Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ is unexpected
News from nme.com
This summer, Taylor Swift was meant to headline Glastonbury.
In fact, she was meant to be playing a whole host of festivals and shows on an international tour as well as hosting her own two-part ‘Lover Fest’ in America, all in celebration of her sixth studio album ‘Lover,’ which was released last August).
The global pandemic, of course, meant these plans were scrapped, leaving Swift with bountiful spare time.
No longer locked into rehearsals or jetting around the globe performing to tens of thousands, she used these hours to write.
The results of these unforeseen quarantine writing sessions have come together on Swift’s new, eighth studio album, ‘Folklore.’
She’s uncharacteristically ‘done a Beyoncé‘, announcing the album less than 24 hours before it drops, a stark change to the very deliberate, calculated release schedules we’ve seen from Swift in the past.
In a simple statement posted to social media, she acknowledged that she’d usually wait and release the album at the “perfect” time, but said the global situation acted as a reminder to her that “nothing is guaranteed.”
These shock release tactics go hand-in-hand with a change in musical direction for Swift; ‘Folklore’ is something totally unexpected from one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Over the course of seven albums, we’ve seen Swift evolve from a fresh-faced, teenage country crossover hopeful to sleek synth-pop chart-juggernaut.
