“Willow” by Taylor Swift, Monday, August 14, 2023
We’re reliving pop-era Taylor Swift in the middle of the Midnights album cycle and on the cusp of Swift rereleasing her game-changing record 1989. Even the re-record of Speak Now seemed to bypass its original country twang and highlight a pop-rock Taylor. But before we’re welcomed back to New York, especially as the summer is winding down, I’m drawn to the Taylor Swift that’s not quite Nashville, not quite L.A. but somewhere in Appalachian folklore perhaps lost forevermore. I’ve written a lot about folklore, but that release eclipsed the equally surprising release of evermore. While folklore was a more cohesive record, evermore was the album on which Taylor Swift gives herself permission to experiment in what could have been her new sound for the ‘20s.
WRECK MY PLANS; THAT’S MY MAN. Taylor Swift begins her experimental album evermore with a song that could have easily been released on folklore, “willow.” Similar to “the 1” and “cardigan,” “Willow” didn’t immediately draw me in. It took several listens to get this album, mainly because evermore's charm isn't so much its musicality but its lyrics. There are a few obvious hooks on the record--"gold rush," "no body, no crime," "'tis the damn season" were the immediate stand out tracks for me. The lyrics of these songs paired with pop and country hooks immediately pulled me into Swift's storytelling. But virtually every track, especially the slow ones boast her dynamic storytelling, from "happiness," which deals with the end of a long-term relationship, which sounds foretelling about her break up with Joe Alwyn to scenery-painting on "coney island" to the tale of a scammer in "cowboy like me," evermore is an album for the road or an afternoon at home--not so much for the gym. It seems that evermore exists just as an outlet for writer's flow. After finishing folklore, Swift had more to write. Whereas folklore was a collaborative effort between Swift, Alwyn, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff, evermore only sees Antonoff's production one of the tracks, "gold rush."
I KNOW THAT MY TRAIN COULD TAKE YOU HOME. The first track, "willow," feels like a single because Taylor Swift had to promote a single from the album. Maybe that's how fans took it too, because "willow" debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 before plummeting to #38 the next week--a record at the time for a second week plummet. Essentially, "willow," with its plucky rubber-bridged guitar sounding like a banjo, achieved what an artist like Phoebe Bridgers or Sufjan Stevens couldn't pull off with a similar-sounding song. In the '60s and '70s, many famous singers with their plucky guitars could take their hits to the pop charts, but "willow" proved that only the name recognition of one of the world's biggest pop stars could pull off that feat. But that one-week success wasn't replicated with any of the other tracks released as singles came close to the success of "willow." And "willow" did worse than "cardigan." And when Swift went fully back to pop on her 2022 release, Midnights, "Anti-hero" eclipsed any of the success from folklore and evermore. In another reality, we could be living in a world where Taylor Swift became a sort of Katy Perry--a failure on one album set the singer up for misfire after misfire. We could be in the middle of a Taylor Swift re-release revival without the drama of her tenth album. We could see a dignified Swift sitting in armchairs performing her songs on NPR Tiny Desk, aging gracefully like Carole King. I'm not arguing that Taylor Swift is any less dignified for going back to pop. I'm glad that she is able to blend both worlds, but I would like to see more projects like folklore and evermore.
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