Folklore

The best of the best. Folklore is arguably one of Taylor's best albums and many people would agree. Folklore was released during the peak of quarantine in July of 2020. It is an album that took a complete turn from Taylor's original music and usual performance. This album is soft and vulnerable with sounds we have never heard from Taylor before.

Taylor has said that these songs are less from personal experience and are songs that tell stories of others. One of the songs on the album, "this is me trying," is a song from the perspective of someone battling with addiction or alcoholism. I didn't know that until I watched Taylor's Disney Plus special Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions. The special came out during quarantine as well, and was the first time Taylor got to perform the songs from Folklore. She talked about the meaning of several songs, which is where she talked about "this is me trying." A couple of other songs that she talked about were "august," "betty," and "cardigan." These three songs tell a story of a love triangle from three different perspectives. "Betty," from the perspective of a a boy named James who was unfaithful and got with a girl named Augustine. "Cardigan," is from the perspective of the original girlfriend Betty, and "august," is from the perspective of Augustine. All three of the songs are incredible and a fun fact about both "betty," and "august," is that at the two minute and forty second mark they both talk about the same incident where Augustine drives by James and picks him up. Another song called "My Tears Ricochet," is about Scott Borchetta and what he did to Taylor. You can read about that in the post about what "Taylor's Version" means. It is genuinely impossible for me to pick a favorite song on Folklore because every song is amazing. If I could recommend any album for people to listen to then I would recommend this one.