evermore is Taylor's most "challenging" record | album revisit
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- čas přidán 4. 12. 2023
- Taylor Swift's 9th studio record, "evermore", remains of her most interesting works to date. Very few people talk about it consistently though. In this video, we'll discuss why. Evermore is a thematically dense and dark record that touches on very adult and realistic subjects. It's for that reason that it draws in a specific set of Swifties at a certain point in their life. We'll discuss 3 major themes I noticed and how each track pertains to said theme. This video's structured similarly to my reputation video and was a challenge for me to make.
#evermore #taylorswift #videoessay
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Happy evermore season! Sound off on what tracks you loved the most! 🧡
it’s time to go 😭 oh and right where you left me 😭😭😭
Champagne Problems or Ivy for sure! Fell in love with both those tracks on the first listen.
@@natattack_95The taste! Champagne Problems had clicked so hard with me on initial listen, the compelling lyrics and the whole throwback vibe, it felt like Little Women era to me 😭
@@noneapplicable1327the bonus tracks cleared for me 😭
Probably tis the damn season, ivy, evermore and Coney Island ❤
i gagged a little when you said “imagination becomes a prison” bc evermore really does read like that
Listen, sometimes I have a moment of brilliance but again Taylor planted that seed, I merely let it harvest haha 🧡
We construct our own mental prisions often.
If Evermore was released before Folklore, it would be more successful than Folklore
I think that’s very true. Whichever of these records came first probably would have gotten the acclaim and love and Grammy the other got!
preachhhhhh!
well no
HARD agree!
@@cusumike_11 well yes
I clicked on this so quickly! Evermore is one of my personal favorites of hers and I think it really highlights her writing abilities. Almost every song on this album can be read as a spoken poem, especially Ivy. Ivy is one of those I recommend or reference if someone ever questions her songwriting. Folklore is wonderful and definitely deserved all the hype it got but it never fails to shock me how quickly many overlooked Evermore. It deserved more marketing, more spotlight and I'm so glad she gave it it's moment during the era's tour (my favorite section of the show tbh).
Aaah your profile pic! But yes! I agree, this is probably one of her best written to date (probably amongst the modern post-Rep ones!)
I agree this record needed a better push, I was shocked how quick everyone did move on and they had to because the two TVs of 2021 were coming! But still seeing evermore immortalized with a decent set during Eras is a gift! The Tolerate It performance remains one of my favorite live versions ever like the artistry!
The thing I love most about Evermore is how it captures the nooks and crannies of adulthood with brutal honesty. I am barely an adult but I really appreciate how it reflects the struggles and frustrations people go through that nobody talks about, through thoughtful music and clever wordplay. She wrote motion-picture level of narratives in songs barely past the 5-minute mark. It's like the perfect descent of a dreamer into the soft hurt and comforts of adulthood. Folklore will always be my favorite because that album comforted me in the worst of times, but Evermore definitely deserves its flowers.🧡
YES! It’s really a thoughtful and compassionate record about adulthood. There’s dimensions that range from cynical snark to wistful romanticism to just outright crazy but that’s what happens when you grow up. We often either make it seem like a fairy tale or a nightmare when it’s both and neither. evermore’s been a comfort to me as the last year has really personally tested my faith in myself and others and just the world at large but relistening to this has me convinced I’m not alone in that and one day… we will be OK! But today if we’re not, that’s fine 🧡
she was really on a different level in 2020. folklore and evermore are two of the best albums of all time
No joke, I cannot name another artist who could put two personal best records in a year let alone like 5 months
evermore is the best Taylor album for me because the songwriter Taylor Swift takes the driver's seat. It is filled with complexity of human emotions. It makes you cry, makes you smile. It makes you feel guilty, makes you feel proud of oneself. It makes you feel powerful, makes you vulnerable. It makes you think about the sweet past, but also makes you worry about your future. It makes you fall in love, makes you fall apart too. You get lost in this chilly forest of human emotions, making you desiring for more songs or even woodvale if possible. She should consider revisiting this forest in near future and hope my wait shouldn't be for evermore. ❤
Literally this is a songwriter or just writer’s album. It’s this tapestry of ideas and dreams and nightmares that weaves together into something so alive. You really feel a spectrum of emotions and while joy is few and far between, the other emotions take center stage to remind you it’s ok to be human.
As an aspiring writer, Evermore, for me, is Taylor’s greatest masterpiece. It’s storytelling is like a group of novellas, rich and inspiring, and more than a handful of them are inspiring projects of my own. Happiness, Coney Island and Right Where You Left Me are my favourites and are just truly brilliant pieces that are truly books in musical form, an ode to Taylor’s songwriting talents in their purest form. They leave me dreaming of a day where Taylor tries to write some full length romantic fiction, because I will EAT. IT. UP.
I honestly am shocked she doesn’t sell printed copies of album lyrics with custom art and poems and short stories she wrote at the time of the record. Also I’d die if she ever did long form fiction, she has the imagination for it!
Personally, evermore is just one of those records that is so twisted, moody, buried in one of the old cabin shelfs that is opened when the temperatures hit -2/-5C° in the early morning of winter.
Just feel like it being released before the end of 2020 was perfect during that time period and the through January till about March in 2021 it had this uneasy feeling when the world was in crumbles.
I feel like it is her most adult and serious record so far on how realistic she's is. Not saying she never was realistic but evermore just gives you that reality Check unlike other albums, closest one being RED.
It's definitely my top 3 for a reason with RED and speak now.
I’ve never been snowed in before but honestly, yes! That’s the right feeling and the early part of 2021 when everyone was picking up pieces is reflected so well here.
The realism of this record is just remarkable. Like I agree next to RED, this is her rawest record to date!
@EljohnMacaranas oh you should visit a certain Caucasus country during the winter in the mountains and listen to evermore lmao
But the uneasy nature is one of my favourite things Taylor has ever done
you worded this so perfectly. ive been a red stan from the start and ive been trying to figure out what's been making me gravitate to evermore more than folklore lately and you just nailed it.
That is why it's good. Folklore felt like a crafted piece and evermore felt more like one of her other albums.
Evermore made me from a casual fan to a real swiftie. It’s so good.
I think it’s such a clever record, I could def see why it made a fan out of you!
Evermore is 100% a winter album, and as the winter become snowier and darker, I'm listening to tolerate it and gold rush day in and day out
There’s something about how the songs sound that make you appreciate the winter air and the early nights! 🧡
@@EljohnMacaranas you have it exactly!
i actually lowkey see evermore as a big sister to red, and for me red is the ultimate winter album so yes it makes sense !!
The thing I love about Evermore is that the more I listen to it, I find the more meaning, depth, and more ways to interpret it. I keep finding new things each time I listen and connect even more.
It’s so layered and detailed that you just can’t help but realize we really know nothing about it. It feels like a present wrapped in infinite paper.
10:30 this! You can listen to Folklore as a background music except maybe one or two tracks, but evermore has this magnetic dark mood. I can't just go through without getting emotional
My best friend told me once that Folklore was her favorite studying music album and at first I was gagged because I always end up singing along or too invested 😭
@@EljohnMacaranas me too, i get distracted a lot, so i listen it on a long road
Evermore is one of those long classic novels that can be super hard to get into due to its complexities. However, once you manage to get into the book and see the intricate motifs and connections, you finally understand why it's a classic.
It’s definitely an album that can feel like homework but is worth the read!
When I hear “Closure” I imagine it’s a song about how Taylor felt after Scott Borchetta wrote her a letter apologising for how things turned out. What do you think?
I think that’s a pretty good interpretation, I like it better than the Karlie Kloss one!
I wish she did a trilogy
RIP Woodvale
I still believe she will, she thrives the most as a songwriter at this sound and can definitely see her returning to it one day
One of the best parts of evermore personally is that despite all of the pain throughout the album there’s this consistent motif of hope that things will get better and that the pain will not be for Evermore: he will patch up the tapestry that she shreds in Champagne Problems; she has the option to break free, take the dagger and remove it in Tolerate It; at some point she will give the green light of forgiveness and move on in Happiness; there’s hope in Ivy for a time where she is free to pursue a love that she wants etc. It’s truly a remarkable depiction of how pain is at its core a temporary thing that you can either wallow in and remain frozen by, as in RWYLM, or recognise that moving on and seeking a hopeful future will result in greater joy in the long run, as said in Its Time To Go.
There’s also a theme throughout of reality and fiction, which feels inevitable due to its status as being fictional but likely inspired by Taylor’s reality. This is fairly obvious in Gold Rush, but I’d also say it’s in the duo of TTDS and Dorothea alongside Marjorie and CLM in that they explore the reality of a person. TTDS comments on how the speakers fame leads to people seeking to write books about them, and that the only person who doesn’t have these alterior motives, wanting to know the reality of the speaker not for financial gain, is the lover they seek to reconnect with, while Marjorie comments on how Taylor wishes that she could’ve better known her grandmother, and laments how her reality as a person may have been lost as ‘every scrap of you has been taken from me’. Cowboy Like Me is also strongly linked to this theme throughout, but perhaps most evidently in the lyrics ‘Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon / With your boots beneath my bed’. Here, she has physical proof of the reality of their love in the boots, and yet cannot help but wonder if such a great love ever really existed as suggested by the mythical status of the Gardens of Babylon. This can absolutely be linked to more songs on the album, which is part of what makes Evermore so thematically rich.
Oh hope in darkest times being the whole motif of the record is so beautiful, it came at such a brittle time for us all.
Evermore has been my favorite album since it came out. The soundscape, lyricism, and aesthetics quickly cemented it in my top 3 from Taylor. Especially during November & the colder months, it's such a perfect companion for the winter.
Literally the Woody “I don’t wanna play with you anymore” meme when the air drops and it’s chilly for me
I feel like closure is such an underrated song. Maybe it’s just because I’ve had people who’ve wronged me reach out for closure but it’s one of my favorites. I just feel like it tells a story of how complicated it is to be mad and hurt by someone. Everyone makes fun of the pots and pans but I think the harshness is the point, because is juxtaposed by the soft piano that follows. Which I took as how you can be so angry at someone but there is still a part of you that wants to forgive because of the good times. And it also shows up with the line “I can feel you smoothing me over” even after how angry she’s been leading up to it. While I don’t think Taylor(if it’s about her) ends up forgiving the person it’s just nice to show that it’s not always a straightforward path, not as simple as just being angry and hurt, there is a lot more there. It’s also just very cathartic for me but I’m glad it’s finally getting some recognition in this video.
I had to talk about it because it’s genuinely one of the underpinning tracks off the record. I feel like every track on evermore plays a specific role and the second to last placement on the standard meant this was definitely a key song to the record. I agree with a lot of what you wrote. Thank you for the comment! 🧡
my all time favourite taylor album, it's a beautiful album, and has some of her best songwriting.
It’s one of the richest collection of ideas and lyrics she’s ever made and tbh a legacy affirming record…
Never clicked on a Taylor video so fast. Evermore is my absolute favorite Taylor Album. Its beautiful and haunting. It's as rich and immersive as Folklore. Cowboy like me is my favorite track
It’s such a powerful record, at some moments it laps folklore for me! But I do think one cannot exist without the other
the jumpscare at the end of your closure section… i nearly spilled my coffee 😭
hahaha someone noticed it (like i tried to keep this as respectful but one lil trademark wild editing moment)
Oh evermore, my favorite sister, and over all, my personal favorite of her albums. I find it ironic that she chose to name the other album folklore, seeing as this one sounds more folk to me. From the moody and witchy sound esthetics through out,to the constant clean acoustic guitar dressing almost every song, and her themes and lyrics being more poetic and intricate than ever, she created the soundtrack of my melancholia. For 3 winters now, this album has been my constant company through the sometimes harsh holidays, where the feeling of longing for what is lost, becomes too overwhelming. She somehow created my perfect Christmas album, without even trying to do so. She has a place in my heart forever, and she would have even in a world were this album was the only music she'd ever put out.
Thank you for honoring this criminally underrated masterpiece, right on time for it's anniversary.
Hope you're feeling better, you sounded kinda sick at some parts 🙏
Honestly, I think this one does sound more folk! The moody and witchy vibes are just perfect. I agree this is a holiday record! Aaaah I love your comments so much!
Also good catch! I was a bit sniffly while recording and it didn’t help recording some parts in Florida had me a bit emotional. I’m feeling much better now 🧡
This is her best album for me. Both Evermore and Folklore should have gotten AOTY but of course they couldn’t give it to years in a row 🥲 it is genuinely insane she dropped this just months after Folklore. Every song is a poem and people absolutely sleep on Coney Island. Her second verse has some of her best and devastating writing of all 10 albums. Every line is immaculate
Coney Island is just such an underrated classic to me. Like the concept and sound feels so… like immaculate, you really get a sense of what’s happening and who the people singing meant to each other!
@@EljohnMacaranas love this! Agreed. Thank you for answering - huge fan of yours 💜
Literally my favorite album of her's!! I especially love listening to it in autumn. It's sonically colder than folklore, so I never got why it's represented by a gold color compared to folklore's silver... ☀️🌘
I think the golden color is just a direct call to Gold Rush and the endurance of the material. Gold has this cultural reputation (lol) of being indicative of survival hence why it persists as a mainstay in jewelry. I always felt Folklore being silver was tied towards silver being known to purge evil. Like My Tear Ricochet sounds silver to me even if the material isn’t referenced.
This is personally my favorite album from a songwriters standpoint. This album and Folklore are the antithesis that separates this body of work from the others. She didn’t write for hits or having some sort of outside influence. This was her at her most vulnerable, writing purely for the art and not having a care in the world because the world was such a mess then. Both albums helped pass the time and escape reality altogether
While I can’t say I’d 💯 not wish for a world the pandemic never happened, these two records were the greatest gifts we could have gotten from it!
I like how “evermore” is the title track because the *entire* album, like in the track, focus in someway about pain and loss that feels like it will last “forevermore” (even if it may not)
I wish folklore had some title track equivalent or something tbh the closest to being a thesis for that would be like… MTR or the Lakes maybe
my favorite taylor swift album! it's so beautifully written, so poetic and deep.
Every song feels masterful and deliberate
oh, for sure, this album not getting a long pond session was the biggest betrayal she coud've done to me. i still haven't recovered 🤕
Literally there was an insane rumor she recorded a version of that at the Buckingham Palace which proliferated early Swifttok in 2021 😭
Haha Ivy was my most listened too song this year on Spotify, followed by gold rush, tolerate it, and champagne problems, didn’t know how much I liked evermore 😂
The taste! Ugh my top two evermore songs Ivy and Gold Rush 😭 yaaaas!
my evermore cd has been playing on repeat in the car all november (and probably all december too) on my daily commute. something about listening to this very mellow album in the gray november landscape. just hits different.
evermore has really grown on me. i don't get tired of it anymore. i just love this album so much. (except long story short, i don't think it fits in the album and something about the chorus melody just annoys me) but that's beside the point.
point is, evermore is a great album. but for me it's such a winter/late fall album. folklore on the other hand is just spring/summer to me. folklore is warm, evermore is cold.
I agree on all your points! As the wind chills and time progresses and the year ends, I can’t help but feel it being evermore season!
Coney Island is one of her best... periodt.
The album felt like a collection of short stories you would find in your grandparents attic with your great grandma's name on it.
That’s a perfect little description of the record, I feel like these are the sorts of stories people many many years from now will talk about!
So Evermore has been my favourite TS album since I first listened to it, but I never got past Closure. It was so audibly jarring to go from Marjorie to the “pots and pans”. As a result I never listened to Closure or Evermore, wild for my favourite album I know.
Then in May of this year I got really ill. I nearly died and spent two months in hospital with heart failure and having open heart surgery.
After my surgery my mobility was reduced massively, and so I’d lay in bed listening to a handful of apt Taylor songs (Soon You’ll Get Better, Bigger Than The Whole Sky, Long Story Short etc)
I put Evermore on and listened to it all the way through, hearing Closure and Evermore in full for the first time.
Evermore the song was so fitting for what I went through. The fear, the uncertainty, feeling like I was drowning every time I got a wild new diagnosis, and then the hope, the hope that I would survive this.
Soon You’ll Get Better was my most listened to song of 2023 but Closure and Evermore kept me going is2g
I love that Closure sounds like a “big machine” breaking down, only to be (mostly) drowned out by the piano. Genius.
I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to you! But I am glad you had the comfort of art and the luck of the draw to still be standing. 2023 was a challenging year. Everyone I talk to in my personal life (even the people I assumed were pretty perfect) has told me something they struggled with. As we cross this winter month into a newer year even with open wounds emotional or literally, I hope this pain truly won’t be for evermore 🧡
When autumn came this year I came back to this album and I fell in love with the album. Right now I prefer it over Folklore and there are a ton of songs I love. Tis the damn season, Marjorie, Champagne Problems, Right where you left me, willow, coney island, no body no crime.
It’s such a perfect year closing record! Also no skips in your picks!
my all time favorite album of hers.
Literally she deserved some sort of songwriting recognition for this like a Grammy sure but an award from the songwriters association or something bc whew!
Great video! This album took me from casual fan to full swifty. As a fan of classic country music “cowboy like me” could be a movie! Good luck on your journey,
Aaaah! Love to see you back in the comments and yes, some flowers for Cowboy Like You! Thank you 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Closure, Right where you left me and Willow (the music video is what made me fall in love with the song even more) are my favourites from the album
The music video for Willow is so underrated like the storytelling and direction and concept remains one of her best videos aside from ATW10MV
Thanks for this. Your casual use of “Antonoffian” and RWYLM’s tie-in to Red (YES I feel like that revelation has been impatiently tapping on my brain this whole time!) got you a subscribe.
Thank you so much for the sub! 🫡 Haha, my friends always yell at me whenever I say “Antonoffian” but tbh he’s already one of the greats! Sue me!
Evermore is one of my favorite albums from her, and the title track is one of my favorite songs of hers ever. I’m always a little sad how Evermore gets a little overlooked. Even to this day, I could never get into Folklore as much as I try. It for me was always a little too youthful and light. Evermore is some of Taylor’s best writing and feels so mature compared to the majority of her albums.
Glad to see others on here also loving this album!
Seeing everyone heap love onto this definitely more mature and heavy record made me so happy.
while folklore will always be my favorite taylor album as it was the first one i listened to and fell in love with, evermore is such a beautiful album and it definitely needs more recognition. my favorite tracks are right where you left me, happiness, and marjorie.
this and folklore are my top 2 taylor swift albums! i just looove the lyricism and pictures she paints. I love the woodsy mysterious aesthetics of both, and i just think none other of her songs compare to the songs on evermore and folklore
I think she had so much to “prove” at the time, Lover hadn’t found its love, she’d been heavily contested in 2019 and in 2020… she embraced parts of herself we knew she always had but had kept away because of pop. And I hope she’ll come back to those parts soon!
4:01 thank you for giving tolerate it its flowers! it is the most underrated track 5, perhaps next to Cold As You
It's genuinely one of her best Track 5's.
Wow I absolutely loved this! This was always the one I gravitated towards when picking between folklore. Amazing album! Great review. I was shook when it didn’t get more recognition. Thank you 😊 ❤️
Thank you for watching! 🧡 I feel like older souls gravitate towards evermore, like there’s a beautiful lived in quality to it! Folklore feels like you’re moving into a new home that’s been lived in while evermore is leaving that home behind to find a new one!
100% if fall had a sound its evermore! It’s rustic cabin, worn boots and woodsy items. It’s warming to me. My mom always told me I have an old soul. I feel that to my core. Wonderfully put..a life well lived. Lessons learned. I also wanted to say that right where you left me is my favorite on the album! I was glad to see you felt the same.
For some reason, I feel like evermore is a more mature version of folklore. Like folklore follows a teenage love triangle, and songs like seven and even peace and hoax. evermore feels like a mature wine aunt, following mature problems and love e.g cowboy like me, champagne problems, and Coney Island. Love this album so much it’s literally her best in my opinion.
evermore’s like folklore if she survived a great war and a forever winter (puns aside the shift in tone and light is amazing)
I hope she eventually puts Sweeter Than Fiction (Taylor's Version) on streaming it's one of my all time favorite tracks from her it's so good
I assume it’ll be up by the year’s end or however long Target has the song for
@@EljohnMacaranas I hope so. Lol for some reason this got commented on this video even though I commented it on your 1989 TV video lol CZcams is weird it must have happened when the video changed on my Playlist because I was midway through commenting on the 1989 video when it switched but oh well lol
Evermore is journey in an haunted woods of memories, lost loves, and the pain that brings the past. It's a magic album. One of my favorites along folklore and Red TV.
"should've kept every store receipt, 'cause every scrap of you would be taken from me".
i love evermore so much, it’s my favorite taylor album and i don’t think that will ever change. right where you left me and cowboy like me are my favorite tracks, but every single track is amazing
Taylor doesn't stray into experimental sounds, (she doesn't have to) she has a formula that is safe and clearly produces chart topping hits. I've seen many critiques on closure's busy sound, but I love it. I find it one of her most experimental and camp songs production wise. (high infidelity too) I'd love to see her take more risks like this!
I agree, she usually has a simple spread of 4 chords and impeccable structure but closure is chaos and business. I’d love for a more out there sound from her again even if only for a little part of a bigger project!
So sad the track Evermore is the most neglected on the album, Evermore! It's one of my faves on the album.
It’s a hard and personal track that often gets sidelined just bc of how intense it is 😭🧡
I remember watching a Mic the Snare video and he said that Folklore is the more accessible of the two albums. And much like Red and 1989, Folklore was her testing whether or not she could play in the space, Evermore was her diving in and fully owning the space and folk/indie sound. And that, mixed with darker themes would probably explain why Evermore tends to not be as popular as its big sister.
That makes a lot of sense, I do think Taylor does a tick tock sort of thing in the sense folk->ever, lover->midnights, i’m assuming Tortured Poets is the first of another set or maybe the tock to another record
even though folklore has always been my favorite, i've found myself coming back to evermore more and more over the past months, more in the way of individual songs rather than the whole album. as a complete album, i've never really liked it, but the songs are just too beautifully written. to me, there are some songs that just turn me off when listening to it completely, not because they're bad but because they break the pace of the album (dorothea, no body no crime, closure). but lately i have been relating to this album more and more in its adult perspective on life and relationships, i think it shows taylor on the most vulnerable and honest level she has ever been on.
Honestly, the tracklisting has always been one of the gripes I had with the record, I tend to listen to these in pockets and even when making this video, I ended up going in non sequential order so I def get what you mean! And yes, I do think this is one of the most authentically vulnerable things she’s ever dropped 😭
My hot take is that I like evermore more than folklore. I find myself going back to it more often.
I take turns pending on the seasons tbh, but I have found myself listening more to evermore as the years have passed
Love this. It's my favorite TS album, but was the one I spent the least time with and wrote off originally, but I fell in love with it. Especially the back half is so strong. "long story short" and "ivy" are my favorites on the album and definitely top 5 all time favorites of hers.
Long Story Short is such an underrated little jam, the bridge in particular is just so smart and simple! “No more keeping score, now I just keep you warm” in a way feels addressed to the general public instead of a lover in my eyes. Especially after her Time Person of the Year interview!
i think i pity liked evermore over folklore in the beginning because i felt bad at how overshadowed it was. easily my number one album now. i like the rough edges, brutal honesty, and cut throat moments that really make you sit and think. her writing is unbelievable in this album and i can only pray that tortured poets dept will have the same vibe.
I think evermore is a record that really speaks to people who wanted a bit more complexity and mystique to Folklore's simplicity and earnestness. I think of evermore as a record that speaks to people who love chatty and dense text over people who merely like vibes (not that the latter are invalid or any less intelligent), evermore stans have a need for panache and flair.
Totally agree with you about this record. Thanks for the validation. I listen when I’m sad. It hits me in all the tender places. 💔
It’s such a sweet tender record that makes you long for times that have passed and times you know will come to pass if that makes sense
happiness is my favorite Taylor Swift song and I feel so connected to it because of how it describes a lot of emotions I experienced after losing someone I loved and people don't talk about it. TS doesn't perform it at The Eras Tour either but it is so so beautiful, the wording and her voice in it is so unique.
I feel like happiness is such a dark and raw song, I could not imagine having the strength to sing it each night for a 100+ shows if I was Taylor 😭
@@EljohnMacaranas Just one time and may it be recorded. 😭
Amazing video, so many interesting points I haven't even thought about
Thank you so much! 🧡
evermore is such an underappriciated album, and is my favorite. she knows how to tell a story, and she definitely is not afraid to tell one hell of a story. tolerate it kills me every time, and is so musically interesting. With the beautiful piano in 5/4 to the vocals in 10/8 just enough of a difference to not quite match up, but still works kind of representing how she is describing an almost out of body kind of experience. The tolerate it piano solo before the song during the eras tour is SO BEAUTIFUL and i am so glad that she has such a long evermore set in the eras tour!
The piano soli is so good! Like omg when I found out she wasn’t shortchanging Evermore I was so happy!
Yes agree evermore is one of her strongest albums ever 13/13 stars for me.
It’s so uninhibited, you can tell she’s NOT holding back intellectually or philosophically. It’s very raw!
This is one of the best videos I've ever seen talking about two of my favourite albums from Taylor that got me even more heavily invested in being a swiftie. Loved hearing your thoughts a lot, Eljohn! 🧡
Thank you so much for the lovely words! 🧡 It genuinely means a lot, I try to ensure my videos say something or try to enhance whatever I’m covering.
@@EljohnMacaranasYou're so welcome! 🧡...I really admire a lot that you create with that in mind, 'cause you're very certainly doing a great job at it! ✨
i loved this video! really related to evermore being more grown up version of folklore because as I've grown so did my fondness for evermore over folklore (which i still love). however i totally don't agree with your opinion of "cowboy like me" - it's not the happiest track, to me it doesn't have a happy ending. "and I'm never gonna love again" doesn't read to me as a paraphrase of "now I've found my soulmate so i will never love again" but rather "this con, this love has scared and impacted me so deeply i will never be able to feel love". thank you for this video and the evermore appreciation!
Thank you for watching! 🧡 Oh that’s a great alternative reading to the song, I’m a hopeless romantic about CLM for some reason!
Evermore is my favorite album of all time. A year ago it was maybe my least favorite Taylor album but it will forever be my favorite ❤️
I love the switch up from worst to best like the journey to there must have been interesting!
looking back, to me it really was like you said because i was still trying to get over folklore when evermore came out just as suddendly and right after that we had the lovely fearless rerecording. it took me a while to get this album, but when i did... man, when i finally did!
i too agree with you on it being her most challenging record. and RWYLM is also a personal favorite of mine! ❤❤❤
I think evermore getting buried in the winter snow and just the onslaught of music Swift dropped in 2021 is a shame but I’m so glad there’s an active love for this record in the community!
I love your analyses, thank you! Evermore is a favorite album of mine. So many good songs.
Thank you so much 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
evermore has quickly become one of my favorite swift albums upon revisiting her discography this year, and i think it's the album that has made me appreciate her as an artist as much as i do. every time i listen to any song from this record, i learn something new about the song or i gain a new perspective on it... each song, for me at least, has such replay value due to that. and i agree that it has darker themes and takes a little more brain power to dissect each track which is why i think folklore has more overall popularity and success among both swifties and non-fans. overall i loved this video, i adore to see more people appreciate this album in the way i appreciate it. it's truly such a gem in her discography and i think for me it will be really hard to beat/replace when she releases her next album. awesome video
Thank you for watching and I agree on all points, it’s a very revisitable record with new nooks and crannies to discover each listen. Seeing all the comments with theories and loving words and personal stories genuinely makes me glad to have made the video because I don’t think we’re “over” evermore at all in spite of Swift releasing 3 TVs and a new record since!
you nailed everything evermore is to its core
Thank you! I had to memorialize one of her best 🧡
Red is still my favorite album of her, next is evermore! evermore ft. Bon Iver, closure & ivy are my fav tracks from this album.
Red is still her quintessential record to me, so understood tbh! Also yes! Love to see the title track get love! 🧡
I've recently relistened to evermore (for a different reason) and I feel folklore is a strong album but evermore songs are hard hitters. "willow", "champaign problems", "'tis the damn season", "cowboy like me", "Marjorie", "evermore", the whole damn list is gloomy yet vivid.
(I was retracing the Joe timeline and "happiness" being the last song to be made tickled my brain.)
evermore has some pretty strong songs but I do agree folklore is just consistent throughout!
(Oh I usually don’t want to be too invasive about the timeline but I did think of that when I found out about happiness)
i love love loveee evermore!! its one of my favourites from taylor bc im the biggest folk girlie and rwylm is my favourite on the album too! it was my top song in this years spotify wrapped too. loved this video
RWYLM destroys me every time haha, I was actually just watching a Wandavision themed edit to it and was attacked haha
@@EljohnMacaranas omg the edits to rwylm and champagne problems are absolutely insane 😭 i end up crying every time
I didnt connect with evermore on first listen. But playing it more often has changed my mind. I'm also usually not that much of a lyrics person, but this album made me adjust a bit more
I think if there’s a spectrum between melodic and lyrical Taylor this album and 1989 make up opposite spectrums for sure
Omg for the record thank you for bringing up tis the damn season / dorothea as taking place in Tupelo, MS!! I live there (and even have a sister named Dorothy) and so the songs are really personal to me. Especially around the holiday season. But normally when I bring it up online people have no clue what I'm talking about in regards to Tupelo or think that I'm overreaching to say it takes place in Tupelo.
I think the location heavily matters. For one it gives it like actual weight and a place to imagine. Also omg that’s so cool! Wow!
evermore is my fave TS album!!
the taste exhibited! this album is actual literature! why has she not done album lyric book pressings with original art or curated photos?! 😭
I've seen this opinion before and I coundnt agree more that the songs on everore are better but folklore the album as a whole is better. My favorite song off the album is either champagne problems, gold rush, or closure, but the close seconds off the album are ivy and closure. I love this album sm and I think people need to give evermore what it deserves. I think evermore is her most underated album! This album lost to sour evermore was honestly snubbed by the grammy's (Honestly I can't listen to sour anymore because I went through the biggest olivia rodrigo so now good 4 u is number 1 most streamed song on apple music and I am so dissapointed in myself😭)
Folklore genuinely is a better sequenced and paced record but evermore has higher highs and lower lows. I’m sad evermore was mostly overshadowed by the prolific nature Swift has (especially as she plugs and chugs through the TVs)
I listened to evermore for the first time this august and fell in love with it instantly
It's such a nice record! Truly just a vibe!
Thanks for your service.
Evermore hive, we rise 🫡
evermore is easily her strongest album imo. her voice is almost acting in character, her direction is incredible and the writing is so personal. it’s also the one i personally relate to the most. i think the definitive problem is that people don’t understand it’s themes, and people can’t really get into it’s more thought-heavy tracks that need to click, mainly because of the tracklisting. it has these more palatable tracks surrounding tracks like Cowboy Like Me, and the track listing also can be jarring and take away from the heaviness of this album, because it’s simultaneously her most quiet and forgiving album and her most intensely emotional. here’s how i would tracklist the album:
willow
gold rush
coney island
champagne problems
tolerate it
rwylm
marjorie
it’s the damn season
dorothea
happiness
ivy
cowboy like me
no body no crime
long story short
it’s time to go
closure
evermore
willow doesn’t fit cleanly in the narrative but still shows how unique and directed the album will be, and can serve as a nice little bit of calm before the records emotional tracks. gold rush is the albums true chapter 1 because it’s a very reflective peice, either imagining something that won’t happen, or the narrator looking back at their past self dreaming about “what if i actually asked that person out”. coney island is another peice of regret and reflection, same with champagne problems though champagne problems narrator optimistically daydreams about the other charecters future. tolerate it is a new approach to the theme being a “what if i did this now” rather than “what if i did this then” with an ambiguous ending as it is still a mere daydream. you may be thinking “god this track list is heartbreaking and so sad for so long all the sad songs are together” yes exactly. i’m not watering this down to be more palatable. marjorie concluded with “i know better but i still feel you all around” allowing a slow transition and acceptance to going against the painful reflections. happiness is the turning point in the album, allowing the narrator to accept “what’s done is done” and reflect on the past while accepting its over and there will be a future after the pain of the ended relationship.
ivy is the choice to act on the what ifs. trying to learn from the past of the record (or as a detail in a sidenote, a single charecters life) rather than mourn it, whether that be good or bad. cowboy like me and no body no crime are two big thematic odd-men out, but i think they work after ivy but before the ending tracks, because they end with accepting the now and forgetting the journey to it, embracing the days wins, i know some people think cowboy like me is reflective with “i’m never gonna love again” being a cynical “boo, that broke my heart” but i think it’s a “this is the only person i will love, i intend to stay with them for as long as i can”. this song endinf is a nice contrast to the reflection of past relationships despite the characters (or character) having a romantic future.
Long Story Short is the begginging of the albums third act, allowing one final moment of reflection, acknowledging past mistakes but ultimately starting a new path and accepting closure. it’s time to go allows a nice “let’s move on” expanding on the ideas of the ending of the previous track. Closure is the grand finale, it’s basically a “i found closure on my own, now you have to find it on your own” the only references to the past relationship the characters had are in finality, and it mostly details their current lives and futures. evermore is an epilogue, detailing just how one moves on from heartbreak and endless regret and reflection, showing how the narrator couldn’t fix the damage by replaying the tape, and could barely understand it, and that closure and moving on is how the pain leaves you.
as a sidenote i also like to think of the album having one narrator, a writer who’s charecters either are poetic symbols of his/her/their life, and in other tracks their reflecting on personal chapters of their life, until his characters bring him to a journey of closure. this contradicting tolerate it i dismiss as either a “what if i left sooner” or the writers current circumstance and in the current circumstance narrative i’d like Ivy to be the writer leaving and cheating as ivy has more closure starting the journey to conclusion. ivy is from the pov of someone new going through the cycle of closure or someone the writer is guiding through closure or maybe just one of the writers characters.
I need to write a lengthy comment responding to this but for now! Your thoughts are so real like omfg
I always associated ivy with illicit affairs, relating it to august is interesting too
I feel like it’s Jack’s production on it that made me go… wait a minute
i love how fiona apple-esque the musical composition is on closure
Yessss Fiona Apple 🧡🧡🧡 ugh this was her true indie album
Beautiful video!! I loved your interpretation of the theme of evermore, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I listened to evermore while I was packing up to leave my abusive childhood home. I think evermore is a positive album for sure. The closing line in evermore is so hopeful.
Thank you for the comment and I’m so sorry to hear that but glad this album helped you move on. This record’s truly a healing piece of work! 🧡
@@EljohnMacaranasThank you for all you do and for taking the time to reply to me! I love seeing how much you show your subscribers you care!
Thank you so much! I love responding to every comment (within reason and as thoughtfully as I can.) I genuinely appreciate all my subscribers and am always humbled and surprised to see people come back here haha. Thank you sm! 🧡
@EljohnMacaranas I have my bell on so I get all notifications from you! Thanks for giving me content to listen to while I'm working on projects and cleaning. It's always appreciated! I hope you have a great winter and a Merry Christmas (or holiday, if you don't celebrate).
From what is inspected folklore talks about beginning of things, how things that once ended can begin again for example: "the 1", "cardigan", "betty", and etc., while evermore talks about ending of things usually this is obviously seen in the title track "evermore" and the two bonus track: "right wherre you left me" and "its time to go" which is like the opposite side of the same coin, the other song talks about not moving on from things on our past, the other talks about moving on and just realizing we cant control the past anymore.
I think that may be why we never really got that hypothetical rumored third album the more I think about it tbh 😭 if we ever got one from that logic it would be about the middle of things
This album has grown on me so much. It's gone from like 7th ranking to probably 5th. It has very high highs but very low lows. While I think Folklore is a far superior album, Evermore has some better songs on it. Ivy is probably my favorite song of hers, at least currently. lol
For Folklore I will say "The Lakes" makes me cringe now. I feel like it's her trying to be someone she's not for Joe. It's a song saying she doesn't belong in the spotlight but of course she does and she loves to be.
Love your well thought out videos!!!
I agree with what you say about the consistency, Folklore has an immaculate run of tracks and very few lows where this soars and crashes at times. But I admire all the swings! Ivy was my 8th most played in 2021 😭
Oh, “the lakes” is a gorgeous sounding track and in the pandemic context sorta made sense but oof… yah, the whole diminish one’s star… no thx.
Thanks again for watching!
I disagree with your opinion in The Lakes. We all have that thought sometimes where what if we can just shut ourselves in the world and be with someone we love. Taylor Swift is a woman who lives in spotlight, but she certainly at some point truly feels like she wanna go to The Lakes.
@@gktte2574 Fair enough! I agree she probably enjoys getting away and would love to spend a day doing whatever she wanted without needing security. What rubs me the wrong way about this song is the "I don't belong" line. She knows where she belongs and that's on stage in front of screaming fans. She told us that herself when she said she's the happiest she's ever been on the Era's Tour. I don't mean this in a mean or rude way but Taylor can be a bit of a chameleon with the men she dates. Which makes her sacrifice her needs and who she is sometimes. "You're Losing Me" after placing Joe on a high pedestal in songs like "Peace" as exhibit A. I still listen to the song when it comes on shuffle, I just cringe a bit now. Lol
The song Evermore is my TS favorite 🤍 i sing it to my baby because he made all the bad things go away 😭
Awwwww 🧡
It's my favorite album for a reason ❤
Taste!
this album made me fall in love with taylor, I even bought a vinyl and i never buy vinyl's lol. My favorite album from her!
OMG which color did you get?! I know there were two shades of green!
Closure I feel like is about Scott Borschetta. Especially the sea motifs she uses in My Tears Richochet and Closure. He does seem like someone who would write a letter especially since he knows he's clearly in the wrong for selling her masters
That makes sense tbh! I feel like the pain of being betrayed by someone who was there from day 1 never quite leaves
For me folklore is just consistently great. Any song you put on from that album, I know I'll enjoy, but evermore had higher highs and lower lows (none of them ever truly reaching bad songs). Despite being a bit of a hopeless romantic, Dorothea is a song I could easily skip. At the same time, some of those songs are just so good (Champagne Problems, Gold Rush, No Body No Crime, Right Where You left Me, and the list could go on)
I do think some of the songs just don’t have the replay value of Folk’s songs but agreed the highs really punch higher than some of folk’s!
i am simple girl. i see evermore video. i click.
(the album is in my top three of favorites, GOD it’s so good)
evermore is like a rich buffet of imagery, talent and magic like society would be better if we admitted this was one of her best records collectively
@@EljohnMacaranas the REALEST take.
It gives me Beethoven.
_Evermore_ is Beethoven manifesting in this world again and you can't change my mind 🥰❤️🔥
Beethoven would have loved Taylor, even if she would have ate him up!
@@EljohnMacaranas oh my God, can you imagine a collab? If we already got _Exile_ when writing with Jover and Bon Iver, I can only dream what a song with Beto would have been 🥵🥵🥵🥵
Just like an Evermore girlie, dreaming what could've been 😅
My favourite Taylor album ❤ I always shout from the rooftops about it
Yes 🧡 man the evermore set in Eras never fails to gag me like every realizes how good it is during that
FINALLY THANK YOU
Hahaha I’ve been dying to redo evermore!
About folklore, I like in betty how the end result isn’t said. You don’t know if betty accepts James back or not- it’s just James thinking of a reunion up till the exact moment he’s at her door and it stops there.
I like that read, I adopted a headcanon Cardigan was Betty years in the far future looking back on it all 😭
Evermore is so precious to me ❤
a hidden gem amongst the world's biggest star's discography
I already agreed before I even clicked on the thumbnail
YESSS
Our mental cages become personal stages for us to shine on,
Evermore is a storybook example of pain disguised as folklore,
To have known suffering, pain and anguish,
and finding solace in letting yourself finish,
Greiving as a relationship crumbles like a castle all around you and you feel like you’ve fumbled,
The ball, given it your all,
But lost it,
Time after time, exhausted even for a phoenix,
When life loses all meaning,
And the Midnights keep you awake until 3am,
With the late night friends,
Our night terrors,
This is us trying,
We’re just trying.
Tears are drying,
New floods, we keep crying,
Drawing stars around scars,
Hoping we start healing,
But it’s never easy…
And we just Tolerate It…
Omg your comment had me thinking 🤔
As much as "foklore" is my favorite Taylor's album (it literally saved my life from self-termination and inspired me to pursue a different path and expectations), "evermore" is definitely her best record: it's somber and rich and devastating and complex and contains her best lyrics ever written and confirmes her as a true, genuine poet, not only a creative pop star.
I’m so glad the music helped you heal! 🧡
@@EljohnMacaranas Thanks for noticing this!! I seriously appreciate how well-worded and lovely you were about the narrative contained in this album. This vid is gorgeous!
I love this. Huhu!
Thank you 🧡🧡🧡
She’s my favorite album but I seriously can’t listen to this album without thinking “this is just like red dead redemption 2” in my head😭😭
evermore free!
Evermore is the best Taylor Swift album lyrically ❤
I have to agree tbh!
What other themes did you notice? 🧡
Oh definitely the one about the masters!
Evermore is the shadow sister in her discography. When it came out, I was enamored by how poignant her diction and delivery was. It reminds me of reputation because even in that point of her life she went through a whirlwind of public events and situations. I see Evermore, Reputation, and Midnights as a trilogy that speak about human emotions very accurately. The first time I listened to Evermore was during a relationship that was doomed and I was graduating college soon. To put it simply, it wasn't a good point in my life. This album isn't a casual listen that's for sure. Listeners really need to digest every words, but also the instrumentals. I love Closure (laughed when you said "it was the pots-and-pans song"), Cowboy Like Me, and Tis the damn season. I have no qualms about this album.
I adore your evermore, reputation, and midnights trilogy idea so much! I feel like they honestly are so interconnected!
@@EljohnMacaranas exactly! Also I wanted to hear about your thoughts as to when she will be releasing Reputation (TV). I really believe that she’ll release sometime in Tokyo because it was a vault answer and she gave a personal speech about Clean. Furthermore, I think it is clever the remaining song is ‘I Did Something Bad’ because it perfectly sums up her attitude on ‘Mastermind’ as being Machiavellian. Also, I’m super stoked that she is Time’s Person of The Year-she described Reputation tracks as ‘fire’ and to me that signifies, the lines, “So light me up/light me up.” Also the references to witches is heavily prevalent in the song too. I love how she described her and Yonce’s work as feminine work contributing to the economy. I think that was awesome. I speculate that ‘I Did Something Bad’ will be part of Eras Tour 2024 setlist. I would love to hear your thoughts.