Taylor Swift Drops Another Surprise Album: Breaking Down the Lyrics to ‘Evermore’

Credit: Beth Garrabrant

Taylor Swift Drops Another Surprise Album: Breaking Down the Lyrics to ‘Evermore’

A new era already! Less than five months after surprising fans with her critically acclaimed album Folklore, Taylor Swift released a companion record titled Evermore on December 11. “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. 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,” the 10-time Grammy winner, 31, wrote via Instagram ahead of the release. Swift told fans that in the past she “always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released.” However, with Folklore, she felt compelled to test a new strategy. “In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives,” she continued. “So I just kept writing them.” [jwplayer gMn2qGhw] For Evermore, the pop-country superstar worked with the same collaborators as Folklore: Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, who used the pseudonym William Bowery. This time around, she also tapped longtime friends Haim as well as Dessner and Vernon’s respective bands, The National and Bon Iver, as featured artists. “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now,” Swift explained of the release date. “You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.” The standard edition of Evermore has 15 tracks, including the single “Willow,” while the deluxe version, which hit streaming services on January 7, has two bonus songs: “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time to Go.” Scroll through the gallery below for a breakdown of each song on Evermore!

Credit: Beth Garrabrant

Taylor Swift Drops Another Surprise Album: Breaking Down the Lyrics to ‘Evermore’

A new era already! Less than five months after surprising fans with her critically acclaimed album Folklore, Taylor Swift released a companion record titled Evermore on December 11. “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. 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,” the 10-time Grammy winner, 31, wrote via Instagram ahead of the release. Swift told fans that in the past she “always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released.” However, with Folklore, she felt compelled to test a new strategy. “In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives,” she continued. “So I just kept writing them.” [jwplayer gMn2qGhw] For Evermore, the pop-country superstar worked with the same collaborators as Folklore: Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, who used the pseudonym William Bowery. This time around, she also tapped longtime friends Haim as well as Dessner and Vernon’s respective bands, The National and Bon Iver, as featured artists. “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now,” Swift explained of the release date. “You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.” The standard edition of Evermore has 15 tracks, including the single “Willow,” while the deluxe version, which hit streaming services on January 7, has two bonus songs: “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time to Go.” Scroll through the gallery below for a breakdown of each song on Evermore!

Credit: Vevo

1. “Willow”

In the opener, Swift subtly references lyrics from her past songs. “Wherever you stray, I follow” is the new “Can I go where you go?” from 2019’s “Lover,” while “Wreck my plans, that’s my man” seems to be a nod to “Remember when I pulled up and said, ‘Get in the car’ / And then canceled my plans just in case you’d call?” from Folklore’s “August.”

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2. “Champagne Problems”

The ballad — the first on Evermore that Alwyn, 29, cowrote — tells the story of a woman who leaves her boyfriend “speechless” after turning down his marriage proposal. “You told your family for a reason / You couldn’t keep it in / Your sister splashed out on the bottle / Now no one’s celebrating,” Swift sings. Like Folklore’s “The Last Great American Dynasty,” the track details the protagonist’s history of mental illness and how the locals in town perceive her: “‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s f--ked in the head,’ they said.”

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3. “Gold Rush”

In the “Mirrorball”-esque midtempo, Swift (or a character in her mind) expresses the jealousy she feels over a partner who “everybody wants” to date. “What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?” she wonders. The theme calls back to “Lover,” which included the line, “I’m highly suspicious that everybody who sees you wants you.”

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4. “’Tis the Damn Season”

The Christmas anthem gone wrong follows a woman, presumably Dorothea (who gets her own song later in the album), who goes home for the holidays and rekindles an old flame. However, soon after arriving at her parents’ house, she returns to old habits like sleeping in “half the day just for old times’ sake.” Ultimately, she decides to go back to Los Angeles, although she is not sure that is a good decision either. “And the heart I know I’m breakin’ is my own / To leave the warmest bed I’ve ever known,” she sings.

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5. “Tolerate It”

Resentment looms as the narrator and her “older and wiser” partner simply put up with each other rather than mustering the courage to go their separate ways. “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life,” she cries.

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6. “No Body, No Crime” (feat. Haim)

Swift dreams up a true crime story on the country song, which feels like a sequel to The Chicks’ 2000 single “Goodbye Earl.” It centers on a character named Este (after one of the Haim sisters) who is suspicious of her husband and one day vanishes into thin air. “Este wasn’t there Tuesday night at Olive Gardеn / At her job or anywhere / Hе reports his missing wife / And I noticed when I passed his house / His truck has got some brand new tires / And his mistress moved in,” Swift observes.

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7. “Happiness”

As Swift mourns a crumbling relationship, she looks to the future and tries to see the good in even the worst days. “There’ll be happiness after you / But there was happiness because of you,” she sings. She also comes to terms with her ex moving on, hoping his new woman will be a “beautiful fool,” a phrase from a book that Swift often quotes, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

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8. “Dorothea”

The stunning track gives some backstory on the mysterious, Hollywood-transplanted character introduced in “’Tis the Damn Season,” this time told from the perspective of her hometown lover. “You got shiny friends since you left town / A tiny screen’s the only place I see you now / And I got nothing but well-wishes for ya,” she sings.

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9. “Coney Island” (feat. The National)

The bridge of the poetic, winter-set ballad seems to reference Swift’s failed relationships with Jake Gyllenhaal and Calvin Harris. Reminiscing on the actor infamously being a no-show at her 21st birthday party, she croons, “Did I leave you hanging every single day / Were you standing in the hallway / With a big cake, happy birthday.” Meanwhile, the lyric “But when I walked up to the podium, I think that I forgot to say your name” may be about the DJ not thanking her at the 2016 GQ Men of the Year Awards after she gave him a shout-out at that year’s iHeartRadio Awards.

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10. “Ivy”

Lyrically in the vein of Folklore’s “Illicit Affairs,” the “Invisible String”-sounding tune follows a married woman who finds herself falling for another man. “My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand / Taking mine, but it’s been promised to another,” Swift sings.

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11. “Cowboy Like Me”

Going back to her country roots, the Kacey Musgraves-esque track enlists Marcus Mumford to sing backing vocals. It tells the story of two people with “skeletons in both our closets” as they fall in love. “I’ve had some tricks up my sleeve / Takes one to know one,” Swift and the Mumford & Sons frontman, 33, sing in harmony.

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12. “Long Story Short”

Swift’s musical reminder “not to get lost in these petty things” details the drama that surrounded her in 2016, most memorably her public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. “And I fell from the pedestal / Right down the rabbit hole / Long story short, it was a bad time,” she recalls. But Swift makes sure to write her own happy ending, closing out the song with, “I survived.”

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13. “Marjorie”

Track 13 (Swift’s favorite number) is a tribute to her late grandmother, like Folklore’s 13th track, “Epiphany,” was dedicated to her grandfather. “What died didn’t stay dead / You’re alive, you’re alive in my head,” she rhymes during the chorus.

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14. “Closure”

As the title suggests, Swift gets a letter from an ex on the experimental piano track, allowing her to close that chapter of her life — even though she pretty much already has. “Yes, I’m doing better / I know that it’s over / I don’t need your closure,” she sings.

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15. “Evermore” (feat. Bon Iver)

The finale primarily deals with mental health but also alludes to the struggles that Swift went through after being publicly ridiculed. “Motion capture / Put me in a bad light / I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone / Trying to find the one where I went wrong,” she sings, noting that she had been “double-crossed” and “shipwrecked.”

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16. "Right Where You Left Me"

The first of Evermore’s bonus tracks reminds listeners that complacency is not always a bad thing. Swift sings about “still sitting in a corner I haunt” at her favorite restaurant and not being fazed by the people who “say, ‘What a sad sight’” as they walk by. “You left me no choice but to stay here forever,” she sings.

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17. “It’s Time to Go”

The second deluxe song details the end of a relationship, whether it be a friendship, a romance or even a business deal. “Sometimes giving up is the strong thing / Sometimes to run is the brave thing / Sometimes walking out is the one thing / That will find you the right thing,” Swift sings.