Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Taylor Swift, Republic Records 2020.
Taylor Swift needs little introduction from me, after all she has sold over 200 million records worldwide and amassed 10 Grammy awards in the process.
When she burst onto the music scene in the mid-2000s she was definitely a country artist however it was her fourth album, Red (2012), that that saw her move into the mainstream charts and the follow-up 1989 (2014) was pure synth-pop.
Her latest album, Evermore, follows hot on the heels of Folklore, both of which were released in 2020 during the pandemic and continues her return to her roots which began with Folklore.
It’s hard not to see these two albums as part of the one project.
They go together like a hand and glove and both include contributions from Bon Iver, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dressner.
Evermore is possibly less folky than Folklore however both albums contain much of the same DNA with Evermore leaning a little more to country than folk.
Many songs contain the country/folk instrumentation that appeared on the previous album, especially in song intros, and there’s a conscious decision to shun most of the tropes of pop.
Pop does poke its head up every now and then on the track No Body No Crime for instance however the emphasis is always on the story and not on the hook.
The decision to move away from her pop base hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of her fans.
Folklore sold two million units in its first week and Evermore has followed up with more than a million sales in the same time period.
This means that Taylor has knocked up the amazing achievement of having her last eight albums sell over a million units in their first week of release, I can’t think of too many artists that have achieved that.
And each of those eight albums debuted on the Billboard top 100 at number one.
I must admit that I’m enjoying Taylor Swift’s output since she’s become less pop orientated.
I’ve come to appreciate her song writing which I’d always overlooked in her earlier albums.
