Stream: Taylor Swift, ‘Evermore’

Kevin Bronson on December 10th, 2020

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When you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll.

That’s basically how Taylor Swift explains “Evermore,” her second surprise album release of the year. Her ninth full-length, it arrived tonight (Pacific time) as the companion to July’s “Folkore,” which garnered five Grammy nominations.

Aaron Dessner of the National, Jack Antonoff of Bleachers and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who were contributors on “Folklore,” return on the new release, as well as William Bowery (aka WB, aka actor Joseph Matthew Alwyn) and Haim.

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift wrote on social media. “To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in. I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with ‘Folklore.’ In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around.”

She added later, “I wanted ‘Evermore’ to represent fall and winter while ‘Folklore’ represent spring and summer.”

The release of the album coincided with the premiere of the video for “Willow,” featuring Swift’s direction and cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto.

||| Watch: The video for “Willows”