1. evermore (2020)
When I first reviewed evermore I struggled to separate it from its sibling folklore. Repeated listens have shown that evermore has taken the blueprint of its predecessor and built upon it. Yes, the same intimate folk sensibilities remain but the album has a more confident and expansive feel.
The lyrics are so rich it is astonishing that Swift has condensed the power of a book into a three minute song. “I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland, my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you” she sings on ‘ivy’ whilst on ‘no body, no crime’ an entire murder movie plays out in our minds eye: “That ain’t my merlot on his mouth, that ain’t my jewellery on our joint account”.
evermore isn’t an album that can be summarised with a few selected song titles. It is a perfect third-party study of human relationships, with post-divorce reflections on ‘happiness’, a simple study of desire in ‘willow’ and the perspective of the neglected wife on my favourite track ‘tolerate it’.
Perhaps the best tribute to evermore is from the title track itself: an uplifting ray of hope to close out the terrible year that was 2020.
Even as she fades from view / She will still inspire me.”
‘evermore’
Rating: 10/10
Feature compiled by Andrew Butcher
Check out Andrew’s blog here.
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