It’s a very impressive body of work, in many ways. The songwriting is excellent but equally impressive is the fact that it took TS and her collaborators only five months to put out the album. Evermore could have easily been created and finalized over the span of a few years, it’s that good, let alone a few months. This proves that TS is prolific and that she knows how to work smarter, not harder.
Regarding the production of the album, Evermore has a playfulness, optimism, and whimsicality about it that simply does not exist in Folklore. The latter is somber and perhaps more purposeful, but the former offers a kind of welcome reprieve. Evermore certainly has its heart – wrenching songs, but there’s just something there that differentiates it from its predecessor.
Thus far, my favorite tracks are ‘Cowboy Like Me,’ ‘Willow,’ ‘Champagne Problems,’ ‘Tolerate It,’ and ‘Happiness.’ These songs contain some of the most beautiful lyrics I’ve heard, rivaling even Folklore’s top track, ‘My Tears Ricochet,’ which, I believe, is one of the best songs in her music catalog.
Examples of these outstanding lyrics:
“What would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins? Took this dagger in me and removed it? Gain the weight of you, then lose it?”
“The skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to f*** this up.”
“Your heart was glass, I dropped it.”
“When did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?”
“No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you, and you know you hurt him, too.”
“Every bait – and – switch was a work of art.”
“I’m like the water when your ship pulled in that night: rough on the surface, but you cut through like a knife.”
Evermore is an alt – pop – folk masterpiece. Admittedly, I prefer Folklore, but Evermore gets an A+.