A mere 11 months passed between the release of Lover and its surprise follow-up, but it feels like a lifetime. Written and recorded remotely during the first few months of the global pandemic, folklore finds the 30-year-old singer-songwriter teaming up with The Nationalâs Aaron Dessner and long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff for a set of ruminative and relatively lo-fi bedroom pop thatâs worlds away from its predecessor. When Swift opens âthe 1ââa sly hybrid of plaintive piano and her naturally bouncy deliveryâwith âIâm doing good, Iâm on some new st,â youâd be forgiven for thinking it was another update from quarantine, or a comment on her broadening sensibilities. But Swiftâs channelled her considerable energies into writing songs here that double as short stories and character studies, from Proustian flashbacks (âcardiganâ, which bears shades of Lana Del Rey) to outcast widows (âthe last great american dynastyâ) and doomed relationships (âexileâ, a heavy-hearted duet with Bon Iverâs Justin Vernon). Itâs a work of great texture and imagination. âYour braids like a pattern/Love you to the moon and to Saturn,â she sings on âsevenâ, the tale of two friends plotting an escape. âPassed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.â For a songwriter who has mined such rich detail from a life lived largely in public, it only makes sense that sheâd eventually find inspiration in isolation.
