Study in Prolific ‘- Manila Bulletin

Taylor Swift is a prolific study on her second new album of the year and overall the ninth album titled “Evermore”. Released just under five months after the entrenched appeal and back to basics of “Folklore”, the new album finds Swift on a songwriting hot streak.

Like its predecessor, “evermore” (styled all lowercase as such) is a laid-back affair with minimal or small Swift production. Instead of goodbye songs and boyfriend burns, Swift focuses on popular storytelling that sometimes has a gothic twist.

Beginning with American-style “Willow,” in which Swift sings in falsetto with catchy refrains of “the more you say, the less I know / wherever you stray, I follow / beg you to hold my hand / you ruin my plans.” , That’s my man.’ And later, she sings ‘life was a willow, and it bends straight to your wind / but I’m coming back stronger than a 90s trend’.

On “Champagne Problems,” Swift employs a widely used harmonic progression, but from its familiarity, the song continues to roll like a new movie in our mind’s eye as Swift sings about a man whose girlfriend breaks up with him the night he planned. propose to her.

Taylor abandons love stories and instead evokes narratives. One of them, about a date in “‘Tis The Damned Season”, about a woman who returns to her hometown and meets an old love who is already married. She masterfully sums up the story in just a few verses as she sings ‘There’s a pain in you, put there by a pain in me / so we could even call it / you could call me’ babe ‘on the weekend.’

With fifteen songs, there is a lot to chew on here: themes of pain, adult love, and indeed there are even murders as in “No Body, No Crime”, in which Swift, with the help of the country trio of sisters Haim, let your imagination run wild. We meet characters like the tragic East (killed by her husband in “No Body, No Crime”), the TV star “Dorothea”, the elderly widow of “Ivy” and her grandmother in real life in the beautifully emotional ballad ” Marjorie. “

Style-wise, there’s soft, gleaming pop (“Gold Rush”), piano-covered ballad (“Tolerate It”), ambient songwriting (“Happiness”), medium tempo pop (“Long Story Short”). and sound experimentation (“Closure”).

As with “Folklore,” Swift had The National’s Aaron Dessner produce much of “evermore.” Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon also appears on the title track.

This album is the brother of “Folklore” as Swift herself said. And the reason that led Swift to create both albums? To this Taylor Swift said: “I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea of ​​many things these days, so I have held onto the one thing that keeps me connected to all of you. That thing has always been and always will be music. And let it continue forever. “

And on that note, May 2021 will be a prolific year for those who yearn to create good things. Whatever it is; a song, a restoration, a construction project or whatever. I hope everyone finds the time and momentum to do so. Don’t let anyone’s opinion of you and what you plan to bring into this world become an obstacle. As a saying that I once found somewhere said: the world needs something new.

Happy New Year and a much better 2021 everyone!