NOW SPINNING
FOLKLORE
Taylor Swift
INDIE FOLK | ALTERNATIVE • 2020 • REPUBLIC RECORDS
We’ve always admired Taylor Swift, even if we don’t always personally connect with her music. But this quarantine record, recorded with Aaron Dessner from The National and Jack Antonoff, is just a genuinely brilliant contemporary folk record.
Dessner's production is the key. He builds rooms for Taylor to sing in — quiet, woody, slightly bruised — and she fills them without extra ornamentation. “Cardigan," "Exile" (with Bon Iver) and "August" all stand out, but it’s “Betty” that we keep going back to, because it somehow feels like a follow-up to Big Star’s classic “Thirteen,” with the protagonist four years older and making mistakes that he doesn’t know how to fix.
It debuted at number one. It sold millions. None of that changes the fact that it's a genuinely great indie folk record that earns its place next to the artists who influenced it.
LISTEN & BUY
If at all possible, buy it at your local record store.