Evermore by Taylor Swift: An album review

By Gabrielle Wilkinson

‘Wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark,’ from the Billboard 100 track ‘Willow’ resonates to fans as Taylor Swift announcing her surprise album Evermore mere hours before its release.

The alternative folk album with snippets of pop and country pays homage to her genre-shifting discography, whilst she ‘travels further’ into the ‘forest of the folklorian woods’ (as described on Instagram).

 With Folklore being released 5 months earlier than its sister album Evermore, there was instant pressure to compete with its storytelling genius; and Taylor did not disappoint. Recording at Long Pond studio in Hudson Valley, Taylor brought back her Folklore collaborator Aaron Dessner to create the 14-track album, reaching Number One in 10 countries.

‘No Body, No Crime’ is the instant standout as a country murder ballad. Drawing similarities with popular country breakup songs like ‘Before He Cheats,’ Taylor takes it one step further into a sinister rabbit hole of revenge. Taking the listener through an imaginative and dark interpretation of a murder, Taylor acts as the avenger for the killing of her friend Este. Sirens at the start put the listener in the aftermath of the death before the feature of American rock band HAIM adds a menacing undertone, dictating the piece with ‘He did it’, before the instrumental plays. 

Facing privacy invasions for her entire music career, the album acts as a breath of fresh air to albums such as Reputation where speculation among the press ran wild. This included the synonymous Kardashian feud that saw her ‘cancelled’ after the editing of a leaked phone call between Kanye and Taylor. Instead, Evermore is quiet with any real-life experiences hidden between poetic lines that reference classics like The Great Gatsby and characters like Dorothea, who left her hometown to chase a better life. Using the album as an act of escapism, Taylor silences the ‘she only writes about her boyfriends’ brigade.

‘Tolerate It’ is the crowd pleaser, and it is not hard to see why. Telling the story of a woman who is not treated right by her husband, Taylor capitalises on a harsh reality that many women can relate to. When removed from the Eras tour set list to make room for her new masterpiece ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, there was (and rightly so) outrage given it is one of the most dramatically vulnerable pieces. Taylor can be seen ‘laying the table with the fancy shit’ before a man enters the room and ‘tolerates it,’ ending the scene with walking away in defeat to the reality of unrequited love. 

We can all relate to a longing for escaping in the heights of lockdown and this album perfectly captures that feeling. No song encapsulates the heartache of lockdown like ‘Marjorie’, which delicately demonstrates the regret and heavy grief after the death of a loved one that we did not do or say enough. Taylor flows between the racing thoughts that occur with lines written with simplicity: ‘should have kept every grocery store receipt’ before looking forward to the future with more hard-hitting ‘I should have asked you how to be.’  Demonstrating the terrifying uncertainty of a life without their guidance, the clever snippets of backing vocals from her grandma’s opera singing tapes provides comfort to her fans that lost loved ones are never too far away.