Album Review: Taylor Swift’s Folklore

In the age of streaming, artists are opting to release full albums without the usual fanfare and teasers. Taylor Swift surprised fans with her eighth studio album, Folklore. A dreamy 16-song album that makes us want to cuddle up in a cozy cottage with our favorite cardigan and daydream away.

Streaming Album Art of Taylor Swift’s Folklore

Folklore was released on July 24, 2020, a full 16-hours after an announcement to her fans via social media. Along with the full catalog available to stream, Swift let her fans know that there is more to expect on the physical copies. In a tweet released on July 23, 2020, Swift told fans, “folklore will have 16 songs on the standard edition, but the physical deluxe editions will include a bonus track “the lakes.” Because this is my 8th studio album, I made 8 deluxe CDs & 8 deluxe vinyls available for 1 week. Each has unique covers & photos.”

Folklore is a dreamy album with calm melodies accompanied by Swift’s sweet vocals. The collection of 16 songs leans away from Swift’s usual contemporary pop sound and drifts into a whimsical, indie-pop category. With breathy vocals, melodic synths, and echoes of piano and guitars, Folklore is a breath of fresh air for Swift.

Although Swift has released Folklore in full, the only song featured with a theatrical music video is cardigan. Opening with Swift on a piano stool in a dusty cottage filled with relics and the glow of a lamp, she enters a fantasy world through her piano. Changing between a lush, magical forest to a dark and stormy sea, the music video gives off an Alice in Wonderland magic feel. Drastic scene changes as she enters a glimmering pixie-dust portal through her piano let the watcher feel the fantasy of the song and album.

The lyrics of cardigan lend the listener to the story of heartache. Lines like “Chase two girls, lose the one,” “Leaving like a father / Running like water,” and the final verse “But I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss / I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs / The smell of smoke would hang around this long / ‘Cause I knew everything when I was young / I knew I’d curse you for the longest time,” All have the listener imagine a lost love, the heartache of love slipping through your fingers, and how young relationships feel like “the one” until they aren’t. The chorus reminds me of Wildest Dreams, Swift’s 2015 song also detailing a longing love.

Most of the songs in Folklore reflect a melancholy feeling of lost love and longing. Swift penned a letter to fans about Folklore saying, “In isolation my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory. I’ve told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve.”

Critically, fans and reviewers love Folklore. Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Times, and many more have rated Folklore with A’s and 9 out of 10 ratings. Swift conceived her eighth album in isolation during the current COVID-19 pandemic, with collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. On why she opted for a surprise release, Swift said her gut was telling her “if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world.” [X]

Folklore is a fresh departure from the contemporary pop world that Taylor Swift fans have grown to know. In a new age of quiet quarantine and melancholy feelings, Folklore capitalizes on a magical cottagecore aesthetic that fans will love for years to come.

Niana Gutierrez

Listen to Folklore Below

Album Review: All Time Low’s Future Hearts

With All Time Low’s sixth studio released album, Future Hearts has been a success so far since it’s release on April 3, 2015. Accomplishing No. 2 on the UK Rock Chart and No. 24 on the US Hot Rock Songs with their lead single, Something’s Gotta Give, commercial performance in the UK was spectacular. Debuting at No. 1 in the UK Album Charts on April 12, selling 19,400 copies in the first week, making Future Hearts All Time Low’s first ever UK Top Number 1 Album. In the US, Billboard has listed Future Hearts in the Top Album Sales category of this week, Billboard also chart highlighted All Time Low as a “hot shot debut”.

All Time Low’s Future Hearts album art

The first single released off Future Hearts was Something’s Gotta Give, sent out to the public on January 12th, the song opens with a guitar riff that continues throughout the background of the verses until the big release in the chorus, where the full band is featured, after the chorus, the repeating guitar riff comes back, with “oohs” in the pre-chorus building up to the actual chorus. The song is full of All Time Low’s classic self depreciating lyrics, with verses like “don’t even know myself, I wish I could be someone else, but I don’t have a clue at all” and “Maybe I’m a fucking waste filling up the empty space , I’ve been here way too long” the song sends a message that the main character of the story is feeling really low, feeling like they aren’t worth anything at all. The chorus breaks out into a desperate plea for help saying “Oh Wake me up ‘Say enough is enough’ I’m dying to live Something’s gotta give / Oh Pull me out Of this sinking town I’m dying to live Something’s gotta give.” 

gif by Sarah @ http://knowhope.co.vu/

All Time Low has always been one to come up with fantastic lyrical stories through their songs, stories that have shown to really touch base with their predominately teen fanbase. We all can relate to feeling lost and alone, not worth anything, desperately hoping for someone to wake us up and say enough is enough. Lead singer, Alex Gaskarth’s vocals are rough and “yell-y” throughout the choruses and bridge, really taking home that dire need for someone to help pull them out of their depression.

gif by Kanika @ http://darkeyeddreamerrrr.tumblr.com/

  The second single released off the Future Hearts album on March 9, was Kids in the Dark. This song also focuses on being alone, being a kid left in the dark through whatever alienating situation it may be. The song itself is upbeat and very rock oriented. With a quick, simple intro, angry driving guitars and a drum beat that pumps you up, you can almost forget that the lyrics themselves are pretty heavy with meaning. The music video really helps push the lyrics meaning, if anyone was confused by the song. It features a young girl tired of her parents fighting, she receives a note from the “kids in the dark” asking her to come escape with them. The young girl enters what seems to be a rave setting with black light and paint where everyone there accepts her and helps her break out of her sadness and into having fun, showing that no matter how alone you feel there will always be people there to cheer you up.

Future Hearts album package ft collectable poloroid photos / picture taken by Gabriela @ http://likewedid.co.vu/

Throughout the album, it does feature a lot of post production, no doubt due to the musical stylings of producer John Feldmann. Different reviews from fans and magazines alike say that while the album is okay overall, the overproduction in some of the songs is overkill. Writer, Branan Ranjanathan, of Exclaim! goes to say in his review of Future Hearts “the unashamedly formulaic nature of most of these songs, and the saturation of pop-production clichés such as the “woah-ohs” that seem to appear in every other track along with other gimmicky, overused techniques make this album tedious at times. Throughout the album, there are brief moments where the band let loose, and their ability to write far punchier songs becomes apparent, but many tracks on this album — especially towards the second half — are overproduced to the point that even the highlights are overshadowed.” [X]

In a Rock Sound interview, lead singer, Alex Gaskarth, talks briefly about Future Heart’s new sound, “It feels like a definite progression. I wouldn’t say it’s an insane departure or anything like that. We haven’t gone completely the other way and tried all kinds of new things. We’ve certainly tried some new things, but I don’t think it’s necessarily going to alienate anyone or push people away that loved the last record.” [X] Despite what the critics are saying, most fans of All Time Low have embraced the band’s new direction, it will be interesting to see where All Time Low takes this new sound and what they’ll do with it in future albums to come.

Niana Gutierrez

Listen to the full album below

Album Review: Fall Out Boy’s American Beauty/American Psycho

Everyone’s favorite pop punk band has been going strong since coming off hiatus in February of 2013, but to much of the old early 2000s fan’s surprise, their sound isn’t so much of a throwback to the Sugar We’re Going Down days, but a much more pop-oriented sound entirely.

American Beauty / American Psycho Album Cover

Released on January 20, 2015 with 92,000 first week sales and 218,000 equivalent album units, becoming their third No. 1 album according to Billboard, Fall Out Boy has surprised many fans by taking a completely different take on their sound. With references to Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction, American Psycho and the Munster’s theme song, it could be inferred that Fall Out Boy is taking a more commercial approach with their music nowadays.

gif by Nadia @ http://stumpspunk.tumblr.com

The first single released off the album was Centuries, sounding a lot like their last albums single My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark we hear a lot of the same kind of heavy rock influence, the kind that makes someone want to throw their fist into the air in the name of punk rock. Featured artist Lolo sings a sample of Suzanne Vega’s 1987 release of Tom’s Diner which is played throughout the background of the song with some key featured moments, a clever move by Fall Out Boy seeing as the song is about being remembered for centuries and they take a nod at one of the late 80’s most popular earworms immortalizing it in the new millennium. The song itself leans heavily on the alternative rock styles of Fall Out Boy, with a heavy focus on the drums to drive the rhythm out, the descending piano key notes that give the song some edge, and of course it wouldn’t really be a Fall Out Boy song without some “hey yeahs” being chanted somewhere. This song was released five months before the initial album release date in January, so the September buzz around this single was that maybe Fall Out Boy was going to keep going in the alt rock styling direction of their last album Save Rock and Roll. The fans couldn’t have been more surprised when the next single came out sounding nothing like Centuries at all.

gif by Em @ http://ewpunk.tumblr.com

In October 2014, just a month after releasing Centuries, Fall Out Boy released Immortals which was going to be a part of Disney’s newest movie Big Hero Six. Listening to it without any context of the movie put a big question mark over a lot of the fans heads. The song opens with a Tokyo inspired riff that loops throughout the track, that seems to come out of left field from anything Fall Out Boy has ever done. Throughout the song it’s hard to pick out genuine instruments over the synthesized snaps, claps and “oohs” which seem to take major precedence in the melodies. Patrick’s voice sounds a bit stretched as well, almost like he’s struggling to hit the higher registers. At first listen, long time Fall Out Boy fans reported to immediately hate it, I being among those. But after seeing the movie, and gaining some context, you can understand why they chose to include the Tokyo inspired riff as the main characters live in fictional “San Fransokyo” and the movie has an air of Asian influence. Having watched the movie and coming back to the track, it has a tendency to start growing on you, but maybe more-so because of the magic of Disney and not so much the musicality of Fall Out Boy.

Another stand out track from the album, and a fan favorite, is Jet Pack Blues which could be considered the ballad of the

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album. This would probably be the closest to “old Fall Out Boy” the new reincarnation of the band will get. While the whole album is centered around heartache this song really lets the listener feel the sadness with beautifully poetic lyrics like “she was singing ‘baby come home’ in a melody of tears while the rhythm of the rain keeps time”.  This song, at track six, takes the listener on a much needed break from the pop and sample driven past five tracks. It’s simple piano melody and chiming bells accompany Patrick’s pleading voice perfectly. The only time the song sounds desperate is on the bridge and the chorus, but purposely done because the main character of the story is supposed to sound desperate. Repeated background voices sing “baby come home” and “I remember” almost like a couple talking to each other followed by the chorus of “Did you ever love her? Did you know? Or did you never want to be alone?” painting a picture of potential love lost and desperate questions wanting to be asked but not really being answered. The verses are simple and not piled on with a lot of different sounds or samples, just the piano, chimes and Patrick’s voice. At 2:05 we hear a clean guitar solo over acoustic guitar chords being played, leading into the bridge and chorus again until the end of the song at one second shy of the three minute mark. This track is definitely one of the top contenders of being a stand out of the entire album.

American Beauty / American Psycho is definitely a step in a new direction for Fall Out Boy, and it’s exciting to see how far they’ve come and how they aren’t scared to venture into new territory. They aren’t the same band from the early 2000s, and that’s okay, but they’re back and they’ve come with fresh ideas and new sounds and they’re absolutely worth looking into as the years pass and as they release new music to the world.

Niana Gutierrez

Listen to the full album below

Album Review: Panic! At The Disco’s Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!

This is an oldie, but a goodie!

Panic! At The Disco is pretty hard to pin in a certain genre, seeing as with every studio album they release it is a totally new and different sound than the last. Members, Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, Jon Walker and Spencer Smith, released their 2005 debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, sporting a vaudeville feel in tunes like their most famed single I Write Sins Not Tragedies and Build God, Then We’ll Talk, with accordions, keyboards and stringed instruments dancing around the tracks.

Their 2008 sophomore release, Pretty. Odd, affectionately features a more Beatles-esque, 1960’s pop vibe in tracks like That Green Gentlemen (Things Have Changed) and their most popular single from that track Nine In The Afternoon which feature a more clean cut melody with simple harmonic vocals, clean guitars and piano. It’s not so much the fast paced dance music of the previous album.

Three years consisting of band feuds and line-up changes, the foursome became a twosome, leaving vocalist Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith to release the long awaited junior album in 2011 Vices and Virtues, which, true to form, was just as different as their last two albums. This one was very rock oriented, but of course, it wouldn’t be a Panic! album without their excessive use of strings. You can hear the new direction in music with their driving, rock tracks like Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind) and The Ballad of Mona Lisa (fun fact: The Ballad of Mona Lisa’s music video opening scenes pay tribute to Panic!’s first hit single I Write Sins Not Tragedies)

Which brings us to Panic!’s newest studio album, released in 2013, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! marks yet another milestone in this band’s illustrious career.  Released October 8th and selling 84,000 copies in its first week, this synth-pop driven dance music is a far cry from the rockin’ guitar riffs of Vices and Virtues.

TWTLTRTD album art

The first single the band released was Miss Jackson ft LOLO , it opens with featured artist Lolo singing the hook through what sounds like maybe a vinyl recording, white noise infused sound byte. I remember thinking, “This sounds a lot like Fall Out Boy’s My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark“; the same kind of chanting, the same heavy guitars and vocal layering, though this could be due to the fact the same producer, Butch Walker, worked on both tracks. I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed though, we already have a band sounding like Fall Out Boy, and they were back from hiatus! I was weary of the entire album sounding along the lines of Fall Out Boy.

gif by Gabriela @ http://likewedid.co.vu

The next single, This Is Gospel was like a breath of fresh air, “now THIS is what Panic! sounds like!” I remember thinking. The reverb on Brendon Urie’s vocals gives the track in kind of a synth-rock feel that is carried throughout the whole album. The track starts off slow, with the bass drum emulating a heartbeat, Brendon’s voice comes in low and steady, at 0:16 the drums kick up faster as the background vocals sing “this is the beat of my heart”, giving the listener a feeling of a quickened heartbeat. It all builds slow and steady until the chorus where Brendon belts out “if you love me, let me go”, there he reaches full vocals and you can hear his voice truly soar. The vocals, partnered with a melodic guitar riff and steady drum beat makes this a standout song on the entire album, the music video is really incredible as well.

gif by Aleena @ http://drellabove.tumblr.com/

Nicotine is another stand out track, with it’s simple repeated piano melody echoed by the guitar, the funky bass solo, and its clever use of double entendre within the lyrics helps you realize what a great writer Urie is. While it’s not one of the best tracks on the album, it’s definitely dance-y enough that it will get stuck in your head, and you’ll find yourself hitting repeat.

Each song has it’s own flavor, but they’re all equally drenched in that modern 80’s synth. But while each album is completely different from the last, they’re all quintessentially Panic! It’s just one of those weird things this band has, and maybe you can chock it up to Brendon Urie’s insane vocals, but no matter what this band does, you can always know when one of their songs comes on without having to Shazam it!

Niana Gutierrez

Listen to the full album below