Evermore by Taylor Swift | Album Review

The second pandemic album from the pop icon of my generation contains some of her most richly detailed stories to date.

Credit: Republic Records

It’s crazy for me to think about, but it was fifteen years ago that Kanye West took to the stage of the Video Music Awards, snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift as she delivered her acceptance speech for Best Female Video, and declared Beyoncé had “one of the best videos of all time.”

What’s even crazier to me is that Swift, an artist who was popular when I was in middle school, is not only as relevant as ever, but she’s also arguably eclipsed Beyoncé in terms of influence and star power.

The press and online buzz for the Eras Tour versus the Renaissance tour proves that, to me at least. Not to mention her massive legion of fans, her ever-present place on the charts and in the tabloids, her female billionaire status, her superstar football boyfriend, and conservative commentators conjuring conspiracies about her controlling the votes of liberal America.

And now, on the heels of her historic fourth Album of the Year Grammy, I thought I would look back on one of Taylor’s past eras, the second half of her pandemic-era albums, Evermore. With everyone trapped inside, Swift seemed struck by intense creative inspiration. Working remotely with collaborators and recording in producer Aaron Dessner’s rural studio in upstate New York, she found herself diving into writing character portraits, sometimes autobiographical, sometimes completely imagined.

The first batch of these songs became her Grammy-winning album Folklore, but she still had plenty more in the tank for Evermore, which surprise-dropped at the end of 2020, to the incandescent delight of fans. On this record, Swift introduces a new slate of characters, who she says exist in the same universe as Betty and James from Folklore. She also shifts which character is narrator from song to song, giving us a beautiful tapestry of perspectives on the relationships she discusses.

We’re introduced to the “main” character through “Dorothea,” a bittersweet piano tune about a small-town girl who left it all behind to chase her dreams in the big city (sound familiar?). Swift devises lovely little vignettes that give us insight into the life Dorothea had with the narrator before she left:

Hey, Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me?
When it was calmer, skippin’ the prom
Just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemes
And damn, Dorothea, they all wanna be ya
But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers?

Earlier in the record, we get “‘Tis The Damn Season,” a song from Dorothea’s point of view, exploring her feelings about returning home for the holidays. Over a sparse backing track of guitar and strings, she sings of rekindling her romance with the narrator from “Dorothea”:

So we could call it even
You could call me “babe” for the weekend
​’Tis the damn season, write this down
I’m stayin’ at my parents’ house
And the road not taken looks real good now
And it always leads to you and my hometown.

She keeps the holiday theme going with “Champagne Problems,” a story song about a woman turning down her boyfriend’s proposal right before Christmas. Her lyrics here are so detailed, conjuring multiple scenes as the song progresses, like a movie in sound.

I also appreciate how Swift shows us the different phases of these relationships over time. Take “Tolerate It,” a heartbreaking piano ballad in an unstable 10/8 time signature. She shows us the woman's point of view in the thick of an unhappy partnership, on the verge of leaving due to his careless disregard for her.

A few songs later, we get “Coney Island,” featuring indie rock group The National, where their frontman Matt Berninger and Swift seem to mutually reflect on a relationship that ended due to exactly this kind of emotional neglect. It bears out just how much of an artist she is, thinking about how each song interacts with others:

And I’m sitting on a bench in Coney Island
Wondering, where did my baby go?
The fast times, the bright lights, the merry go
Sorry for not making you my centerfold.

In my eyes, the only song on Evermore that doesn’t land is “No Body, No Crime,” featuring HAIM. Even though it’s a return to her country roots, I’m not a fan of when Taylor does this elaborate revenge song. I didn’t care for it on “Vigilante Shit,” and I’m not feeling it here either.

But any sins in the proceeding tracks are cleansed in the beauty of the titular closing track. I’m obsessed with the calm, reflective piano line, how the song evolves in the bridge with a tempo change, and how the anxiety and despondency that begins the song is replaced with a glimmer of hope by the end, perfectly reflective of her own relationship and also the pandemic times we were all living in. That ability to beautifully capture multiple ideas in one display the power of Taylor Swift’s pen, and leave me on the edge of my seat to see what story she writes next.

Production: 9/10

Lyrics: 8/10

Songwriting: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10

Favorites: Champagne Problems, ‘Tis The Damn Season, Evermore

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BONUS ROUND: Favorite lyrics!

“‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride
What a shame she’s fucked in the head,’ they said
But you’ll find the real thing instead
She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.”

— Champagne Problems

“There’ll be happiness after you
But there was happiness because of you
Both of these things can be true.”

— Happiness

“And if this is the long haul
How’d we get here so soon?
Did I close my fist around something delicate?
Did I shatter you?”

— Coney Island

“And I was catchin’ my breath
Starin’ out an open window, catchin’ my death.”

— Evermore

Thank you for reading! What did you think of this album? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and I’ll see you in the next review!