With the release of Taylor Swift’s eight studio album, I felt the desire to, given the continued tragedy that is the year 2020, analyze all the songs in great detail and post my thoughts. It took me many listens to the albums to fully absorb the lyrics and truly appreciate the music more, because this is definitely her least mainstream album. I know for a fact if somebody not named Taylor Swift released this album it would definitely be less successful.
That being said, here are my top 10 songs from album, in order from 10 to 1.
10. cardigan: this is her single, so it obviously gets a honorable mention. The song itself kind of bores me till the midway part though, where it builds up to an exciting climax. The “Peter losing Wendy” lyric definitely is the most striking portion of the song.
9. august: August always strikes me as a nice month, because as a teacher it kind of marks the end of summer / start of the upcoming school year. Because august 2019 was such a great month, I have no doubts my future augusts will be equally as thrilling.
8. this is me trying: “They told me all of my cages were mental, So I got wasted like all my potential”. I’ve always been of the mindset that ANY relationship can work out as long as both sides agree to keep trying. I hope Taylor Swift will continue to try to find love.
7. hoax: what a sad breakup song. If I was going through a terrible breakup right now, it would be particularly resonating. I’m sure if I listened to this song in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, or 2019 I would have cried.
6. mirrorball: And yet, I’d much rather listen to a happier song like mirrorball, as low key as the lyrics are. You have to listen closely to appreciate the happiness the song evokes though, because it definitely is not as pop-ish as Taylor’s previous songs.
5. betty: This song reminds me of high school. Even though I hated high school when I attended it, looking back with adult lens it was actually pretty fun. The teenage angst and occasional heartbreaks and rejections led to a desire to try to not conform, but I ended up doing so anyway. This song is like a mature version of “you belong with me” in a way.
4. the 1: And yet, I’ll never stop believing in the concept of “the one”. In this song, Taylor Swift is speaking to a past lover musing how much better it would have been if he would have been the one. As poignant as that is…. they’re obviously not the one if she didn’t end up with him. End of story. And yet, interesting to think about. Definitely a more mature version of Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away”. It would have been fun if you would have been the one.
3. invisible string: This song is nice, because it definitely parallels the concept of the one nicely. It is basically saying there was an invisible string that led her to find her lover. I think the idea of fate is nicely presented in this song, and it reminds me a lot of Rascal Flatt’s “Bless the Broken Road”, another favorite of mine.
2. epiphany: The perfect song for 2020. This song is about someone trying to find peace in their dreams despite living in a world of chaos and violence. I myself have always been a dreamer, despite things not always going well in the various stages of my life. This song would have been nice to have during my teenage angst years.
1. Exile: And we get to the best song of the album (in my opinion). It paints a beautiful portrait of a breakup, but is able to present both sides of the story both fairly and adequately. Sometimes two people are simply just not on the same page and ultimately incompatible. As sad as the song is, I find it quite lovely in its presentation and lyrics.
Thus concludes my review of Taylor Swift’s “Folkore”. The other 6 songs on the album are good too, but not particularly enough for me to say anything specific about them.
Here’s my rankings of Taylor Swift’s 8 studio albums with Folklore intact.
8. Reputation
7. Red
6. Taylor Swift
5. Folklore
4. Speak Now
3. Lover
2. 1989
1. Fearless
