folklore Tracklist
After building a musical catalogue based on her own life and experiences, Taylor Swift focuses on telling others' stories on folklore, her eighth studio album that she recorded “in isolation” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike her previous album rollouts, it wasn’t preceded by any press or fanfare—Swift announced it via social media a mere sixteen hours before its release.
Most of the collaboration on the album was done in isolation, with co-writing and production by Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Swift’s favorite bands, long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and the mysterious William Bowery, who Swift later revealed to be Joe Alwyn, her boyfriend as of the album’s release.
The songs tell various stories about both real people and fictional characters — notable examples include “the last great american dynasty,” which Swift wrote about Rebekah Harkness, and “betty,” about a teenage boy apologizing to a girl he cheated on. The latter is part of what Swift calls the “Teenage Love Triangle” — it intertwines with “cardigan” and “august.”
Swift announced the project with a series of Instagram posts that made up the album cover, before revealing the title and tracklist. She also shared that the music video for the lead single, “cardigan,” would premiere that night. The announcement for her next album, evermore, which is supposed to be a companion album to folklore, followed the same pattern. A few weeks after the album’s July 24th release, she made a deluxe edition that offered bonus track “the lakes” available in stores.
folklore quickly became Swift’s most-acclaimed project to date, with a solid grade of 88 on Metacritic and nearly universal praise. Within three months, the album sold one million copies, making it the first and only album to collect that many U.S. sales in 2020. It went on to win Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammy Awards, boosting Swift to become the first woman and fourth artist overall to win Album of the Year three times.
Swift teamed up with Disney Plus to create a documentary called folklore: the long pond studio sessions in November 2020, filmed at The National’s Long Pond Studios in Hudson Valley, New York. The movie features performances of every track on the album, as well as interview clips where Swift talks to her collaborators about each song.
“folklore” Q&A
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Translations
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What has Taylor Swift said about this album?
In isolation my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory. I’ve told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve. Now it’s up to you to pass them down. folklore is out now.
—via Twitter (July 23, 2020)
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How did Taylor Swift announce the album?
On July 23rd, 2020, Taylor Swift posted a series of black-and-white photos on her Instagram page.
At the same time, she issued a statement on her Twitter account:
Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise! […] I’ll be releasing my entire brand new album of songs I’ve poured all my whims, dreams, fears and musings into. I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine. […] Before this year I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed. My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should put it out into the world. That’s the side of uncertainty I can get on board with.
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How did Taylor Swift reveal the tracklist?
On July 23rd, 2020, Taylor Swift announced the tracklist of her surprise album via Twitter:
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What has Aaron Dessner said about working on "folklore"?
Aaron Dessner shared on Instagram:
I was excited and honored when Taylor approached me in late April about maybe writing some songs remotely together. I had been isolating with my family but writing a ton of music in the first months of quarantine which I shared. I thought it would take a while for song ideas to come and I had no expectations as far as what we could accomplish remotely. But a few hours after sharing music, my phone lit up with a voice memo from Taylor of a fully written version of a song – the momentum never really stopped.
Over the next few months, we remotely finished 11 songs (She also recorded several others with the amazing @jackantonoff) of her magical new album “folklore”. I’ve rarely been so inspired by someone and it’s still hard to believe this even happened – these songs came together in such a challenging time…. I’m very proud of all these songs and profoundly grateful to @taylorswift for inviting me into and trusting me in her process. She is one of the most talented, hardworking and deeply caring artists I’ve ever encountered. There’s a palpable humanity and warmth and raw emotion in these songs that I hope you’ll love and take comfort in as much as I do.
(edited for clarity)
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What has Jon Low said about working on "folklore"?
Out at midnight is Taylor’s new record, “folklore”. It was such a pleasure recording and mixing a bunch of these songs while holed up at Long Pond. It’s hard to believe what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time especially working completely remotely. Even in extreme isolation this dream crew couldn’t have been more trusting and inspiring the entire way. So honored to be a part of this work…
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What is "The Teenage Love Triangle"?
Swift explained in a livechat the night of folklore’s release:
There’s a collection of three songs I refer to as The Teenage Love Triangle. These three songs explore a love triangle from all three people’s perspectives at different times in their lives.
The songs are “cardigan,” “betty,” and “august.”
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What guitars did Aaron Dessner use on the album?
Dessner shared via Twitter:
I play a 1950s Kay acoustic that old style guitars refitted with flat wound strings and a rubber bridge….1960 harmony acoustic with nashville high strings, 1970 ooo-18 Martin acoustic ….1965 Gibson firebird and a 1971 telecaster mainly on the records! [For ‘peace’ I used a] 1972 fender precision bass ….I’ve had for more than 20+ years
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What has the media said about the album?
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone praised the album, saying:
She’s always relished her dramatic creative zigzags, but this is easily her most audacious move, full of story-telling depth she’s never come close to before. Some of us have spent years dreaming Taylor would do a whole album like this, but nobody really dreamed it would turn out this great. Her greatest album — so far.
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How was the album received critically?
folklore is Swift’s most acclaimed album to date — it received a 94 critical score and 9.6 community score on Metacritic on its release day.
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How did this record perform on the charts?
folklore debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 during the chart week of August 8, 2020 after selling approximately 846,000 copies during its first week of sales.
The record has the highest selling debut week of any album thus far in 2020 and is the highest selling record since Taylor’s last studio album, August 2019’s Lover, debuted at #1 on the chart with 867,000 records sold during its first week of sales.
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Is there an animated artwork for this album?
Yes, Apple Music features an animated artwork for this album.
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What certifications has the album received?
folklore is certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.
