folkmore and evermore, ranked from most summery to most wintery
Taylor Swift knew what she was doing when she released evermore in winter and folklore in the summer - the two albums are mirrors of each other, different just as much as they’re similar. Swift herself has confirmed that each album is meant to embody an opposite season, but that intention makes it even more interesting. Trying to figure out what exactly Swift was going for, and why and how, is sometimes half the fun.
How exactly does Swift make some songs made for summer and others so not? What songs don’t fit the theme of the album? Which songs don’t read as seasonal at all? All this and more can only be revealed one way – an official ranking of all the folklore and evermore songs from most summery to most wintery.
I can hear the masses crying now, pray tell, what exactly makes a summer song explicitly summerish and vice versa? Well, I can only include my own opinion, and many of these are instinctual rankings rather than rational. In an effort to pin down my internal reasoning: summer songs tend to be a little more upbeat and playful, whilst winter songs have more to untangle. Winter is when you can’t sleep because you keep going over things that happened ten years ago whilst summer is when you realise it’s time to finally move on.
Winter is more complicated, less able to be wrapped up and processed nicely, but the summer is when you know what you wanted, even if you didn’t get it. And sometimes a summer song is just set in the summer. It’s about the vibes, man.
august
august is the epitome of summer, specifically summers where everything feels so hot and dry that doing anything is exhausting and the days truly do feel like they slip away as quick as a bottle of wine. Swift is particularly breathy and effortless in this track, somehow managing to sound anguished and resigned whilst never straying from the lazy nature of the end of summer. Of course, the biggest hint that this is the summeriest track is the name, and the song’s encapsulation of the end of the summer pushes this song to the top.
seven
This song tries to encapsulate childhood in three and a half minutes and when you’re a child it’s always summer. The imagery is also vividly summerlike, full of romping outside in forests and creeks. seven is a different kind of summer than august, the summer we always wish it would be when June rolls around but never get - summer from ten years ago.
betty
The country twang in this track is what transforms it into a summer anthem for me. It helps that this song is also given a specific time frame of the beginning of the school year, setting it firmly at the end of the summer. I’ve got to be honest though, it’s the breezy harmonica that does it for me.
no body, no crime
Something about murder screams summer to me, from the wailing siren in the background to the twangy guitar and harmonica. Summer is when the heat makes everything boil over as everyone loses patience, full of rash decisions. There’s no hiding in the summer but there’s also no clear-cut resolution. Imagine this revenge plot taking place in the winter – it just can’t be done.
the last great american dynasty
TLGAD is brazen, earnest and the most overtly about someone who isn’t Swift. It’s the vibe of exchanging stories and legends around a campfire, or pointing out houses whilst walking on a beach. The celebration of a woman so unapologetically herself just feels summery in its sincerity and delight.
long story short
Summer is about bops and the song that most makes me want to dance off of either of these albums deserves a spot in the top ten. This song is joyful, shedding off whatever may have defined your past in order to face your future head on. There’s something therapeutic about just not getting into it, and Swift's exasperated and wry ‘long story short it was a bad time’ speaks to starting over in the sun.
invisible string
invisible string feels very pure, lacking the knottiness and melancholy of a winter track. It’s a love song, but one that can only be written after you’ve been hurt a few times already, when love feels like a gift, rather than what you’re owed. It’s stripped of any melodrama or fantasy both in production and in lyrics, leaving behind sincere gratitude.
the 1
It may be the bright piano and drumbeat that pushes this song onto the summer end of the spectrum, but the clear vocals and repeated chords feel like early summer. Like long story short, this song is about starting afresh, but the uncertainty of ‘don’t you think so?’ and the winter-like nostalgia brings it down a few places.
cardigan
The final song of the folklore love triangle is undeniably set in the summer, but its edge of bitterness and resentment makes it feel less like it belongs there. The breathy vocals of august carries on here but the emotion behind the lyrics prevent it from becoming truly effortless. There’s too much feeling here for it to be a high-ranking summer track.
gold rush
gold rush feels aloof and sardonic in way that most of these very earnest songs don’t, complete with cut-off sentences and a wonderfully droll ‘I call you out on your contrarian shit’. It’s the key change from the verse to chorus which sells the summer to me, as Swift goes from resisting falling to something anticipatory and daydreamy.
this is me trying
Like the best summer songs on these two albums, this is me trying is stripped back and vulnerable, complete with breathy vocals and uncertain lyrics. The antithesis of Swift’s energetic early discography, like august, the lack of urgency gives it the feeling of a melancholy summer evening.
illicit affairs
Summer lends itself to hasty bad decisions, but unlike no body, no crime, the narrator of illicit affairs regrets their heady choices. This song is a little more subdued and reflective than no body, no crime, and the hazy instrumentals prevent it from embracing the summer feeling, probably for the better.
the lakes
More than anything, the lakes has a strong sense of place. The soaring strings work in tandem with the lyrics to create a sweeping ode to Romantic writers, where nature served as the main inspiration. The dedication to the natural world makes it more spring than summer but it’s hard to visualise the lush nature described in the winter.
closure
Full dis(closure), I think there’s a choppiness to this song that prevents the sense of atmosphere that permeates the rest of these tracks. The jarring beat paired with a piano score and Swift’s quick and somehow British (?) vocals make it too confusing and overstuffed to be a summer or winter song.
it’s time to go
While closure has too much going on for it to read as summer or winter, it’s time to go has too little. The most on the nose song about starting over on either album, it’s time to go lacks the depth or subtlety of Swift's best work and its plain platitudes fail to have atmosphere associated with either season.
dorothea
dorothea is the song right in the middle. The springy piano and upbeat melody make me think summer, especially paired with the uncomplicated and lovely offering of support and the very fun vocalisation in the chorus. On the other hand, this song is tied to tis the damn season which (spoilers) claims the bottom of this list, and its association with the most winter song means it comes out somewhere in the middle. It’s a good thing dorothea doesn’t need a strong association with either season to stop it being a perfect song.
mirrorball
The anxiety at the heart of mirrorball feels almost accepted, like someone who knows all their worst habits too well to be embarrassed by them. The layered harmonies say summer but the exploration into the need to be consistently entertaining says winter. This list says the middle.
mad woman
Similarly to it’s time to go, mad woman lacks the sort of feeling that would heavily associate it with summer or winter. However, here the subduedness translates into a sort of deliberately restrained fury, especially with the gradual ramping up of the tempo and background instrumentals. Not only does this made it a better song but also colder in its anger.
coney island
The setting here makes it feel like it should be summer, complete with theme parks and American style candy, but this is undercut completely by the regretful undertone and slow pace. Plus, when I think of this song I immediately hear ‘with a big cake, happy birthday’ in The National’s hilariously deep voice. My birthday is in January = winter song. I wish had better reasoning, but here we are.
cowboy like me
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that every song on either album can be applied to Brokeback Mountain apart from this one. There's some winter-like imagery in this song, from the covered tennis court to the illusion to perching in the dark, but something about cowboys is just intrinsically summery, muddling either any kind of seasonal association.
hoax
There's something a little ghostly about hoax, mainly due to the isolated and repetitive piano, title and airy chorus. Swift can’t seem to muster the anger present in the lyrics here, and instead the solemnness of this track takes over, leaving us with the first truly wintery toned song.
happiness
The chorus of happiness focuses on accepting that a relationship can be meaningful but not healthy anymore, but there’s something genuinely sad and stricken in the versus. In particular, Swift’s retraction of ‘I didn’t mean that’ alludes to confusion and regret after lashing out. This song leaves the juxtaposition of the chorus and verses unresolved, and even if the atmosphere wasn’t distinctly cold, the unwillingness to tie this up neatly is pure ice.
epiphany
Swift’s high-handedness can be a little cringey in epiphany, but it’s hard to ignore how good the sweeping backing track is. It helps as well that Swift sounds genuinely anguished here, the distress pairing beautifully with the haunting arrangement.
peace
peace is one of my secret favourites from folkore or evermore and I think the balance between the earnest celebration of the everyday moments of a healthy relationship against the apology for the scrutiny that fame brings is quietly beautiful. I also adore the assertion after a decade of writing very public declarations of love in her songs, that Swift would ‘die for you in secret’. All this to say, the serenity and humble simplicity of peace reminds me of the first snowfall – quiet, vulnerable and lovely.
right where you left me
This song is the inverse of betty - the winter country song. Its twangy guitar, harmonica and southern twang adopted by Swift all feel like they should belong to summer, but the minor melody transforms those elements, especially with a narrative of haunting and despair.
tolerate it
This song doesn’t fully nail the bitterness of loving someone who doesn’t love you back, a topic that is better suited to cathartic bops like Forever and Always. The breathy vocals are similar to more summery songs like this is me trying but the tone here is upset rather than resigned.
willow
willow is ostensibly a love song but there’s a hidden edge that’s uncommon in Swift’s other songs, not from anger or grief, but from the mischievousness. There’s something distinctly mystical about willow, something fantastical and other-worldly. This may be influenced somewhat by the music video but it also seems firmly set in a winter style wonderland, full of secrets and hidden corners, establishing evermore as the winter album right out of the gate.
ivy
Like many of these winter songs, ivy is complicated. At first, it’s hard to make out what Swift is even talking about and the subdued tone is the opposite to the stripped back vocals of summer songs like august or this is me trying. Here, Swift is clear and ringing so the emotion is tampered down within emotion of the song rather than through the lyrics or production. There’s almost an anguish to ivy, mixed with a perfect dash of fear in the bridge.
marjorie
The grief in marjorie is so stark, it couldn’t be anything but a winter song for me. This song feels like mourning, when the days should be dark and interchangeable although there’s a glimmer of acceptance in the chorus preventing majorie from becoming a full misery fest. It feels like the best kind of funeral, touching, unwilling to let go, celebratory and in winter.
my tears ricochet
There's a lot of songs from these two albums that have barely contained grief or anger, but none seem to pack as much of a punch as Swift spitting ‘and I still talk to you’ or ‘anywhere I want, just not home.’ Whilst other songs seem to work towards a compromise or understanding, my tears ricochet gives in to a cathartic fury and Swift's tone is cold as ice.
exile
Part of the reason both Bon Iver’s songs are at the bottom is his gloriously gravelly voice, and the rich, regretful tone he brings to both songs. At first glance exile can feel like the most surface-level song on folklore but all the subtlety is contained in the vocal performances which range from accusatory to apologetic.
evermore
'grey November, I’ve been down since July’. They’re simple lyrics, but perfectly encapsulate the helpless depression that winter can bring. It can be hard sometimes, when the days get shorter and colder and the end of the year forces you to evaluate all that’s happened and all your decisions, good or bad. evermore grapples with the bleakness that winter contains in its very centre, and the way it causes both a melancholy reflection and an agitated kind of healing.
champagne problems
Maybe the thing I like most about champagne problems is the way it looks at pain head on. folklore and evermore both feature some heavy production, often elevating songs with the background music and effects, but this track doesn’t need anything but clear vocals and a haunting piano. It makes the production decisions that are included even more affecting, particularly the increased speed and build-up of strings and backing vocals before it’s stripped back again. When I first listened to evermore, the detail that stuck with me most from the whole album was the quick piano riff from the end of this song. It feels like a story unfinished, and makes the whole song, and the whole album, feel less carefully curated and more like we’re right there, with a frustrated protagonist, playing the song’s narrative over and over with no satisfying solution. Winter, for sure.
tis the damn season
Winter songs can be bitter and sad, but there’s something joyful about this song. The narrator seems desperate to give up with pretenses, done with avoiding what’s obvious. Partly what makes this the most winter song is what makes august the most summer song, it’s just very clearly set and influenced by winter. More than that though, this song represents the way winter can strip away everything that isn’t important in our quest to love and be loved, and the way it can make us rethink our old habits and haunts - tis the damn season, after all.