TRACK REVIEW: Taylor Swift - cardigan

TRACK REVIEW:

Taylor Swift

PHOTO CREDIT: Republic Records

cardigan

9.6/10

The track, cardigan, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-a8s8OLBSE

The album, folklore, is available here:

https://shop.virginemi.com/taylorswift/

RELEASE DATE:

24th July, 2020

GENRES:

Indie Folk/Alternative Folk/Chamber Pop

ORIGIN:

New York/Los Angeles, U.S.A.

LABEL:

Republic

PRODUCERS:

Aaron Dessner/Jack Antonoff/Taylor Swift

TRACKLIST:

the 1

cardigan

the last great american dynasty

exile (featuring Bon Iver)

my tears ricochet

mirrorball

seven

august

this is me tying

illicit affairs

invisible string

mad woman

epiphany

betty

peace

hoax

__________

I reviewed Taylor Swift last year…

when her album, Lover, was released. Though I liked the album, I felt that it was, perhaps, a little similar to other stuff out there and was not as strong as I made out. I think I got caught in this fever that met the album, and I was caught up in that wave! Not that Lover was a weak album: it was a very strong one, but I think she has made a huge leap with her new album, folklore. I have waited a couple of days to review something from the album, as I wanted to let the album sink in and have a good listen to all of the songs. It seems, as NME reported, that folklore has been breaking records:

“Representatives for Swift have confirmed that the album sold over 1.3million copies around the world within the first 24 hours of its release. Additionally, she has also broken records on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music with the album.

‘Folklore’ has now set the global record for first day album streams on Spotify by a female artist with 80.6million streams. It is also the most streamed album on Apple Music in 24 hours with 35.47million streams, and has set the indie/alternative streaming record in the US and worldwide on Amazon Music (no figures have been shared)”.

I will look at various aspects of Taylor Swift and her music soon, but I like the concept of a ‘surprise release’. This is a concept that has been going for a while, whereby a big artist will not give too much notice of an album, and that sends people into a frenzy. Taylor Swift announced the release of her eighth studio album, folklore, earlier in the week, and that sent the Internet into meltdown! This is a thing that is more associated with bigger acts, the surprise release. I do not think it would have the same impact for a smaller act, and it would definitely not generate the same hype.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pari Dukovic for TIME

I do not think the reason (for a surprise release) is to get attention and stand out. Instead, it avoids all of the machine and strain of normal promotion. Usually, an artist has to go through many stages, and the whole process of promoting an album is so elongated and structured. I can understand why Taylor Swift would decide to release folklore in the way that she did. Instead of garnering a lot of focus and all this pressure, she had already created an album, and felt that it was best just to release it with very little notice. The tone and flavour of folklore sort of suits a gentler impact – though there was so many people tweeting within hours of the album being announced! I shall move on, but I am interested in the surprise release phenomenon, and why artists do it. I think Lover was more of a traditional Pop album, and I think the album did need the normal promotional approach: if it were surprise released, I think it would have been a mistake. Instead, folklore is a different sound altogether, and I do not think the endless videos, teases and tweets would have suited the album. Another thing that is worth mentioning is not only the sonic shift between last year’s Lover, but the sense of progression and quality. Again, not to suggest the last album was lacking, but I think the lyrics are incredible on folklore, as are the compositions, and Swift’s vocals are much more engrossing. That said, I think Lover was a move away from the exclusively Pop territory, and it did head into Indie realms. In fact, when Swift spoke with Rolling Stone to promote Lover, that question was raised:

“In some ways, on a musical level, Lover feels like the most indie-ish of your albums.

That’s amazing, thank you. It’s definitely a quirky record. With this album, I felt like I sort of gave myself permission to revisit older themes that I used to write about, maybe look at them with fresh eyes. And to revisit older instruments — older in terms of when I used to use them. Because when I was making 1989, I was so obsessed with it being this concept of Eighties big pop, whether it was Eighties in its production or Eighties in its nature, just having these big choruses — being unapologetically big.

And then Reputation, there was a reason why I had it all in lowercase. I felt like it wasn’t unapologetically commercial. It’s weird, because that is the album that took the most amount of explanation, and yet it’s the one I didn’t talk about. In the Reputation secret sessions I kind of had to explain to my fans, “I know we’re doing a new thing here that I’d never done before.” I’d never played with characters before. For a lot of pop stars, that’s a really fun trick, where they’re like, “This is my alter ego.” I had never played with that before. It’s really fun. And it was just so fun to play with on tour — the darkness and the bombast and the bitterness and the love and the ups and the downs of an emotional-turmoil record”.

Just look at the reviews for folklore, and one will see how excited people are and how they have taken to the album! It is a remarkable achievement from the thirty-year-old who, through the years, has achieved so much and has made big strides regarding her songwriting. Unlike some of her peers, I think Taylor Swift is more than a musician. She is a role model for so many people and, when it would be easier to say nothing regarding politics and the state of your country, Taylor Swift is someone who has spoken out. This was not always the way. It was tricky breaking rank and showing her political stripes when she has a huge number of fans and is signed with a massive record label. Republic could have advised her not to say anything about Donald Trump and to just stick to the music but, when America was being ripped apart and turned into a dictatorship, Swift was not going to remain silent. Whilst some in 2017 felt that Swift was actually a conduit for Trump’s values, it was clear that she did not support the President but, as her album Reputation was out, she could not be too overt and outspoken.

I think she has become more clear in her opinion regarding Trump, but it is pretty brave of any artist to get involved in politics and sit on one side of the fence! If Swift came out as a Democrat and attacked Trump, that could have had an impact on her young listeners, and it might have been commercial suicide. Rather than sit still and not say anything at all, Swift has been keen to speak about issues important to her. This was explored in the documentary, Miss Americana. It was clear that, from 2017, there was a noticeable shift in Swift’s music and persona. Rather than playing up to the usual role of a young artist in the public eye, I think the waves and cracks caused by Trump compelled Swift to become more activated and vocal about things she was passionate about. In an illuminating interview with The Guardian from last year, we learned about the sonic evolution in Reputation, and what finally provoked her into political activation:

“Meanwhile, Donald Trump was more than nine months into his presidency, and still Swift had not taken a position. But the idea that a pop star could ever have impeded his path to the White House seemed increasingly naive. In hindsight, the demand that Swift speak up looks less about politics and more about her identity (white, rich, powerful) and a moralistic need for her to redeem herself – as if nobody else had ever acted on a vindictive instinct, or blundered publicly.

But she resisted what might have been an easy return to public favour. Although Reputation contained softer love songs, it was better known for its brittle, vengeful side (see This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things). She describes that side of the album now as a “bit of a persona”, and its hip-hop-influenced production as “a complete defence mechanism”. Personally, I thought she had never been more relatable, trashing the contract of pious relatability that traps young women in the public eye.

It was the assault trial, and watching the rights of LGBTQ friends be eroded, that finally politicised her, Swift says. “The things that happen to you in your life are what develop your political opinions. I was living in this Obama eight-year paradise of, you go, you cast your vote, the person you vote for wins, everyone’s happy!” she says. “This whole thing, the last three, four years, it completely blindsided a lot of us, me included”.

PHOTO CREDIT: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

What I was saying about Taylor Swift being a role model. One can see how she has spoken about L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights and denounced Trump, and this is someone who has a lot of backing and money behind her, but she is more interested in saying what is right and not letting injustice slide. Not only has Swift seen the rights of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community being eroded and compromised, but she herself has had to face sexism and a real lack of compassion. I want to dovetail these two by sourcing from an interview of last year, as I think the two are related: Swift has faced oppression and sexism, and knows that this kind of attack and foul attitude applies to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, albeit in a different context. It has made Swift more determined to see a change and speak out. She spoke with Vogue back in September, and I think the reason why Reputation sounded different to anything that came before was this rebellion against being seen as quite soft and sweet:

“I ask her, why get louder about LGBTQ rights now? “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she says. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of my career arc.”

I ask Swift if she had always been aware of sexism. “I think about this a lot,” she says. “When I was a teenager, I would hear people talk about sexism in the music industry, and I’d be like, I don’t see it. I don’t understand. Then I realized that was because I was a kid. Men in the industry saw me as a kid. I was a lanky, scrawny, overexcited young girl who reminded them more of their little niece or their daughter than a successful woman in business or a colleague. The second I became a woman, in people’s perception, was when I started seeing it.

“It’s fine to infantilize a girl’s success and say, How cute that she’s having some hit songs,” she goes on. “How cute that she’s writing songs. But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums—when I started to look like a woman—that wasn’t as cool anymore. It was when I started to have songs from Red come out and cross over, like ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.’ ”

Those songs are also more assertive than the ones that came before, I say. “Yeah, the angle was different when I started saying, I knew you were trouble when you walked in. Basically, you emotionally manipulated me and I didn’t love it. That wasn’t fun for me”.

On folklore, Swift has taken another step forward, and has created her most mature album to date. Some might say that, at thirty, it is quite early to properly grow up and be quite serious, but she has lived in the public eye since she was a teenager, and she has been exposed and judged for so many years! It is clear that her music needed to undergo a sea change, and it will be interested to see how that progresses.

PHOTO CREDIT: Valheria Rocha/TAS Rights Management

Before getting to a song from folklore I was keen investigate, I want to look at the sort of negative attention Swift was receiving. Swift has spoken about her eating disorder and struggles she has faced, and I think a lot of the problem stems from the tabloids and their perception of her. In an interview with Variety, she went into detail about the effect of the press attention:

“In the quiet of a hotel suite, she goes into greater detail on how formative an effect that one early tabloid torpedo had on her. “I remember how, when I was 18, that was the first time I was on the cover of a magazine,” she says. “And the headline was like ‘Pregnant at 18?’ And it was because I had worn something that made my lower stomach look not flat. So I just registered that as a punishment. And then I’d walk into a photo shoot and be in the dressing room and somebody who worked at a magazine would say, ‘Oh, wow, this is so amazing that you can fit into the sample sizes. Usually we have to make alterations to the dresses, but we can take them right off the runway and put them on you!’ And I looked at that as a pat on the head. You register that enough times, and you just start to accommodate everything towards praise and punishment, including your own body.”

She hesitates. “I think I’ve never really wanted to talk about that before, and I’m pretty uncomfortable talking about it now,” she says quietly. “But in the context of every other thing that I was doing or not doing in my life, I think it makes sense” to have it in the film, she says”.

I wanted to mention this, because it provides a wider picture of Swift, and it also shows what she has had to endure. It also shows what a modern mainstream artist has to endure. I do think that life has become a little easier for Swift over the past year or so, but she still has to face a lot of pressure and judgment.

PHOTO CREDIT: Austin Hargrave/Billboard

There was a period where Taylor Swift stopped giving interviews. After Reputation, she sort of went on an interview hibernation, and only picked up on the media trail in 2019. I can understand why she would want to remain out of the limelight, as she did not want every iota of her private life put in the press. I think she is more comfortable now, but there was an intense period where I feel she was feeling a bit buried and exposed. Alongside the media attention, social media was also playing its part. For the most part, her fans are great, and she gets a lot of love online. Maybe one reason why folklore was not given the same extensive promotional as previous albums is because of the associated problems with social media and how committed Swift would have to be regarding promotion of an album and inherent problems. When she spoke with Elle, Swift discussed the problems of social media:

“Our priorities can get messed up existing in a society that puts a currency on curating the way people see your life,” Swift began. “Social media has given people a way to express their art. I use it to connect with fans. But on the downside you feel like there are 3 trillion new invisible hoops that you have to jump through, and you feel like you’ll never be able to jump through them all correctly. I—along with a lot of my friends and fans—am trying to figure out how to navigate living my life and not just curating what I want people to think living my life is."

Swift has also had trouble figuring out where to set boundaries between her private and public life, how to be open enough on social media that she doesn't seem fake without compromising her privacy. "I’m not always able to maintain a balance, and I think that’s important for everyone to know about," she said. "We’re always learning, and that’s something that I also had to learn—that I’ve got to be brave enough to learn. Learning in public is so humiliating sometimes…."

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexi Lubomirski

I am going to get to a review very soon, but I have been eager to show different sides to Taylor Swift, and how her life and career has played out over the past few years. I can only imagine how difficult it is for a hugely successful and popular artist like Swift to be herself and find any quiet away from the glare of social media and the press. I want to nod back to the Miss Americana documentary that came out at the start of the year, as I think many people would have had the impression of who Swift was and how she approached stardom. Most of us have very little clue of what life is really like for an artist like Taylor Swift. I would recommend people watch the documentary but, as this Variety article shows, Swift has had to deal with a lot:

“If this leads you to believe that the pop superstar is in the business of sugarcoating things, consider her other new movie — a vastly more significant documentary that presents Swift not just sans digital fur but without a whole lot of the varnish of the celebrity-industrial complex. The Netflix-produced “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” has a prestige slot as the Jan. 23 opening night gala premiere of the Sundance Film Festival before it reaches the world as a day-and-date theatrical release and potential streaming monster on Jan. 31.

The doc spends much of its opening act juxtaposing the joys of creation with the aggravations of global stardom — the grist of many a pop doc, if rendered in especially intimate detail — before taking a more provocative turn in its last reel to focus more tightly on how and why Swift became a political animal. It’s the story of an earnest young woman with a self-described “good girl” fixation working through her last remaining fears of being shamed as she comes to embrace her claws, and her causes.

Given that the film portrays how gradually, and sometimes reluctantly, Swift came to place herself into service as a social commentator, “Miss Americana” is a portrait of the birth of an activist. Director Lana Wilson sets the movie up so that it pivots on a couple of big letdowns for its subject. The first comes early in the film, and early in the morning, when Swift’s publicist calls to update her on how many of the top three Grammy categories her 2017 album “Reputation” is nominated for: zilch. She’s clearly bummed about the record’s brushoff by the awards’ nominating committee, as just about anyone who’d previously won album of the year twice would be, and determinedly tells her rep that she’s just going to make a better record”.

I will move on now, as it is interesting to look at the last few years, and how she has got to where she is now. Swift seems more settled than she did fairly recently, and I think folklore is an album from someone who has definitely stepped away from Pop and Country, and entered a new phase of her life.

I wanted to review cardigan from the album, as I think it is the best track, and its video is pretty epic! Most artists do not have the budget Taylor Swift has, but she could have released a video that was overblown and pretentious. Instead, it fits perfectly with the song, and it is an amazing visual! The idea of the song is like being a discarded cardigan; sort of being cast aside and left under the bed. The first verse of the song is delicate and emotional. We see Swift at a piano, as she looks into the distance and ponders the words she is putting out. “Vintage tee, brand new phone/High heels on cobblestones/When you are young, they assume you know nothing/Sequined smile, black lipstick/Sensual politics/When you are young, they assume you know nothing”. The idea of a cardigan projects someone a little older and perhaps a little cosy in their ways. The first verse of the song projects images of a young spirit who will be familiar to many people. This idea of someone appearing to be quite free-spirited and naïve comes through, but I can hear the importance of the lyrics emphasised in Swift’s voice as she tells of being judged and cast aside. Looking beyond the personal, I sort of applied the words to her career and how, for the most part, she was marketed and almost told to be quiet, and there was this view that she was young and a Pop artist, so she would not have any opinions or anything worth hearing. Maybe it simply applies to the personal, and the fact that she was in a relationship where she was not given proper deference and respect. The opening of the video is quite stately and grand, where there is this sense of restriction. It is a simple shot of Swift at the piano but, as the chorus comes in, she is in a forest and, steps away from the piano and explores a new, wider world.

PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

It is like a revelation and opening of her horizons. It seems that, where she felt like an old cardigan and cast asunder before, she met someone who has sort of changed her ways. Look deeper into the lyrics and all is not rosy. Where as Swift sings “You put me on and said I was your favorite”, that would imply that this relationship has rejuvenated Swift and she feels wanted, it seems that she was being fed lines, and she was not the only one in the guy’s life. This idea of maturity and being young gains new light. Rather than it being Swift speaking out and being taken seriously in the media, it is about being in a relationship and being lied to because, as she is young, it is okay to be played. “A friend to all is a friend to none/Chase two girls, lose the one” suggest that Swift has been dealt a bad hand, and this relationship has gone sour. The wording and powerful imagery of the lyrics means that the truth is never too obvious, and I think there is room for interpretation as to the whole story. When the chorus - “But I knew you/Playing hide-and-seek and/Giving me your weekends” – comes in, Swift’s voice changes gear and there is raises in tone. That said, she is engrossed in the emotion of the song, and there is no suggestion that this story will have a happier ending. Whereas she was spending her weekends with someone and feeling special, maybe this was deceitful, and he was actually seeing other women. The video is very beautiful and stirring, and the image of Swift playing in a forest and engulfed in nature is powerful indeed! The refrain is about her being a cardigan and feeling past her best; maybe tossed away and struggling to find ignition. She did have this feeling she had been adopted and repurposed by a new love but, as she sings, “You drew stars around my scars/But now I'm bleedin'” – those lines are especially potent, and they project stirring imagery.

The song’s endlessly evocative imagery and storytelling keeps one involved and attached from the beginning to the end. Swift wrote the song with The National’s Aaron Dessner (who was also one of the producers on folklore) and, whilst he might have helped mould the song, I think the lyrics are very personal and particular to Swift. “Tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy, I/I knew you/Leavin' like a father/Running like water” moves from fantasy and fiction to a very raw experience of abandonment and mistrust. The way that the song shifts so quickly and twists like rapids augments this feeling of betrayal and faked affection. This is ironic as, at its heart, is a cardigan: something very simple, humble, and undramatic! I love the fact that there is only Swift and Dessner credited on the song, as a lot of artists would have a host of producers and writers to pen a song like this – which would make it feel impersonal and insincere. Instead, we have a track that is a lot more impactful, as you know Swift connects with every word. In the third (and final) verse, the mixture of images strikes and stuns. “But I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss/I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs” is poetic and filmic: this very romantic image of a tattoo kiss; one can imagine the lovers wrapped in each other’s arms, but there is this poison and fear lurking and infusing the heroine’s mind. “Chasin' shadows in the grocery line/I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired” starts with a beautifully domestic and ordinary setting, made extraordinary and powerful. Swift knows that she would be missed once the excitement of someone else dissipated. Right until the end, I was curious whether Swift was keen to be the only one in the relationship, or whether she was standing next to her lover and turning him away. I feel Swift knows that she cannot trust him, but she does know that he has made a mistake and that she is much more substantial and worthwhile – more than this cardigan that should be left to collect dust under the bed! As she stands in the front porch, the heroine knows that the man would come back to her but, as you would imagine, things have gone too far, and she cannot trust him. I was moved by the performance and lyrics of cardigan, and how much I came back to the song. One can get lost in the story and the wonderful lyrics, and Swift’s delivery puts every word deeply into the mind and heart.

It has been interesting reviewing Taylor Swift, as I did not listen to her music a great deal before folklore, but I have been spinning the album quite a bit. It will be fascinating to see how she follows it, and whether she continues producing music of the same ilk, or whether there is an overhaul and she sort of returns to her roots. I feel where she is now is where she is going to head; no big revolution will occur on studio album nine, and I do think that, with age and experience, she has altered her priorities and discovered a love of a deeper and richer sound that is not as colourful and bold as some of her earlier work. I may be wrong, but I do feel that she will continue to make albums as strong and acclaimed as folklore. I wanted to end by looking back to an interview in Billboard from last year, where Swift was asked about artists’ rights regarding streaming, and pay-outs. This is something that is still burning in 2020, and it is impacting smaller acts harder than the mainstream best:

“You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently -- staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals.

We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about recalibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers.

We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal -- not as a renegotiation ploy -- and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jason Laveris/Filmmagic

Thankfully, there’s power in writing your music. Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use “Shake It Off” in some advertisement or “Blank Space” in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it”.

That was just a little aside I wanted to bring in, as it is another case of Swift getting involved and striving for change and equality. Let us hope that there is improvement regarding streaming payments but, for now, I wanted to wrap up and encourage people investigate folklore. It arrived out of the blue, and it has been gaining some simply incredible reviews! I know that Swift will not be able to tour the album this year, but I am sure that there will be a massive worldwide tour next year. I feel that we judge and easily define the most famous artists around and assume that we have them figured. We can be a bit dismissive and, prior to folklore, I had not given Swift’s work too much attention. I was caught by the wave of affection for her latest album and was keen to learn more! Upon hearing the album, it knocked aside any preconceptions, and I saw her in a different light – not that I had any negative views of her music; I just sort of assumed it would not be for me. Away from all the media attention and fame, here is an artist who is a genuinely amazing songwriter, and she is growing stronger by the album. I am looking forward to seeing where Taylor Swift heads next and just what she can achieve. The brilliant folklore might have arrived with little fanfare, but I think the album will resonate and resound…