Taylor Swift surprises fans with ‘Folklore’

Taylor Swift fans are in for a treat! The singer on Friday dropped her eighth official studio album Folklore, along with a music video of her new single Cardigan. Critics and fans alike commented that the new album is unlike her previous ones in making and presentation.

Seems like COVID-19 brought a change in everyone’s life. Taylor Swift was also not immune to this change as is evident in Folklore.

The You Belong With Me singer took to social media to make the announcement along with a long note explaining that the ideas for the album came in during the self-isolation period amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She wrote, “In isolation, my imagination has run wild. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory.”

Folklore is a record that fills the void left by a summer of canceled festival appearances, including a headline slot at Glastonbury. Her previous album was Lover, which she released in 2019.

“A collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory. I’ve told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve. Now it’s up to you to pass them down. Folklore is out now,” the 30-year-old musician added.

Folklore is a low-key, somber record, looking back at Swift’s old flames and old mistakes – some real, some imagined. Along with the announcement of the album, the singer also dropped the official music video of the new song ‘Cardigan‘.

In the four-minute and 34-second music video, Swift is first seen playing the piano inside a cozy room and she sees some magical forces coming from her piano. She takes a leap and finds herself in between a forest and later in an ocean and finally returning to her room.

The official music video of Cardigan was premiered in the YouTube handle of the singer and has garnered more than one million viewers in nearly three hours of its release. 

Aaron Dessner of The National is a co-writer or producer on 11 of the album’s 16 songs. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who cropped up for a duet on Exile and Swift’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff are also among the cast.