At the end of 2020, Taylor Swift decided to brighten up a bad year by surprising her fans with an album! Read on to see how she pulled it off and what people thought of the surprise album Evermore…
Folklore’s Sister
When millions of Taylor Swift fans woke up on December 10, they had no idea she would release a new album that day. In fact, almost no one did! Evermore came out of nowhere, with Swift releasing it with no pre-promotion, much like her album Reputation. However, Evermore feels most like Swift’s last album, Folklore. It also contains a host of fantastic collaborations with musicians and songwriters like Haim, The National, Bon Iver, and William Broad.
Once the surprise album finally hit streaming services, Swift could finally talk about the writing process, which was uber-secret. “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in,” Swift said. “I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released.”
Swift now believes she has moved onto another part of her career, and the critics seem to agree!
A Change Of Pace
Just like Swift’s last album Folklore, Evermore included a host of visuals and music videos, all released at the exact same time as the album. This time around, she worked with editor Chancler Haynes, set designers Ethan Tobman and Regina Fernandez, and visual effects geniuses Grant Miller and David Lebensfeld. It makes sense why Swift would combine her approach from Reputation and Folklore. Both sold incredibly well, and the latter earned six Grammy 2021 nominations.
Meanwhile, the critics have loved Evermore. “It’s a refreshing change of pace: Swift’s usual approach to dabbling in new genres or sounds is to go balls-to-the-wall, but on Evermore, she’s just as good at curating these more detailed production flourishes, all with the same contouring and meticulousness as she does with her best lyrics,” said Claire Shaffer of Rolling Stone. Swift’s songs also get inspiration from her life – and she’s visibly worried about her characters without a happy ending. Creations like “Happiness” are ones telling listeners all about her life situations. Although songs about breakups and love are the singer’s special talent, this album is unique and a clear vision of Swift’s new persona.
“Swift touches on so much more – nuanced acts of forgiveness, complex personal histories, the ability to visualize and know how a person can look in different shades of light,” Shaffer stated.
Sources: RollingStone, Variety