The first time I heard a Taylor Swift song was at my eighth grade talent show. One of the most popular girls in the grade above me got on stage in our school's gym and began singing "Our Song" from Swift's debut self-titled album while the rest of us peers sat and swayed in the bleachers. This was right around the time when the music video for "Our Song" began playing on Disney Channel between commercials, featuring Swift in a variety of glamorous princess-like dresses, and of course, a bed of roses ("I almost didn't notice all the roses.")
I remember immediately being drawn to the song at the talent show, despite the cheerleader on stage in front of me who was performing it quietly and very much like a 14-year-old covering Taylor Swift. The song confused me because it sounded like a country song.... but also... it didn't. I don't fully understand why this memory is so vivid in my mind, but something in Swift's lyrics spoke to 14-year-old me who had never had a boyfriend and certainly never experienced "sneakin' out late tapping on your window" and still managed to make me feel seen.
That's always been the power of Taylor Swift. She has an incredible ability to write lyrics that are so poignant and specific yet make millions of people around the world feel that she is speaking to their exact personal experience. When "Folklore" first dropped July 24, her fans immediately assumed their new assigned identity: sad, mystical, woodland nymph.
The overall theme of "Folklore" is undeniably nostalgia and longing, but where this album differs from her previous discography is the lyrics share stories that are not necessarily her own. "Folklore" is almost like peering into Taylor Swift's dream catalog. Some songs are a combination of whimsical musings and lived experiences, while others feel more like Swift recalling a memory she didn't know she had or unlocking a past life.
Notoriously, Swift has written songs about heartbreaks, summer flings, unrequited love and even opened up about her mother's battle with cancer and a brain tumor — all experiences she herself has lived and written about firsthand. Die-hard Taylor Swift fans love analyzing song lyrics and decoding messages about which famous ex-boyfriend "I Knew You Were Trouble" or "Picture To Burn" was written about. And it's no secret that "Bad Blood" was reminiscent of Swift and Katy Perry's long-time feud.
But somehow "Folklore" feels like the most vulnerable album Swift has every written while also managing to be the most elusive. Her lyrics speak to the complicated array of human emotions that many people have experienced in one form or another but cannot explain in simple terms.
"I've been meaning to tell you//I think your house is haunted..."
There is no eloquent way to say this, but somehow Taylor Swift has managed to out-Taylor Swift herself. She has once again written an album that is simultaneously for everyone, yet with no one (maybe even Swift herself,) fully understanding each song's intended meaning. Personally, I think Taylor Swift has become the Taylor Swift she was always born to be. Her older albums almost feel like a rough draft or experiment for "Folklore." She was writing songs because yes, that is how she chooses to express herself, but she was also catering to her audience and writing about common coming of age milestones. "Red," "1989" and "Reputation" were written to cater to the audience Swift has accumulated over the years and the genre changes were her attempt at remaining relevant in the music industry. But with "Folklore," it feels as though she wasn't writing to try and impress anyone, but simply writing from the heart. It could be argued that Swift knew exactly what she was doing by releasing an album about sorrow and longing in the midst of a global pandemic, but who is to say that the feelings and thoughts poured into each line of "Folklore" aren't the feelings and thoughts of Swift herself?