Dropped one of 2020’s best surprise twists.
Forced to cancel her concerts and slow down for a stretch, the singer-songwriter suddenly found herself awash with creativity. The result: July’s folklore, an alternative album she described as both “wistful and full of escapism” and “sad, beautiful, tragic,” released just 11 months after her seventh disc, Lover.
“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,” she explained in an Instagram post of the disc only her team, family and boyfriend knew about. “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.”
In late November—as the disc’s six Grammy nominations were announced—Swift came up with another surprise, dropping her new film folklore: the long pond studio sessions on Disney+ and allowing fans a glimpse of the intimate recording session she and Jack Antonoff held at Aaron Dessner‘s Long Pond studio in Hudson Valley, New York.