(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Taylor Swift’s Official YouTube Account)

Taylor Swift’s 8th studio album is here, guys, and it’s called folklore. 

Folklore is a product of isolation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, says Taylor Swift, and it came 11 months after her 7th studio album Lover (2019). The album—which features collaboration with Aaron Dessner (songwriter and guitarist of the American indie rock band The National),  Jack Antonoff, William Bowery, and Bon Iver—contains 16 songs plus a bonus track for fans who will buy the 8 deluxe CD editions, 8 deluxe vinyl editions, or the cassette edition of folklore.

The Rolling Stone described folklore as head-spinning, heartbreaking while USA Today said that folklore is Taylor Swift’s “most introspective and emotionally raw album yet.” 

Anyway, the three songs that I personally liked are cardigan, betty, and august. I love songs that tell a story like these three. Moreover, these three songs are interconnected and they all pertain to a high school love triangle—that of Betty, Inez, and James in particular. 

My most favorite song in the album, betty, tells the story from James’ point of view (POV), august is from Inez’ POV, while cardigan tells the story from Betty’s perspective.

In betty, 17-year-old James wronged Betty by not dancing with her and the latter reacted by dancing with a nameless guy. But things between them take a turn for the worse when rumors began to circulate that James had hooked up with a girl named Inez during the summer break. 

Having said all that, speculations are flying left, right, and center. Some fans are saying that betty is a queer song because, remember what I said that betty tells the story from James’ point of view? Well, fans are theorizing that the “James” in this song is Taylor herself as she was named by her parents after American singer-songwriter and guitarist James Taylor. Fans, therefore, concluded that “when she’s singing as James, telling a story about James, she’s telling a story about herself.”

Well, is she (singing about herself in betty)? We’ll leave you to be the judge of that. Whatever the case is, all Taylor Swift had confirmed so far is that “There’s a collection of three songs I refer to as The Teenage Love Triangle. These 3 songs explore a love triangle from all three people’s perspectives at different times in their lives.”

Happy listening, guys! Tell us in the comments section below how you liked folklore.

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