Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

TV Special Studio Concert, 2020, TV-14

 

Premise - During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Taylor Swift built a studio with her home and wrote an entire singer-songwriter album in collaboration with The National, Bleachers, Bon Iver, and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn. The resulting album, folklore, was recorded separately between co-writers for quarantine. This is the first time they have been able to play through the album together in the same room, and recorded the experience as a studio session concert.

Review - Wow... so... I listened to this like 3 times through already - and there are parts I've listened to several times. I'd even rather watch this than just listen to the album. The genre of the music, it feels like this is the way this is supposed to be played - guitar in hand, singing into a microphone on a cozy couch with wine and friends. 

 

I have already had a lot of love for Taylor Swift. She's iconic to my generation, and I have followed her music since elementary school (I am now a full blown adult getting a master's degree). Back in elementary school were the "Tim McGraw" days - her very first single and I was already on board. Admittedly, through the years, she may have fallen in and out of public favor. She gained a horribly sexist reputation of dating celebrity men and then writing breakup songs about them. She also then went through a revenge phase dissing said reputation with an album named, well, Reputation, that I thought was straight awful, spiteful, and confusing. Barring the Reputation era though, I personally have been a pretty consistent fan more or less.

 

So, I have been a fan of her music, yes. But she's not a celebrity I really have followed all that much. I don't typically watch her interviews or listen to her speak about her music - I just consume the music alone. This was probably the first time genuinely sitting down and listen to her speak with such massive intelligence, insight, and dedication about her songwriting process. So now I have not only love for her, but massive respect. 

 

My favorite genre of hers to listen to are the really poppy pop albums, like 1989 and Lover. Lover is such a favorite of mine, in fact, that I was a bit disappointed to hear that folklore came out because I wanted to live in the Lover era longer. COVID sure shut that down (literally, it shut down her shows). Now that I know so much more of the backstory behind folklore though, I have truly gotten behind it as a work of art. (97/100)

Quote - "It's that great country music narrative device where they're like 'this man did this, then this woman did this, then they met, AND THEIR KID WAS ME!" 

 

What to watch for - Ooooooh all the songs are good, as is the commentary. "cardigan" is hard to beat though. And there's something very joyous about listening to "august" live, I think it sounded better than on the album.

 

If you liked this, I'd recommend evermore, the follow-up album, which hopefully she'll do another studio session for!

By Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift Productions

Distributed by Disney Plus