Taylor Swift confirms her position at the top of popular music with her second album this year.
Taylor Swift surprised in the spring with an unusual album Folkore, which introduced the singer in an intimate indie form. But one record wasn't enough for her this year. A few days ago, she released a sequel called Evermore. Like Folkore, this year's second studio was announced just moments before its release and many well-known names appeared – for example, girl band Haim, The National and singer Bon Iver. Evermore follows its predecessors both musically and lyrically and expands on the themes that formed the core of folkore.
Folklore Taylor Swift album (source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Folklore (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was a surprise album, released through Republic Records on July 24, 2020, eleven months after its predecessor, Lover (2019). With production from Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, Folklore eschews the upbeat pop of Swift's previous albums for mellow ballads driven by piano and guitar. It is mostly described as an indie-folk, alternative rock, and electro-folk album while a few classify it as pop. Swift wrote and recorded the album during the COVID-19 pandemic, conceiving it as "a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness" out of her imagination. As opposed to her signature autobiographical themes, Folklore manifests vivid storytelling mostly from third-person perspectives that detail escapism, introspection, and nostalgia, which reflects in its cottagecore aesthetic.
Folklore received universal acclaim, with emphasis on its relaxed atmosphere, emotional weight, and poetic lyricism. Many critics dubbed it a bold move for Swift to experiment with indie genres unconventional to her usual styles, and publications listed it amongst the best albums of 2020. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, the album and its songs garnered five nominations, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year. Folklore broke many streaming records, such as the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day for an album by a female artist on Spotify. According to Republic Records, Folklore sold two million copies in its first week globally. It reached number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and many other countries.
Debuting atop the Billboard 200 chart, Folklore was Swift's seventh number-one album in the United States, and the best-selling album of 2020. It spent eight weeks at number one, making it the longest-running chart-topper since 2017. All of its 16 tracks entered the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. The lead single "Cardigan" became Swift's sixth US number-one single, making her the first act to debut atop both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously, while "The 1" and "Exile" opened at numbers four and six, respectively; these three songs further reached top-10 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK. A documentary on the making of Folklore with a performance of its songs, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, was released on November 25, 2020, alongside its live album. Swift's ninth studio album, Evermore, is a sister record to Folklore.
