This just in: Taylor Swift, mother of three (cats), has announced that she’s dropping a new album on July 24 midnight EST—that’s 12 p.m. on the same date for us. “Surprise,” she casually tweeted out, leaving every part of me snatched and broken and cleansed.
“Folklore” is the title of her eight album, and all of its 16 songs (17 including the bonus track) were written while under quarantine. “I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine; Aaron Dessner (who has co-written or produced 11 of the 16 songs), Bon Iver (who co-wrote and was kind enough to sing one on one with me), William Bowery (who co-wrote with me) and Jack Antonoff (who is basically musical family at this point).”
You might recognize Dessner from being part of The National (“Queer Eye”’s Antoni Porowski once confessed that he and Swift bonded on the set of “You Need to Calm Down” over their shared love of the band), Bleacher’s Antonoff as pop music’s current golden child and Bon Iver from being Bon Iver. Meanwhile, Rolling Stones has theorized that Bowery, who has virtually no Internet presence, might be an alias. (Considering she once used “Nils Sjöberg” as her writing alias, I wouldn’t put it past Swift to convince someone to make use of an alias to work on her album.)
“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,” Dessner wrote about the album in a tweet.
Laura Sisk, who co-engineered “Folklore,” was also the sound engineer behind Lana del Rey’s “Norman F*cking Rockwell.” She’s not the only “NFR” alum on this album; Serban Ghenea, who does the mixing, also mixed del Rey’s opus.
I don’t think I’m the only one who’s been furiously hitting up my group chats and updating multiple stan accounts (I’ve written “taylor you audacious b*tch i love you” like, four times now) tonight. Point of order: Who else is getting major “Safe & Sound” (and the less pop, more folksy and rock side of “Red”) vibes from the promotional photos that’s been released so far? Track five, which historically is where she places her most heartwrenching songs in an album, is literally called “my tears ricochet,” and I’m fully prepared for my heart to ricochet away, too. I’m also fully a Gaylor stan, so I’m definitely eyeing “Illicit Affairs” and “Mad Woman.”
Aside from the album drop, Swift will also be releasing a music video for the album’s lead single “Cardigan.” Considering her track record for lead singles, I haven’t entirely gotten my hopes up, but I’m excited nonetheless.
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