I don’t know what made Taylor Swift think her Folklore album warranted a quick follow-up à la Justin Timberlake’s 20-20 Experience, but here it is; another album of middling folk songs.

Aaron Dessner is still at the helm; Jack Antonoff falls back for this one; so the soundscape is fittingly similar, along with that arid forest landscape Swift seems to be enamored with these days.

It’s called Evermore because “Folkmore”, while cute, would’ve induced smiles and Swift seems to take herself dead serious here. Even a song about Happiness pushes the feeling off into the distance.

To be clear, this album is mind-numbingly conventional. Swift’s singing, not her lyrics but her melodies, is bland, which isn’t to say that it’s bad. I can Tolerate It. For Evermore? That’s going a bit too far.

my rating : 3 of 5

2020

If there’s a sense of Folklore surrounding Taylor Swift, it’s high school alumnae gushing to their acne-ridden successors over her “like amazing” musical talent. I’m much less impressed. She has some good songs, including False God from her previous album, but they’re far and few between. Her music is mostly middling and this album is no exception.

With Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff at the helm, it’s a solemn; in one case Illicit; affair. This isn’t pop music in the loud electro-synth sense. Taylor Swift tips a hat to her country and western roots on the opp-gender love ballad Betty, but these are mostly “like folk songs”, which makes for easy listening. It’s also thoroughly unremarkable and a little bland.

my rating : 3 of 5

2020

audio review : Evermore ( album ) … Taylor Swift