Both Folklore when Evermore is highly regarded by music connoisseurs. They praise Swift’s more understated style compared to her previous work.
Hedwig van Driel is a Taylor Swift fan and pop culture journalist. She is also enthusiastic about both albums, although she does not rule out that they were recorded simultaneously. “They are very much in line with each other and were made with mostly the same people. So the second album feels a bit less revolutionary because of that,” she says.
‘Energy due to loss of agenda’
She has an idea why a world-famous artist like Swift suddenly releases one album after another. “Her life has been full of concerts and other things in recent years. When all of that suddenly falls away, I can imagine that you suddenly have the energy to make all kinds of things.”
“But it very much depends on the personality of the artist. Someone who needs a lot of daily contacts for that energy, can actually become uninspired”, says Van Driel.
In addition, according to her, it is commercially savvy of Swift to release a lot of new music in a year when the music industry is struggling. “She always had a pretty steady rhythm, with a new album every two years. Anyway, we’re all bored now and streaming music. So it’s smart to come up with it now.”
Focused
Swift’s new albums are also focused on the current time, says Van Driel, in which concerts are briefly absent. “It’s really a bit of headphone music. So a bit smaller in scale compared to her previous albums, which contain songs that are really meant to be screaming along in stadiums. And such an unexpected release also helps. You really create a moment.”
Whether there will be a third corona album? Swift himself says he has no idea. Just as they say they don’t know “many things” in the present time. “That’s why I cling to what connects me with you,” she writes to her fans. “And that is and always will be music.”
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