Taylor Swift - folklore (July 24, 2020) Album • Page 96

All of it tbh. But it's especially cool that Aaron called out the In Rainbows influence he used on the last great american dynasty. Even cooler that the world now has a TS record with nods to Radiohead.

I wrote that after we’d been working for a while. It was an attempt to write something attractive, more uptempo and kind of pushing. I also was interested in this almost In Rainbows-style latticework of electric guitars. They come in and sort of pull you along, kind of reminiscent of Big Red Machine. It was very much in this sound world that I’ve been playing around with, and she immediately clicked with that. Initially I was imagining these dreamlike distant electric guitars and electronics but with an element of folk. There’s a lot going on in that sense. I sent it before I went on a run, and when I got back from the run, that song was thereOn folklore being recorded somewhat on-the-fly: “I prefer records when they have an element where the paint is still wet. We’re allowing some paint to be human and raw, so [collaborations were] not hired out too much. That was important to me, and that was important to her, too. That is definitely different from her past records.” [laughs].

She told me the story behind it, which sort of recounts the narrative of Rebekah Harkness, whom people actually called Betty. She was married to the heir of Standard Oil fortune, married into the Harkness family, and they bought this house in Rhode Island up on a cliff. It’s kind of the story of this woman and the outrageous parties she threw. She was infamous for not fitting in, entirely, in society; that story, at the end, becomes personal. Eventually, Taylor bought that house. I think that is symptomatic of folklore, this type of narrative song. We didn’t do very much to that either.

 

Huge surprise for me. On this listen - i've bumped this up from "loved" to AOTY contender

 

Out of curiosity - since the vinyl doesn't ship for 16 weeks, would those sales count this week, or do they not count until they are shipped?

 

From the vulture track by track article:

So, is folklore secretly a new Big Red Machine album? Dessner coyly offers, “I mean, you might not be far off the truth there, but I think I won’t say more.”

Just thought about the possibility of a new BI or BRM track in the future that features some chopped up TS vocals or something and got really excited.

 

A new rumor is making the rounds that William Bowery is actually Harry Styles. But why would Harry write exile and then not sing on it? That makes no sense.

 

I know that Taylor Swift fans are known for their crazy conspiracy theories, and this is more than a little bit tinfoil hat-ish, but something about the way Aaron Dessner keeps very pointedly and carefully saying "William Bowery, the singer / songwriter" every time that he is mentioned just really makes me think it's a pen name for someone else / other people. I feel like you much more often get something like where he'll just say "Jack" and the writer of the article will add (Antonoff) for clarity.

Counterpoint: this could very well be explained by the fact that this person is the least well-known of the collaborators, all of whom are well-renowned musicians on a worldwide level.

 

If I ever attend a TS show, it'll be in a t-shirt that just says "WHO IS WILLIAM BOWERY?"

 

Ah shoot, I want this. Any way you can copy/paste and send me a PM?

 

i got you

 

As a Harry styles fangirl I do like to believe that her music video with the underwater piano is a nod to him and his video but, and I say this is all the love in the world, I feel like he wouldn't write a song that good

 

this just made me laugh audibly at my desk

 

they’ll count for this week, I think the rule starts in October

 

I used to be in the camp of being pissed off at the recording academy for telling Taylor Swift that she had to either choose pop or country after Red. Well I've definitely changed after sitting with this album for a few days. I personally don't think we would have gotten here without the last three albums. I feel like her songwriting has grown so much after spending the last 7ish years writing for a massive pop hit.

 

I just did a personal ranking of the songs cus I don't feel like working and it became laughable. Putting something like exile in the bottom 4 just because something has to be there is such a great feeling. This is a masterpiece

 

I still found exile to be clunky on second listen (and I'm a big current BI fan). However a lot of the rest of the first third really opened up. still really love mirrorball and invisible string.

 

Dessner sending Taylor the music for “cardigan” at 9pm and Taylor turning around and finishing a song around it (a beautiful one at that) by 2am is just insane to me.

same thing with last great american dynasty. I mean come on.

 

agree. The story of this record coming together is fascinating. really fuels my appreciation for it. can you imagine testing out a creative partnership with someone new and the first three things that come out are cardigan, seven, and peace? incredible. you would have to be out of your mind not to chase that dragon further.

 

if william bowery is a real actual man singer/songwriter, why didn't he at least sing the man part on the demo?

 

For sure! And if I understand correctly, didn't they start working on this in April? Only 3 months of work and we got THIS?!

 

i can think of a few reasons, there are likely more...maybe their voice didn't fit the song, maybe they wanted to remain anonymous to not steal spotlight, maybe they just wanted to have some fun and invite some intrigue into everything, maybe it's social commentary on how easy it easy to irk us (humans) since we live in a time where access to information is so easy that not knowing something drives us INSANE.

 

His last album is really good but not good in that way lol. But if it does end up being him, I will repent!

 

Since Taylor won’t make any merch that doesn’t say “THE folklore ALBUM” I went ahead and made some for myself.

 

This made me want to make a list of dope eighth albums:
- Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love
- R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People
- Joni Mitchell's Hejira
- The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers
- Jay Z's The Black Album
- Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
- The Cure's Disintegration
- Red Hot Chili Peppers' By The Way

 

Damn. The three bolded above are my fav of each of those artists. Didn't know how late in the game Dark Side was.