A Taylor Swift Non-Stan Review of Evermore

Over the years, I have held fast to the concept that I am not a fan of Taylor Swift. Borne of my childhood days of rejecting femininity wherever I saw it in a misguided attempt to seem cool and smart, I nonetheless, with maturity, have never found myself able to truly call myself a fan. I think she’s a great songwriter, but I find her vocals a little lacking.

Plus, her fast descent into pop never seemed to suit her, in my opinion. She is a singer-songwriter, with her skills strong in the latter and weak in the former, and that just never seemed to gel well with pop. Even in “ME!”, her team-up with one of my favorite pop artists, Brendon Urie, she could never rise above many of her contemporaries in the same genre. Certainly, she’s had a few catchy hits over the years – I have a fondness for the self-aware drama of “Blank Space”, and I have a lot of nostalgia for the music she released when I was young, including “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.”

At the same time, I can’t help but feel much of the backlash to Swift is motivated by plain-ol’ misogyny. No one ever complains when big-time musician men write songs about their exes. I mean, have you ever heard anyone make fun of Justin Timberlake for “What Goes Around” or “Cry Me a River”, two diss songs for his ex during the same era?

Then, early this year, she dropped the stylistically-distinct folklore. Dropping the pop-heavy sound of her previous albums, she adopted a more folksy, singer-songwriter sound. And… I gave it a listen. And I actually liked it.

Though I could never call myself a fan of country music, I have always agreed with the analysis that Swift is better suited for it than pop. But now, she seemed to have found a genre that worked with her talents and also appealed to my genre tastes more. Truly dangerous. But I still didn’t find in it the magic key to retroactively adoring everything else she’s made.

But, if you want my thoughts on my favorite tracks from folklore, you’ll have to wait a few weeks.

My (Non-Stan) Review

evermore is beautiful in much the same way its older sister album is – the stripped-down, acoustic wandering of the instrumentals suits Swift’s writing style so much better than her previous genre explorations have. Her lyric-writing is focused in story, in unfolding imagery and language, and lessening the production allows these sparkling moments of lyrical beauty to land so much heavier.

The album begins with probably one of my favorite songs of the entire lineup, “willow.” The textured guitars and subtle beat drives it forward with a surprising pace. It’s a beautiful little love song with a surprisingly catchy hook for its more woodsy stylings. In many ways, it’s a lovely amalgamation of Swift’s experimentation with pop with the new sound of this album and folklore.

I also can’t help but love “gold rush.” Where Swift has struggled in the past to follow through with building tension in her songs, I love the ebbs and flows of this one. The unrelenting rhythm of the verses gives way to a lilting yet powerful chorus. The strings stay subtle but add this wonderful strength to the song.

There are moments of weakness, though. A few songs get a bit lost in the murky sadness that pervades the entire album. For example, “tolerate it” feels a bit too amorphous to really let the (honestly quite well-written) lyrics land. And for how strong the opening few songs of the album are, it dips a bit in quality toward the end. “ivy” feels a little stale and “cowboy like me” is a cute concept, but the slow country-styled sound just doesn’t manage to stand out in the end.

However, Swift brings her old genre back in a really successful way in “no body, no crime.” A collaboration with HAIM and a spiritual successor to The Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” it’s an engaging country crime story from beginning to end, complete with wailing harmonica and twanging strings. Despite that, though, it manages to sound deeply sincere, not accidentally dipping into parody like the concept very well could have. I can even forgive the deeply cheesy spoken “He was with me, dude” three-quarters of the way through, the total package is so great.

Swift’s other collaborations, though, are quite hit-or-miss. “coney island” is elevated from an average melancholy song of lost love thanks to the contribution of The National. I have always loved lead vocalist Matt Berninger’s deep and velvety tone, and through the contrast between his and Swift’s vocals are definitely unique and a bit difficult to adjust to, I think they add a lot of punch to a song that would otherwise be quite forgettable. The titular “evermore”, though, doesn’t have the same distinction. It’s pretty enough, I suppose, but nothing to get all that excited about, and nothing particularly new.

Overall, though, it’s a strong offering. This aesthetic and this sound suit Swift so much better than anything I’ve heard from her recently, and I hope she takes the positive reception to these albums as a sign to move on from the over-produced pop sound for good.

And, as always, I’m happy for the stans.