By Giuliana Aguilar – Staff Reporter

“Evermore” is Taylor Swift’s ninth studio album. The album is a sister album to her previous album released summer 2020, “Folklore”. The album features 15 new songs and the deluxe physical edition has 2 bonus songs. The Track listing is; “Willow”, “Champagne Problems”, “Gold Rush”, “Tis the Damn Season”, “Tolerate It”, “No Body, No Crime”, “Happiness”, “Dorothea”, “Coney Island”, “Ivy, “Cowboy like Me”, “Long Story Short”, “Majorie”, “Closure”, and “Evermore”. The two additional songs are “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time to Go”.

The album is primarily alternative rock along with some chamber rock. Since Taylor left her previous label she is allowed more freedom to do what she wants with “Evermore”. The listener should be able to easily tell she is no longer trying to make radio hits, she already gained her status as an icon so in this album she focuses more on storytelling and creating pretty music. “Evermore” revolves around the different kinds of flaws in romantic relationships. The album is made for Taylor’s perspective in a bunch of different narratives. There are features on the album from American bands “Bon Iver”, “Haim”, and “The National’.” 

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift said. “To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music, we chose to wander deeper in.”

A song that got a lot of people intrigued with finding the meaning is “Champagne Problems.” The song is about a relationship and Taylor sings from the perspective of the person who turns down a proposal. Verse one suggests that the man knew his relationship wasn’t working. The chorus describes the rejection and how the man was just left standing with a ring and a broken heart. Verse two tells that the man told his family despite knowing the relationship wasn’t going well, which made the rejection more awkward. In the second chorus Taylor dives deeper into the rejection. In the bridge, Taylor talks about the way his friends received the message with the lyrics such as “How evergreen, our group of friends/Don’t think we’ll say that word again” and “She would’ve made such a lovely bride/What a shame…they said.”

Taylor jokes that she lives in a madhouse which draws a parallel to the song “Mad Woman” on the “Folklore” album.  She again says sometimes there is no answer for the rejection and promises that he will find the right one for him that will mend the broken pieces that she created. In the last chorus, chorus three, Taylor parallels the first chorus but this time she imagines it as if the guy found the right girl who will say yes.

“Nobody No Crime” is a song that is similar to a murder mystery. The song is a country pop rock track about the disappearance of a woman named Esta, and her friends’ efforts to avenge her death. The lyrics “And I noticed when I passed by his house/His truck has got some brand new tires” infers that Taylor originally slashed his tires. Slashing tires is a common way to take revenge on a cheating lover just like in Carrie Underwood’s single, “Before He Cheats”, where she sings that she slashed a hole in all four tires of her cheating boyfriend’s truck. Taylor using these lyrics shows how deeply she wants revenge and she makes that her narrative. 

Something good fans realize in “Evermore” is that there is more variety and experimentation of sounds in this album, especially when compared to “Folklore” which just has an indie inspired sound. Also, every song has its own themes and tells a different story.  

Something that was  is songs that are forgetful such as “Happiness” and “Dorothea” which have a cliche Piano sound and are pretty but not mesmerizing or standing out so listeners remember them like others.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars