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lochsides · 3 years

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evermore: Track-by-Track review

I didn't think I'd be writing another review for a Taylor Swift album so soon after folklore but here we are. Truthfully though, evermore feels more like a figment of my imagination than a real album, and as a result this album has been a grower for me. When Taylor said evemore would be the sister record to folklore, I was curious as to the distinguishable differences between the two, because Taylor wouldn't simply give us the same album twice. evermore is, strangely, both the wild younger sister that's more experimental and the wise older sister with a mature outlook on life. Where folklore was a product of isolation, evermore is a product of creativity and that can be felt in the music.

I’ve written my thoughts and theories on each song, and bolded my favourites, below the cut, if you’re interested. I also included my current ranking at the bottom.

Taylor has been very good at picking leading singles for the folklore/evermore era. willow is brilliantly catchy while maintaining the alternative folk sound that she established in folklore. Her vocals suit the song so well, especially on ‘follow’/“hollow” in the chorus. They pair so beautifully with the mesmerising production. The reason this song is one my favourites is purely because of the rhythm and the guitar. The lyrics are, for once, a bonus. As an entry point to evermore, willow does not ease the listener in, the song instead throws the listener in the deep end — which I feel was intentional, as Taylor said evermore was the product of wandering further into the folklorian woods.

champagne problems is easily my favourite song on this album. Storytelling is Taylor's biggest strength as a songwriter and I think this song is a achingly beautiful example of what an emotive storyteller Taylor is. It would be so difficult for me to pick a favourite lyric from this song but I love how she sets in train in the opening line, "you booked the night train for a reason, so you could sit there in this hurt / bustling crowds or silent sleepers, you're not sure which is worse." The accompaniment is gorgeous and the composition of the bridge is breathtaking. Every time the bridge plays I get chills.

gold rush was a grower for me. I'm still not a fan of the intro/outro but I enjoy the production in the rest of the song once the beat kicks in. I think it's one of the more experimental sounds on evermore but it's very catchy. I won't even talk about how the chorus called me out with "I don't like slow-motion, double vision in a rose blush, I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush."

'tis the damn season is the non-holiday-holiday song that still has a classic sound and production. I know this song is Dorothea's perspective but I get a lot of illicit affairs parallels with this one as well: "don't call me baby" / "you could call me babe for the weekend", "what started in beautiful rooms ends with meetings in parking lots" / "the road not taken looks real good now, time flies, messy as the mud on your truck tires".

tolerate it is a hard song for me to review because I literally zone out every time I listen to it. I think it's my brain's way of protecting me from toxic relationship trauma 🙃 but it's another gut-punch track five, what else is new? I mean she literally said "now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life, drawing hearts in the byline, always taking up too much space or time," and broke my nervous system.

no body, no crime is the best country song Taylor has ever written, period. The sirens at the start, the storytelling, the way it sounds like an old-school murder-mystery movie. HAIM on the backing vocals were great, though I do wish they had at least a verse of their own. That's literally my only critique of this song. It's that good.

There's so much maturity in Taylor's outlook on happiness. I connect this song to her tarnished relationship Sc*tt/BMG and how she's happy after leaving but she was also happy during the time she was with them. I really enjoyed the simple addition of the piano and the way it built up to add depth to the production. Taylor's delivery of the line "no one teaches what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him too" really hits me.

dorothea is a really nostalgic, retro school-dance-vibe, kinda playful song with a personality, which I adore. The production is absolutely timeless. I woke up today with the chorus stuck in my head. I think "if you're ever tired of being known for who you know, you know, you'll always know me" is fun word play and I'm a nerd of that type of thing. (Side note: to me, this song feels very reminiscent of her friendship with Karlie Kloss, right down to the "selling makeup in magazines.")

coney island gives me desolate, abandoned theme park vibes. The simplicity of the production only enhances it. It's everything I could've hoped for in a song titled "coney island" and featuring The National. Matt Berninger's vocals are absolutely astounding. What does it say about me that my favourite aspect of this song is the feeling of despair laced into its bloodstream.

ivy is another favourite but what did I expect from a song filled to the brim with longing and mentioning the crescent moon? The instrumentation and her vocal styling is similar to willow. There are also lyrical parallels of "... your freezing hand, taking mine" / "I'm begging for you to take my hand" and "how's one to know I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bone" / "I never would've known from the look on your face" and she echoes both those sentiments in a different way after the respective bridges and I wonder if that's intentional. Knowing Taylor Swift, probably.

cowboy like me belongs in the center of a country/folk/slow blues Venn diagram. It's the perfect blend of the three genres. Marcus Mumford's back vocals sound so good with Taylor's. "We could be the way forward, and I know I'll pay for it" and "the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up" are great lyrics.

I'm not all about the way long story short stars but the song quickly settles into its skin. This is easily the most pop-sounding song on evermore but it's still somewhat experimental in comparison to Taylor's existing discography and I think it's cool that she can find space to experiment within a musical space that she has all but mastered. Say what you will but Taylor Swift knows how to make hits no matter the genre. The lyrics "he's passing by, rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky and he feels like home" reminds me so much of Call It What You Want.

marjorie gave me chills on the very first listen when Taylor sings about how her grandmother left her backlogged dreams to her. I love that they used her grandmother's actual vocals in the background, that's a really heartwarming detail. This song comes with some really solid advice too. It just feels very personal. I love the way production builds on "what does didn't stay dead" right to the bridge, which is my favourite part of the song.

closure is easily the most experimental song on the album with that the scratch tape sound and those drums. I love the sheer pettiness in her tone and the lyric "don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled" is brilliant. That said, this is probably my least favourite. I think it's a cool song but just not for me.

evermore has some of the most beautiful lyrics on the album. "I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone, trying to find the one where I went wrong" and "barefoot in the wildest winter" are some of my favourites. I'm not a big fan of the sudden shift in tempo on either end of the bridge but Justin Vernon's falsetto makes up for it. The production is otherwise beautiful.

Note that the bonus tracks are currently at the bottom because they have not been released yet.

#taylor swift #evermore #reviews #music #ts

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eusuntgratie · 4 years

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1, 2, 7, 8, 15, 16, 23, 28, 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bi asks | ask me

1. who was your childhood male crush? who your female crush?

i had it bad for brad pitt a la Legends of the Fall. I still REALLY love long haired men, but I was pretty much exclusively attracted to long haired men in my youth. and apparently my weakness for pretty men crying started LONG AGO. I’ve had a crush on Salma Hayek since forever <3

2. when and how did you realize you were not straight?

heh. so i’m a bit of a weirdo i guess. or maybe my story is just the result of growing up in a heteronormative society and being able to pass as straight. i’ve always been attracted to women and gender non-conforming folk, and i’ve always been drawn to, felt supported by, and felt protective of the queer community. i never had a lightbulb moment, but in the last couple of years, i actually spent some time thinking critically about and claiming an identity. i usually use pan but i’m good with bi too :)

7. what is the most stereotypical bi thing about you/that you do?

i feel like there’s this perception that bi/pan people are attracted to everyone (like literally every human), and i’m not, but i do crush on people easily, i don’t have a type and am attracted to a really wide range of humans, and almost always find a person i enjoy ogling in nearly every scenario (shows, movies, bars, whatever). my lovely husband is VERY used to me lusting after AT LEAST one character in nearly everything we watch and listening to me ramble about why they’re pretty. we watched SNL last night and during kate mckinnon’s cast intro i was like “i LOVE her” and you could HEAR the heart eyes in my voice and he was just like “babe i know you tell me literally every time we watch SNL”.

8. describe your style

what style? i never leave my house anymore 😂

typical day if i’m not dressed for work & plan to work out - high waisted workout leggings, a strappy sports bra, and a cropped shirt if its warm or a sweatshirt or something if its cold. baggy sweats and a hoodie in the evenings if its cold enough. jean shorts and tshirts in the summer, leggings or jeans and sweaters or flannel and boots in the winter. I’m almost always barefoot. I dress up infrequently but I do love to wear fancy dresses or jeans and cute tops with heels and lots of bright makeup and eyeliner. so basically, zero effort (sweats or workout clothes and no makeup) or a nice outfit and full face of makeup. no in between, except for work, but zoom life means i don’t really wear my work clothes right now.

15. your favorite queer novel?

probably call me by your name. i’ve read it a lot and i really love the aggressively first-person-ness of it...being totally immersed in every thought that pops into elio’s head because it reminds me of when I was his age and how i thought about love and attraction then. obviously i love the movie too. I haven’t read enough queer fiction, though. i have a bunch of bi books on my list for my next bookshop order that i’ve been meaning to make for like six weeks. if y’all have recommendations, send them my way.

16. your favorite queer movie?

brokeback mountain. i love the movie, but i also have such strong memories around it that i think that’s what makes it my favorite. it came out when i was in college, and i went to school in a small college town, so me and my friends drove a couple of hours to see it. we had planned to make a night of it, go out to eat after, and i just remember us all staring at each other at dinner, still sobbing. once we stopped crying, we talked about the movie all through dinner, through the drive home... i had a bunch of really great conversations with people in college because of that movie. one night in our dorm lounge in the basement a group of us stayed up all night talking about queerness and masculinity and attraction. i watch it every year or two, and it always rips my heart out. if i’m in the right mood, just the chords from the theme song will make me start crying.

23. what’s something that makes you fall for a person immediately?

i’m an actions speak louder than words kinda person. i need to see that somebody will do what they say they will, that they’ll take care of me, that they can deal with the shitty stuff. watching someone competently do something they are good at is just... oof. i’m also super duper tactile, so i’m a big fan of lots of flirty touching and dancing and touching for no reason and hand holding and hugging etc. etc. etc. y’all get three guesses why I love bucky so much.

28. what is a dating/relationship deal-breaker for you?

not doing the fucking work. i don’t expect my partner to be good at everything, but i damn sure expect him to try and to work as hard for us as I do.

and smoking. being around cigarette smoke makes me want to cut out my own lungs. i can’t with that.

30. what childhood moment makes you think “I should’ve known I wasn’t straight back then”?

i don’t know. i might not have one, which is lame. i never hid my attraction, i just let my relationships dictate my identity, i guess. so i never had this aha moment of like “oh shit i’m not just into men!”; i’ve always known that. and I don’t know that ever really thought of myself as straight when I was young, just like I didn’t really examine or think about my whiteness until I started doing racial justice work. i don’t know. I dated men and ended up marrying a cis man and I didn’t really critically think about my own identity beyond that. that sounds so utterly ridiculous and lame, but its true. I think if I hadn’t been raised Catholic I probably would’ve dated other genders, but its also not as if there was a girl I wanted to date and didn’t because i was scared; i think it was a lot more layered and complex than that. well that’s not an answer at all, but there you go!

💗💜💙

💗💛💙

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