when the greeks invented the word for myth, they found a place for all the stories they told and would continue to tell for years to come. when they found mythology, they also found logos. the infinite logic of trying to make sense of our own chaos as a people.

i’ve always been fascinated by the personal myths we keep close, woven into the fabric of our own folklore. i’m still working on piecing together the stories i tell myself. the stories we keep repeating even if we know the ending, because maybe this time it will be different. change the lyrics, the setting, the characters.

i can’t recall how many times i’ve listened to taylor swift’s surprise folk-pop album folklore since it dropped on midnight, july 24th. who knew the interminable summer of 2020 would coalesce into a surprise autumn from taylor swift? if folklore is a collection of taylor’s stories, then it’s worth studying why her folklore are the tales that are passed down and whispered around.


folklore: a review

speculation, over time, becomes fact. myths, ghost stories and fables. fairytales and parables. gossip and legend.

folklore extracts the indie essence of ryan adam’s 1989 cover album and taylor metamorphizes her own genre; reminds us these artistic elements have always been there: the melancholic undercurrents of her lyricism, the tight instrumentation that delivers sweeping catharsis.

i heard folklore described as a “halcyon album” — her fictionalized songs sprawl time periods and characters borne out of isolated imagination. her collaborators add folksy touches to soft vocals. it’s another revolutionary genre shift in her discography, but her emotional storytelling broods and ruminates; then coaxed this sound out of the woods.

this record invites an open contemplation of personal mythology and the stories we tell ourselves and continue to pass down. we will mythologize and tell tales of this era in history for ages to come; and here, taylor swift has woven her own song-stories into the lore. as long as we’re still listening.



  • first favorites: mirrorball, august, cardigan, exile (feat. bon iver), this is me trying
  • getting warmer: invisible string, hoax, the 1, the last great american dynasty
  • need more listens: illicit affairs, seven, mad woman, epiphany, betty, peace, my tears ricochet



goodbye lover—sunshine in the meadows of a hot july, iridescent sparkles and boozy frosé popsicles, phoenixes rising and pink-purple sunsets, the way light filters and scatters like a rainbow through a prism, and love like a heartbeat that plucks like a guitar chord.

greetings folklore—vanilla candles flickering in the cottage twilight; rain-soaked grass and long walks in the deep dark forest, that story about little red riding hood and her thoughts, her demons as the big bad wolf, and the quiet of isolation and first chills of the fall. we’re not out of the woods yet.



🕯



on the first listen

  1. the 1 — the opener! it’s a little bit upbeat piano jazz; feels like an old-timey, post wwi perspective. and her love for gatsby-esque references to the roaring twenties. sets a good tone and ambiance for the album to come.
  2. cardigan — the jaunty little piano chord that repeats is fantastic. the music video channels this ethereal, peter pan + wendy flying above the enchanted woodland aesthetic. this is the slowest of her album debut singles and (it’s finally one that i like) and establishes this era with such optimism. her lyricism here is a mature evolution of lover.
  3. the last great american dynasty — first, i’m in love with this title. second, she loves evoking the americana of the twenties with the robber barons. this is a grown-up sequel to red’s “the lucky one”; fits right in with when she dated a kennedy and spent her summers on the cape.
  4. exile (feat. bon iver) — hello bon iver ! welcome to the most ambitious musical crossover of all time. (2012 is shaking and would not believe this is happening). i love this and i will keep listening to it. “i think i’ve seen this film before; and i didn’t like the ending.” red’s “the last time” (feat. gary lightbody) grew up and got her heart broken again in this duet.
  5. my tears ricochet — it’s track five, cue the waterworks. it opens with choir-like vocals. lyrics are overwrought. nobody is shedding tears (and this title is cheesy). it’s not her best track five: all too well still retains its throne.
  6. mirrorball — love the 80s vibe of this, feels like a bonus track on a john hughes film that got left on the cutting room floor on 1989. just a good song to stand in the middle of a dance floor beneath the disco ball and sway to at the end of the night. the jack antonoff influences are strong with this one.
  7. seven — song title gets meta with this one; number 7 is called “seven” which is either lazy or genius. the instrumentation reminds me of another artist (will revisit this thought later), it has a little bit of late 1990s/early 2000s ballad in its DNA. these lyrics are not her best on the album. still unsure why it’s called seven. (well, this is about seven-year old taylor, but)
  8. august —dear taylor, thank you for giving us this album in july so our august will be bearable. this album is all i will be listening to next month. only taylor can rhyme “wine” with “mine” and make it work. this outro is phenomenal when the orchestration comes in and the slight key change is magical. i can almost forgive how cruel summer never became a single on lover because this one yearns with so much optimism.
  9. this is me trying — “i just wanted you to know / this is me trying.” wow, i have felt this a million times over. this is the softer sister of lover’s “the man”; a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be a woman in this world today, tomorrow, always.
  10. illicit affairs — did taylor swift just write a song about cheating and infidelity and make it beautiful ? because she did. this is the mature, no-nonsense version of red’s “girl at home.” less punchy, more somber.
  11. invisible string — red strings of fate are some of my favorite mythic symbols (very prominent in east asian folklore). this is “oh my god they were soulmates” in song-form. the lyrics feature a lot of clever turns of phrase.
  12. mad woman — repeated piano chords make a return, as does the POV of the vilified woman from lover’s “the man.” you can tell the concept of this song has been sitting in taylor’s subconscious for a while. but it sounds less angry, and more resigned. tired. (and taylor is tired of all of our shit)
  13. epiphany — is this her wwii song? there is going to be an indie movie about war released a few years from now that will play this song in the background when the soldier’s homecoming doesn’t quite work out as expected. “something med school did not cover” (i did laugh).
  14. betty — they said this song was about joe alwyn’s mom but instead it’s about a high school breakup? it’s a childish and more naïve in tone; sounds like a vestige of her fearless + speak now days but with bluegrass influences.
  15. peace — “our coming-of-age has come and gone” (this opening lyric is something i’ve thought about for a long time and will continue to haunt me). the last notes of this has bon iver fingerprints.
  16. hoax — she certainly likes her blues. at a time rampant with misinformation and conspiracy, she puts a romantic spin on hoaxes. chronologically, this is where present taylor is. fascinating that she ends her “folklore” on the idea of fake lore. what’s real; what’s not real?
  17. the lakes [bonus] — the poets have something to say about this and it’s in the way taylor spins a tale of fantasy and yearning out of her own tragedy and turmoil: “tell me what are my words worth?” we all want her to have her happy ending; if she doesn’t get it, she’ll write it herself.