of the Loverfest shows, ultimately making 2020 the cruelest summer of the twenty-first century? For most of us who used the time in quarantine to build our Animal Crossing villages and binge Netflix shows, it also seemed like Swift was using this time to relax. However, when so many of us thought that “the old Taylor couldn’t come to the phone because she was dead,” she was resurrected—posting about the release of her eighth-studio album, folklore, on the morning of July 23, 2020.
A grayscale, black and white photo of Swift standing in a misted forest, wrapped in a double-breasted plaid coat; a message about the details for the album; the tracklisting; teaser image of the music video for the single “cardigan” that would premiere that night; and a link to pre-order physical copies was all she gave to tide her fans over for the proceeding sixteen hours of waiting for the music to drop. When you’re dealing with the Shakespeare of the twenty-first century, sixteen hours is nothing (and it certainly does not provide a lot of time for Swifties to piece together any secret messages or themes). The album instantly brought speculations of Swift fulfilling all of our cottagecore aesthetic needs, with the album artwork featuring her in a forest, a cabin, and even “walking on a [broken] cobblestone” fence. The aesthetics of folklore reminded fans of her collaboration for the song and video “Safe and Sound” with The Civil Wars for The Hunger Games soundtrack, the aesthetic of her home state Pennsylvania, and told us that maybe we should go back into the woods. To top it off, this album would mark the first time since the Red album that a single of Swift’s would land on the country charts with “betty”. Performing the track at the American Country Awards on September 17 would also be the first time in seven years that she attended the show. Would this prove those critics right from all those years ago and prompt her to eventually compose more albums of this alternative, nostalgic to 2006-2012 Swift, ethereal bandage?
folklore is knotted together by many tales and triangles (that are “sad, beautiful, and tragic”), which lead to characters being tied in a single thread, encouraging us to hold onto the happiness felt when dancing under a disco ball, and describes the honour felt for someone’s sacrifices. Though some of the stories told on this album are in fact about fictional people, such as the story about Rebekah West Harkness on “the last great american dynasty,” this actually mirrors Swift’s past affinity of writing about women she admires, as the Red album features “The Lucky One” about Joni Mitchell and “Starlight” about Ethel Kennedy. Even the track “seven” is hauntingly nostalgic, almost reminding me of my own childhood filled with playing in the woods with my kindred spirits, which matured into the type of relationship Swift sings about in “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” Beyond the lyrics, Swift dresses herself in prairie dresses, black boots, and that gorgeous cable knit cardigan, the kind of clothing you’d wear on an early Sunday morning before heading out to the garden. Everything that makes up folklore is enough to give the Red album an autumn off for a change.
folklore is Swift hugging me once again, wrapping me in my own cardigan, pouring a chai latte, and pressing play on “the 1,” reminding me that she will never stay the same, but she will never change, either. Since the album was released, I have waited for the leaves to change colour, for the weather to be cool enough so I can wear a plaid scarf and a jean jacket and drink a PSL, just so I can take a walk and contemplate if I’d rather be Betty or Inez, and how I most certainly would tell James to… well, you know what.
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