Originally, this was not what I had planned for my next blog post. But I also didn’t plan on Taylor Swift randomly dropping a new album last week either. The master of building up hype to new albums, always meticulously planning every last detail, decided to release her new album with barely 24 hours advance notice!

Folklore is hands down one of her best albums to date. It’s full of soft, dreamy indie-folk vibes interwoven with some stunning lyrical poetry. And I am in LOVE. Below I have pulled out some lyrics from each track:

1. The 1

“And if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow”

It’s true, hardships help us learn and grow. No one wants to go through tough times, but there is strength in overcoming things.

2. Cardigan

“When you are young, they assume you know nothing”

Often there is this assumption that young people are too naive to understand complex issues and have nothing to add to important conversations. I love that she addresses this.

3. The Last Great American Dynasty

“There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen. She had a marvelous time ruining everything”

First time I heard this line I thought ‘wow, what a legacy to leave behind’. The song is about Rebekah Harkness. She was an heiress who formerly owned Taylor’s Rhode Island home 50 years ago. As the song touches on, Rebekah led a pretty wild and controversial life. It inspired me to go read up on her myself. Some of the antics she got up to are CRAZY! At the end of the song Taylor draws parallels to herself suggesting maybe they have more in common than just real estate. The question we end up pondering is how much of the reputation Rebekah had is deserved, and how much is judgemental idle gossip. This song is one of my favourites on the entire album. As the saying goes, “well-behaved women rarely make history”.

4. Exile (ft. Bon Iver)

“I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending”

It’s that feeling of recognising a bad situation and knowing how it’s going to pan out from knowledge of previous similar events. It’s quite a haunting line.

5. My Tears Ricochet

“You wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me”

The song appears to be about the turbulent, very public, split from her former record label. The ‘jewels’ are her first six studio albums. Those albums are something precious to her, things she created, but work that she has no legal rights over despite trying to get ownership of them. Big Machine Records and Scooter Braun attempted to ‘bury’ Taylor’s accusations towards them, whilst they continue to profit from her.

6. Mirrorball

“And I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why”

This line about still being able to have faith in something, even when things around you are making you question why you’re there in the first place. A few months back, I watched Taylor’s Miss Americana documentary on Netflix. There was a part where she spoke about how the Republican nominee in Tennessee (her home state), was parading anti-abortionist views around as being ‘Christian values’. Being Christian herself she refuted someone using her religion to justify decreasing women’s rights. Whether or not this line is about that idea specifically, who knows. But it’s certainly a similar vibe and reminded me of that part in the documentary.

7. Seven

“Love you to the Moon and to Saturn. Passed down like folk songs, this love lasts so long”

This is such a beautiful way of saying how much you love someone.

8. August

“Back when I was living for the hope of it all”

I think when we’re young we all live in this hopeful naivety, but as you get older your viewpoint sometimes becomes more pessimistic (or maybe we should say realistic?).

9. This Is Me Trying

“They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential. My words shoot to kill when I’m mad, I have a lot of regrets about that”

One of my favourite set of lyrics on the entire album.

10. Illicit Affairs

“A dwindling, mercurial last high. A drug that only worked, the first few hundred times”

I found this line to be quite relatable. The song is about someone having an affair, but I feel like this line can apply to so many things in life. Things we do that aren’t good for us, but in the moment they feel good. It’s only after we realise actually this is damaging to yourself, or maybe to other people.

11. Invisible String

“Time, wondrous time, gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies”

I love this idea that not all bad things last forever. Often good things can take time.

12. Mad Woman

“No one likes a mad woman, what a shame she went mad”

In a way this song feels like a darker, more cynical version of ‘The Man’ from her previous album. She criticises the idea that if a woman gets angry or emotional, she is labelled as being ‘crazy’. Women are expected to smile when people attack them instead of responding.

13. Epiphany

“Some things you just can’t talk about”

Taylor creates this war time imagery of medical staff being on the ‘frontline’. In the first verse she mentions her grandfather’s experiences in WWII. The second verse talks about the doctors and nurses during the coronavirus pandemic. Both verses end with the quote above. Essentially, this song is describing the trauma of seeing death and chaos on a mass scale.

14. Betty

“I hate the crowds, you know that”

This line personally resonates so much I feel like Taylor wrote it specifically about me.

15. Peace

“You know that I’d swing with you for the fences, sit with you in the trenches”

There are so many people who I would do anything for. This line encompasses that dedication you have towards someone you love.

16. Hoax

“You know I left a part of me back in New York”

Same girl, same.

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Let me know your favourite lyrics from folklore!