In The Spotlight: folklore by Taylor Swift

 

Welcome back to "In The Spotlight!" I'm finally back at working on this! This series started back in June as a bunch of reviews. If you haven't read an "In The Spotlight" before, you can click here to read the last one. It'll be a place to put my thoughts on a specific product into words. The format for this series will be the same as the last, so here are things I'll most likely discuss in each one.

• The Creator 
• The Item
• My Favorite Thing About It
• My Favorite Line
• Whether Or Not I Recommend It

    I have a few things lined up to put "in the spotlight" right now, but I'll need some suggestions! I would love to get some of those suggestions from YOU! If there is anything you would like me to put "in the spotlight," tell me in the comments! I really waited a while to write one for folklore (it was released in July so a really long while) because I wanted to hear more from Taylor Swift in interviews. With the release of the Long Pond Studio Sessions (which I absolutely recommend) though, I got to hear more details than I ever thought I would. (Last minute editor's note: this was written even before Taylor's ninth album, evermore, was even announced. So this post has no mention of the new album 😉) Let's get into it!

    -The Creator

Taylor Swift is an extremely successful American singer-songwriter who has had many moments in the media's spotlight (both good and bad). In 2019, she was nominated and awarded for being the AMAs Artist of The Decade among countless other awards. She released her first album at sixteen and had seven more albums follow after in in later years. Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation, Lover, and now folklore. I'm nearly certain that all of those reading this have at least heard of Swift and have listened to a song or two by her. You can check out her website here. 

    -The Item

    Folklore was a surprise album written in secret with no promotion except an Instagram post on July 23rd announcing the album's release. Swift's fans were enthralled the next day to see that the singer had released a music video "Cardigan" and the entire album, folklore. It was released only eleven months after it's preceding album Lover, a huge difference from the span of time in between Reputation and Lover, which was three years. The album was created in isolation during lockdown while the entire world was falling into chaos. Folklore is much less self referencing than the rest of Swift's repertoire and is categorized as a concept album. It also happens to be Taylor's first ever album with explicit content. In terms of songwriting, it leans toward escapism and romanticism.  

    -My Favorite Thing About It

    If you know me well, I have a pretty hard time picking a specific favorite thing. However, I think I have found three "favorites" about this album. The vocabulary, maturity, and imagination. Swift used words like gauche, wisteria, epiphany, hoax, elegy, calamitous, and insurmountable (just to name a few). Folklore touches on subjects like sexism, toxicity in a past relationship, and people pleasing (also just a few). The amount of imagination in this album is absolutely beautiful to me. She paints entire images using only words that just turn on my imagination. I can see the parties the Rebekah Harkness throws, the wisteria growing over cottages in England, soldiers at Guadalcanal, James, Betty, and Augustine. 

   -My Favorite Line

    During my first "in depth listen," I kept writing down lines that I would label as my favorite line. Eventually, I thought I had narrowed it down to a line from epiphany.

"Only twenty minutes to sleep

But you dream of some epiphany

Just one single glimpse of relief

To make some sense of what you've seen"

    But once the lakes was released, it all changed. 

-Whether Or Not I Recommend It

    I would only recommend it if I thought the listener was mature enough. Other than that, absolutely. The lyrics are a delight to the imagination, the melodies are chillingly ethereal, and Taylor's voice is as soothingly smooth. If explicit things aren't for you, there's also a clean version, so fear not. 😉 This album was just what we ordered to soften the blow of 2020 the terrible. The Long Pond Studio Sessions are just as wonderful and a delightful version of the album. The whole thing paints such a vivid picture in my mind and I would love for you to also experience the wonderous picture Taylor paints with her songs. 

-fin

    Thank you SO much for reading. It means so much to me that you do! I know that one of you (you know who you are) have been asking for this on my Instagram stories since folklore was released. So let's say that it's for you. 😉 Keep an eye out for a post on this site eight days from now (a super easy way to be notified is to follow or subscribe 😉), or for a post four days from now on She Be Fierce 2! I just published a gift idea list so go check it out!

Until next time,

KS