Review: Taylor Swift’s Surprise Album “Folklore” Has Alternative Roots

By Ashley Gallagher

Taylor Swift releases “folklore,” her eighth studio album.

Taylor Swift has been known to switch genres. From country, to straight pop, she is no stranger of making the music she wants to make.

On her eighth studio album, “folklore,” she tests the waters with a new sound: alternative. She goes back in time to her earlier roots, relying on piano and acoustics for most of the new songs, but still keeps her album‘s lyrics and sounds mature.

There is not a song on her new album that is a given radio single, though you’ll probably the songs on the radio. She said on Twitter that “before this year [she] probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time,” but she did not want to take life for granted so she released it on Friday.

The lyrics and sound of the album seem very familiar. There is a level of comfort you feel when you listen to it for the first time or the fiftieth time. “Cardigan” feels like a warm hug, while “My Tears Ricochet” sounds like crying out in the middle of the rain.

Regardless of the genre switch, it is still a Taylor Swift album that will make you feel heartbreak, love and a flutter of happiness here and there, while making you wand to isolate yourself in a cabin in the woods. The lyrics have kept up with the maturity and growth of Taylor Swift’s past album, but she still pays homage to some of her earlier songs like “If This Were a Movie” on “Exile” and “Wildest Dreams” in “Seven.”

She leaves Easter Eggs throughout her whole album that, despite the sound differences from country, to pop, to alternative, reminds you that you’re listening to Taylor Swift and arguably one of her best albums to date.

”My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should put it out into the world,” she said on Twitter.

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Listen to “forklore” here: