Whatever you do, do not compare your achievements in coronavirus quarantine to those of Taylor Swift. Because, according to critics, they are massive. In dropping her eighth album, Folklore, compiled of 16 songs plus a bonus track written and recorded in quarantine conditions (with help from Jack Antonoff and the National's Aaron Dessner), Swift has cleansed her musical palate and taken her songwriting genius to a whole new level, critics swoon. Four takes:
- "Swift presents her new album as a songwriting tour de force, demonstrating the scope and depth of her artistic skill as she ruminates on the passage of time, grasps at fleeting memories and refuses to mince words or sugarcoat a sour reality," writes Jason Lipshutz at Billboard. "The darkest moments of Folklore never ring hollow. And when the light pours in, the vision is breathtaking," he adds, noting the song "Invisible String" is "one of the flat-out greatest songs Swift has ever written."
- Contemplative rather than reflective, Folklore "sounds like it was years in the interactive making," writes Chris Willman at Variety. It presents Swift "afresh, as your favorite new indie-electro-folk/chamber-pop balladeer." Indeed, "it's hard to remember any contemporary pop superstar that has indulged in a more serious, or successful, act of sonic palate cleansing."