Written and recorded in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift called the album "a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness" rising out of her imagination, manifesting vivid storytelling from largely third-person perspectives that detail introspection and escapism. [131], In Canada, Folklore opened at number-one on the Canadian Albums Chart with 47,000 sales,[142] giving Swift her seventh consecutive number-one album in the country; it spent four weeks atop the chart. [124] It also claimed eight of the top 10 spots of the global Spotify chart, with "Cardigan" at the top with 7.742 million streams, at the time marking the biggest single-day play count for any song released in 2020. [111], Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone lauded Swift's songwriting abilities that brought out her "deepest wit, compassion, and empathy", making Folklore her most intimate album so far. [154] The album reached number one in many other European territories, including Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland, the top-five in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and Lithuania, and the top ten in Hungary, Iceland, and Italy. In China, the album sold more than 200,000 copies in its first six hours of availability and around 740,000 copies in its first week, instantly becoming the best-selling and fastest-selling album of 2020 by a western artist.
The lines between fantasy and reality blur and the boundaries between truth and fiction become almost indiscernible. [138] After a two-week gap, the album climbed back to number-one with 87,000 units, for its final week atop the chart, making Swift the woman with the most chart-topping weeks in Billboard 200 history (47 weeks), surpassing Whitney Houston. To make the record that she made, while running against what is programmed in radio at the highest levels of pop music—she has kind of made an anti-pop record.

“Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.” For a songwriter who has mined such rich detail from a life lived largely in public, it only makes sense that she’d eventually find inspiration in isolation. [45][33] Swift styled herself for the photoshoot, including her own hair and makeup. Swift became the first solo and first female artist (after The Beatles) to have five albums each top the Billboard 200 for at least six weeks. [78] The digital cover artwork[79] depicts Swift in a misty forest with a morning fog in the distance, standing alone,[78] wearing a long, double-breasted plaid coat over a white prairie dress,[80] gazing "in awe" at the height of a trees-meadow. But Swift’s channeled her considerable energies into writing songs here that double as short stories and character studies, from Proustian flashbacks (“cardigan,” which bears shades of Lana Del Rey) to outcast widows (“the last great american dynasty”) and doomed relationships (“exile,” a heavy-hearted duet with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon). All 16 tracks of Folklore entered the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously, with three in the top-10: the lead single "Cardigan" debuted at the top spot, giving Swift her sixth number-one single in the US, making her the first act in history to debut atop both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously, while "The 1" arrived at number four and Bon Iver duet "Exile" at number six; the three tracks also opened inside the top-10 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the UK. [168], Music critic Tom Hull said that "judging from download counts and reviews", Swift has "caught the spirit of the times" with Folklore's "long, pleasant, intricate songs". It broke numerous records on streaming services, including the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day for an album by a female artist on Spotify. This made Swift the artist with the most Australian top-ten hits in 2020 so far. The Grammys have given Swift … People's Choice Awards Nominees List: 'The Old Guard', 'Birds Of Prey' Among Honorees", "Taylor Swift breaks 24-hour streaming record on Spotify for 8th album folklore", "From the back of the room to centre stage: Lime Cordiale sweep ARIA nominations", "Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Smashes Spotify Records As It Heads for the Biggest Debut Of 2020", "Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Off to Fast Start, Over Half-Million Units Earned in U.S. in First Three Days", "Taylor Swift Achieves Seventh No. [44], The opening track, "The 1", is driven by a danceable,[45] "bouncy"[30] arrangement of trickling piano, minimal percussion, and electronic accents. That’s the side of uncertainty I can get on board with.

[69][66], The standard edition closing track, "Hoax", is a slow piano ballad with emotionally raw lyrics that detail a flawed but lasting relationship,[53][16] ending the album on a despondent note of "hopeful sadness". Swift compares Harkness to herself, drawing parallels between the harsh criticism Harkness received to that of which Swift received throughout her career. [169], Credits are adapted from Pitchfork[12] and the album's liner notes. [117] Katie Moulton from Consequence of Sound appreciated Swift's lyrical maturity on the album, particularly the employment of third-person perspectives that had been uncommon on her previous releases. [145][146] Becoming Swift's first album to spend multiple weeks atop the chart, Folklore remained at number one for three consecutive weeks. Of the mere three nominations handed to the album, only one was in a top category (song of the year for the title track). [50][44] "August" is a gloomy pop rock and dream pop song[31] that captures the "summer fling between two young lovers"—a naive girl who is seen holding on to a boy that "wasn't hers to lose";[26] the boy is revealed to be James, later in the album. [57] It begins with a plodding piano and advances into a climax of chorused vocals, dramatic strings, synths[59] and posh harmonies. "Mad Woman" is a tense sequel to "The Last Great American Dynasty", and has been described as a scathing version of "The Man" (2019). [8], Several reviewers welcomed Swift's new musical direction. A cardigan that still bears the scent of loss twenty years later. [135] Folklore earned 98,000 and 90,000 units in its fifth and sixth consecutive chart-topping weeks, respectively, making it the longest-reigning number one album of 2020. [81] Vulture defined Folklore as "an eerie black-and-white indie period horror film" that pays "purposeful or accidental homage" to various cult classic films, especially A24 horror films, with the songwriting evoking visuals that allude to films and horror, citing the tracks "The 1", "Exile" and "Seven" as examples. [139], All 16 tracks of Folklore debuted simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including three top-10, five top-20, and 10 top-40 entries. Folklore's first-week sales alone were enough to make it the year's top-selling album, surpassing BTS' Map of the Soul: 7. [16] Bowery appeared to have no online presence and may be a pseudonym. Before everything, you need to calm down and listen to this. [80] W Magazine dubbed the cardigan the "piece de resistance" of the album's cottagecore-centred merchandise. For "The Last Great American Dynasty", Dessner arranged an array of electric guitars inspired by Radiohead's album In Rainbows (2007), which Swift wrote the lyrics to while Dessner was out for a run. Swift had an ingenious way of getting back into the Grammys’ good graces: she booked Bon Iver, who could be said to have taken some of her slots in the previous Grammy slate, to do a duet on her new album! I created character arcs and recurring themes that map out who is singing about who... For example, there's a collection of three songs I refer to as the Teenage Love Triangle. The standard edition of Folklore is about an hour and three minutes long, consisting of 16 tracks, while the deluxe edition adds a bonus song, "The Lakes", as the seventeenth track. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Editors’ Notes

It was a surprise album, released through Republic Records on July 24, 2020, eleven months after Swift's last album, Lover (2019). The album photos were shot by the amazing Beth Garrabrant. 1 Among Women in Billboard 200's History", "Taylor Swift's Surprise Set 'Folklore' Had 2020's Biggest Debut – Here's How It's Still on Top Five Weeks Later", "Taylor Swift Surpasses Whitney Houston for Most Weeks at No. [158] Moreover, each of the album's 16 tracks entered the top 50 of the ARIA Singles Chart simultaneously, breaking the all-time record for the most debuts in one week, previously held by Post Malone and Ed Sheeran; "Cardigan" became Swift's sixth Australian number-one hit, while "Exile", "The 1", "The Last Great American Dynasty" and "My Tears Ricochet" reached top-10. She won half of those, in what still counts as her biggest one-year Grammy haul to date, including the all-important album of the year prize. As an indie folk, alternative rock, electro-folk, and chamber pop album, Folklore marks a departure from the upbeat pop sound of Swift's preceding studio albums to mellow tunes driven by piano and guitar, featuring production from Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. But “Folklore” … Taylor Swift's the 1 is all about reminiscing about bad relationships. ", "Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Is The Fastest Album Of 2020 To Sell 1 Million Units", "Taylor Swift – folklore (Target Exclusive, CD)", "Taylor Swift Starts Frenzy at Indie Record Stores With Surprise Signed 'Folklore' CDs", "Taylor Swift sends 40 signed copies of 'Folklore' to Edinburgh record store", "All the Celebrities Who Received a 'Folklore' Cardigan From Taylor Swift", "Here are All of Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Chapters (So Far) in One Place", "Taylor Swift Wants to Sell You a 'Cardigan' Cardigan", "limited edition cardigan single collection", "Taylor Swift Debuts at No. She became its youngest winner, at 20, a record she held until Billie Eilish came along and got it at an even more tender age. [57], Sung from the perspective of a deceased lover's ghost, "My Tears Ricochet" is an icy arena-goth song[61] that reflects on the tension and toxicity of a past relationship, employing funereal imagery. Vote! Anyway, with the surprise release of “Folklore,” an album that was started and finished in quarantine, the Grammys have been handed a gift on a silver platter: the biggest album of the year has a narrative around its making that speaks to productivity and grace under pressure during COVID. It’s a matter of greater suspense now that this summer’s “Folklore” has become her best-reviewed album to date — which could augur for a boatload of nominations… or not. But maybe it’s not all that shady; the committee probably really just does love Bon Iver that much more. [80] Vogue opined that Swift opted for a pastoral palette, combining cottagecore and tall trees, and drew parallels between the album's aesthetic and the music video for Swift's 2012 single "Safe & Sound". Like a photo album full of imagery, and all the stories behind that imagery",[5] described "Cardigan" as a song that explores "lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently in our memories,"[6] and pointed-out the self-written track, "My Tears Ricochet", as the first song she wrote for the album.

When the year of “Reputation’s” eligibility rolled around, Swift got just a single nomination for the album… and it wasn’t even in a major category, but for pop vocal album (which she lost). [14] Dessner sent the song to Vernon, who liked the song, added his own lyrics and sang his part. “Your braids like a pattern/Love you to the moon and to Saturn,” she sings on “seven,” the tale of two friends plotting an escape. Despite being "striking", he singled out "The Last Great American Dynasty" as the only intolerable song for how it reminds him "all too much of Taylor Swift the showbiz plutocrat".
[44] The production slowly grows into a dramatic setting with Swift's "ghostly" reverb-drenched vocals.

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