Evermore (Taylor Swift album)
Evermore (stylized in all lowercase) is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on December 11, 2020, through Republic Records, less than five months after the singer's eighth studio album, "Folklore". "Evermore" was a spontaneous product of Swift's extended collaboration with her "Folklore" co-producer Aaron Dessner, with whom she developed a creative chemistry. Swift launched "Evermore" as a surprise album alike "Folklore" release, dubbing them as sister records. She described "Evermore" as an offshoot of "the folklorian woods", which is an escapist, cottagecore-inspired, alternative music direction  she first conceived with "Folklore" in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, "Evermore" is an alternative rock, folk-pop, and chamber rock record, carried by wintry compositions of fingerpicked guitars, somber pianos, lavish strings and sparse percussions. Its subject matter is built around impressionist storytelling and mythopoeia, comprising tales of love, marriage, infidelity, and grief, arranged like an anthology. American bands Bon Iver, Haim, and the National contribute guest vocals. Earning widespread acclaim from music critics, "Evermore" was praised for its character studies, experimental production, and Swift's nuanced, expressive vocal performances. Reviews regarded the album a sequel or a  counterpart to "Folklore". "Evermore" was listed by various publications in their year-end rankings of the best albums of 2020, and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. The album reached number one in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Republic Records reported more than a million copies of "Evermore" sold in its first week globally. It was Swift's eighth consecutive "Billboard" 200 number-one debut, and marked the shortest gap between two number-one albums by a female act in Australia and  the US, and the fastest accumulation of six number-ones in the UK by a female act. In the US, its tracks "Willow", "No Body, No Crime" and "Coney Island" impacted the pop, country, and alternative radio stations, respectively; "Willow" became Swift's seventh "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one song and her second in 2020 after "Cardigan", making her the first ever act to simultaneously debut atop both "Billboard" 200 and Hot 100 charts two times. "Evermore" was 2021's best-selling alternative music album in the US and Americana album in the UK. Background. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, on  July 23, 2020, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her eighth studio album and first surprise album, "Folklore", and released it the next day. Produced by herself, first-time collaborator Aaron Dessner, long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff, and boyfriend Joe Alwyn, the album was a critical and commercial success, becoming the best-selling album of 2020 and winning Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. On November 25, 2020, a concert documentary titled "", shot at Dessner's Long Pond Studio in Hudson Valley, was released to Disney+. It detailed the making of "Folklore" with performances of its  songs. On December 10, 2020, three days prior her 31st birthday, Swift posted nine photos on Instagram, which together formed an image depicting the singer's back, with her hair in a braid and facing a forest. In another post across her social media, she announced her ninth studio album, titled "Evermore", releasing at midnight. She revealed the track-list, and a music video for its opening track, "Willow", which would premiere on YouTube alongside the album release. Referring to lockdown regulations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift wrote: "You've all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on  my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you". Prior to the "Willow" music video premiere, Swift said she likens "Evermore" to fall and winter, in contrast to its predecessor's spring and summer. Conception. After releasing "Folklore", Swift continued to work remotely with Dessner, who would send her instrumental tracks, to which she  would write the lyrics. She stated the rave reception of "Folklore" further encouraged her to explore more into its musical style. Soon after, Swift's sessions with Dessner resulted in a project that was a natural extension of "Folklore", which eventually assumed its individual identity as "Evermore". Dessner said he "didn't need to talk much about structure or ideas or anything" with Swift, and dubbed "Evermore" a "weird avalanche" effecting from "Folklore". In comparison to its predecessor, the development of "Evermore" was a more experimental process, during which the duo did not subject themselves to any limitations. In an  Apple Music interview to Zane Lowe, Swift stated "Evermore" gave her a feeling of "quiet conclusion and sort of this weird serenity" after putting out "Folklore", and correlated it with the themes of those albums, saying one of "Folklore" main tropes was "conflict resolution"—"trying to figure out how to get through something with someone", whereas "Evermore" deals with "endings of all sorts, sizes and shapes", and the pain and various phases of those closures. Writing and recording. Swift embraced the style of songwriting that stemmed from "Folklore", lyrics rooted in first-person fiction. Like its predecessor, "Evermore" is also a  product of remote collaboration and virtual communication, and was recorded in total secrecy. Dessner produced or co-produced all of the tracks except "Gold Rush", which Swift and Antonoff produced. All of the tracks, except "Cowboy like Me", were recorded at Long Pond Studio, when "Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions" was shot. After the release of "Folklore", Swift wrote two songs, "Closure" and "Dorothea", for Big Red Machine, which is a supergroup by Dessner and Justin Vernon, the frontman of American indie folk band Bon Iver; the songs ended up on "Evermore" instead. To celebrate "Folklore", Dessner casually composed  an instrumental track "Westerly", named after the location of Swift's Rhode Island home. An hour later, Swift wrote "Willow" to the track and sent it back to him. She wrote the title track "Evermore" with Alwyn (alias William Bowery) and sent it to Vernon, who added a bridge. Dessner realized they were creating a counterpart to "Folklore" only after the duo wrote more than seven songs. He composed "Tolerate It" on a piano in time signature and sent it to Swift, conjuring a scene in her mind upon hearing the track; she sent it back with finished lyrics. Dessner  stated he "cried when [he] first heard" its lyrics. Swift traveled to Long Pond Studio to film "Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions". Dessner narrated, "we played all night and drank a lot of wine after the fireside chat—and we were all pretty drunk, to be honest". Once filming was complete, Swift stayed at Long Pond overnight, to record with Dessner and Antonoff. The next morning, she approached Dessner in his kitchen with "'Tis the Damn Season", which she wrote during the night. Dessner cited the song as one of his favorite works ever, and that it could have  just remained as an instrumental, but instead, Swift's "incredible storytelling ability and musical ability took it and made something much great". "No Body, No Crime" was inspired by Swift's "obsession with true crime podcasts/documentaries". She wrote the song on a rubber-bridge guitar and mailed Dessner a voice memo, after which he started producing it. Swift had specific ideas on how she wanted the song, including a guest feature from American pop rock band Haim, who recorded their vocals at Ariel Rechtshaid's Los Angeles home and forwarded it to Swift. The song's harmonica and guitar  riffs were played by Josh Kaufman, who also played the harmonica on "Betty" from "Folklore;" JT Bates played the drums, and also did the same on "Dorothea". Aaron Dessner and his twin brother, Bryce Dessner, sent Swift some of the instrumentals they made for their band, American indie rock band the National. One of those was what would become "Coney Island". Swift and Alwyn wrote its lyrics, and recorded it with her vocals. After listening to the demo, the Dessner brothers felt that the song is very related to the National, and envisioned Matt Berninger (the band's lead vocalist ) singing it, and Bryan Devendorf (the drummer) drumming it. Aaron Dessner informed Berninger, who was "excited" for the idea. The band assembled, Devendorf played the drums, while his brother Scott Devendorf played the bass and pocket piano; Bryce Dessner helped produce the song. "Marjorie" was an instrumental precursor to "Peace", the fifteenth track on "Folklore". The latter's drone is present in the former's bridge. The backing rhythm of "Marjorie" was composed with an Allovers Hi-hat Generator, a software developed by producer Ryan Olson, which had been used in many Big Red Machine songs. The instrument takes any  sound and splits them into samples, and regenerates them in randomized musical patterns. Dessner went through the patterns, picked his favorite parts, looped them, developed them into an instrumental, and sent it to Swift, who wrote "Marjorie" to it, a song about her maternal grandmother and opera singer, Marjorie Finlay. She also sent a folder of Finlay's opera records to Dessner, who sampled some of it on the song. "Right Where You Left Me" and "Happiness" were written days before "Evermore" was finished. Dessner had been working on the composition of "Happiness" since 2019, thinking it would be a  Big Red Machine song; Swift, however, admired its instrumentals and ended up finishing its lyrics, which was also the case with "Right Where You Left Me". The last few weeks of recording "Evermore" overlapped with the recording of "Fearless (Taylor's Version)"—Swift's first re-recorded album; she recorded "Happiness" and "You Belong with Me (Taylor's Version)" on the same day. Vernon was profoundly involved in "Evermore" more than "Folklore". He played the drums on "Cowboy like Me" and "Closure", guitar and banjo on "Ivy", and contributed backing vocals in "Marjorie". For "Closure", he processed Swift's vocals through  his Messina vocal modifier, which distorted her soft timbre into a robotic growl. "Cowboy like Me" was recorded at Scarlet Pimpernel Studios, located in the UK, owned by Marcus Mumford, the lead singer of English folk rock band Mumford & Sons; Mumford provided backing vocals on the song. In "Ivy", Dessner added sleigh bells to invoke winter-oriented emotions, coinciding with the song's wintry imagery. He intentionally added "a wintry nostalgia" to most of the music in "Evermore", leaning towards the idea Swift told him. Dessner said mixing the album's 17 songs was a "Herculean task" and that the  sound engineer Jon Low thought it would not be finished on time. Music and lyrics. The standard edition of "Evermore" is one hour long, consisting of 15 tracks, while the deluxe adds two bonus songs. Haim, the National and Bon Iver provide guest vocals on "No Body, No Crime", "Coney Island", and "Evermore", respectively. Critics have dubbed "Evermore" a sequel, B-side, second chapter, or a companion record to "Folklore". Composition. "Evermore" is an alternative rock, chamber rock and folk-pop record with country elements, infusing its predecessor's minimal, indie folk, and lo-fi styles, but looser and more  experimental in nature. The album is characterized by its acoustic core and wintry mood, consisting of sparse arrangements, slow-burning melodies, burbling, fingerpicked acoustic guitars, swaying electric guitars, soft, smooth, and somber pianos, warm and woozy synthesizers, mandolin, twangy banjos, throbbing drum machines, lush strings, electronic thrums, subtle layers of Mellotrons, flute, French horn, and cellos. Swift's mellifluous vocals are backed by gauzy harmonies and "misty atmospherics". "Rolling Stone" wrote "Evermore" deepens Swift's goth-folk vision. "Hits" described the album's sonic palette as "watery" and "hypnotic". "The Daily Telegraph" said that there is no sense of tempo  or urgency in its songs, departing from the stadium-suited tempos of Swift's earlier works. "Esquire" noted "Evermore" focus on "sonic details and nuances rather than big hooks." According to critic Tom Hull, while Swift remains attentive to "production details", "Evermore" follows "Folklore" in abandoning "pop glitz" in favor of "straightforward songcraft" due in part to the pandemic shifting Swift's focus from arenas to homely settings. "Stereogum" described it as "a soft, meditative, consciously quiet" album of "restorative old-school singer-songwriter music". In "Slate" opinion, "Evermore" has a more spacious ambience with lots of break, unlike the  maximalist-minimalism of "Folklore", which had "layers upon layers of restrained instrumental lines". Themes. "Evermore" is an intimate album heavily rooted in elaborate first-person storytelling from third-person perspectives, character studies, and narrative mythmaking. It ventures deeper inside the imaginary world Swift built with "Folklore", blending facts and fiction. Both albums share a common escapist concept, but in contrast to "Folklore"s more introspective and romantic nature, "Evermore" is bolder, uninhibited, playful, and impressionistic, delving extensively into Swift's ideas of adult love and pain. The songs generally ruminate themes of forbidden love, romantic neglect, forgiveness, marriage, and infidelity, revolving  around a set of unique characters, such as embattled couples, scorned friends, and complicated women. "Evermore" also analyses conflicted emotions and possibilities, aside "noirish twists" in plots. Akin to its sister album, "Evermore" lyrically incorporates nature, landscapes and objects in the sky, such as crescent moon, sunrise, comets, amber skies, precipice, willow, clover and ivy. Swift's trademark turns of phrase and wordplay are also abundant. "Variety" observed that "warmth amid iciness" is a recurring lyrical motif. "American Songwriter" opined that "Evermore" has Swift mostly exuding "the 'unhappily ever after' anthology of marriages gone bad". "Slate" also called it an  anthology, emphasizing "her leap away from autobiography into songs that are either pure fictions or else lyrically symbolic in ways that don't act as romans à clef". "Stereogum" labeled the album "observational fiction". "Pitchfork" noted that Swift remains a versatile, expressive vocalist, and a "wordy" lyricist by mimicking the sound of "rushing, restless endorphins ... to magnify sad, small moments." "Spin" remarked the "exceedingly complex human emotions" Swift unravels in "Evermore" with "precision and devastation". Songs. "Evermore" opens with "Willow", a chill chamber folk love song propelled by picked guitars coupled with glockenspiel, orchestrations, programmed drums, and a breathless chorus . "Champagne Problems" is a mournful ballad with spacious oompah piano chords that entwine with a guitar arpeggio, and choir vocals. It depicts a difficult girlfriend whose personal struggles disrupt her romantic relationship, lead her to turn down her lover's earnest proposal and take responsibility for the heartbreak. "Gold Rush" is a nimble chamber pop song with drums, horns, violins, swiveling shifts in tempo, and a dreamy chorus. Its frenzy verses are couplets delivered in a pulsating rhythm over persistent beats, with a red herring in its intro and outro made of layered vocals. Expressing jealousy and insecurity towards an  attractive subject, "Gold Rush" limns the narrator's infatuation for the subject in a daydream, and depicts her distaste at her own incapacitation in the face of beauty, comparing it to gold rushes. The fourth track, "Tis the Damn Season", is a Christmas song, but departs from traditional festive balladry. It sees a female narrator arrive to her hometown Tupelo for holidays, where she encounters her former lover and ends up in bed with him despite knowing the rekindled flame will not lead anywhere. The song is built around an electric guitar riff, and its narrator is revealed to be  a character named Dorothea, later in the album. Chronicling a young woman in an age-gap relationship, "Tolerate It" is the internal agony of the resentful protagonist looking to terminate the unbalanced relationship with her unappreciative partner. The slow-building ballad is guided by a muffled piano and tense synth-beats. Its plot was inspired by "Rebecca" (1938), the novel by English author Daphne du Maurier. Opening with police sirens, the twangy and cinematic "No Body, No Crime" is a country, pop rock, and country rock song. Featuring Haim's harmonies, it tells a macabre story of a woman named  Este murdered by her husband in favor of his mistress. The narrator is a friend of Este and takes revenge by murdering the unfaithful man. "Happiness", the melancholic seventh track, is an ambient ballad with a delicate arrangement of hazy synthesizers, hi-hats, violin, bass, organs, piano and a soaring drone. The song channels a stream of consciousness, in which the narrator empathizes with the subject after their divorce, contemplates the split, and apologizes for losing track of facts, and affirms happiness will be found again. It contains references to "The Great Gatsby". "Dorothea" is an Americana song from the  perspective of the male subject in "'Tis the Damn Season", who stays in Tupelo while his high-school lover, Dorothea, moves to Los Angeles for a Hollywood career. He narrates his backstories of her, such as a skipped prom and feelings of separation, and yearns for the TV-famous Dorothea's return to the simple rural life, over an idyllic honky-tonk piano, tambourine and guitars. It has been compared to "Betty" due to their similar perspectives. The ninth track, "Coney Island", is an alternative rock, waltz and indie-folk duet with Matt Berninger of the National. The song depicts  suburban nostalgia and recollects a couple's memories in Coney Island; Swift's melodious vocals contrast Berninger's mumbled baritone. "Ivy" is a folk song with her elastic vocals and a jaunty chorus, documenting a married woman's infidelity, over a ticking arrangement of banjo, picked guitar, trumpet, and Vernon's gentle harmonies. It conveys her temptation for her secret lover and the realistic consequences that may hinder their affair, using a metaphor of ivy vines growing over a stone house to represent her deep-rooted attachment. Swift sings about two "gold-digging" con artists in the eleventh track, "Cowboy  like Me", who unexpectedly fall in love with each other, while frequenting resorts and deceiving rich individuals. It is an alternative, country, folk rock, and blues tune, with hushed guitars, harmonica riff, mandolin, piano, lap steel, and Mumford's backing vocals. "Long Story Short" is a pop-infused indie rock song with a rousing post-chorus hook, explosive guitars, strings, crisp beats of live drums and drum machine. Swift retreads "Reputation" (2017) in the song, summarizing her life's worse moments and her personal redemption. The poignant "Marjorie" details Swift's grief and guilt over her grandmother and opera singer , Marjorie Finlay, who died when Swift was 13 years old. Its lyrics consist of Finlay's advices to her granddaughter, as well as Swift's memories and regrets. The gentle production samples Finlay's soprano vocals over buzzing synths, pizzicato strings, drone, pulse, cello, and a pulsing keyboard arrangement, ending with an ethereal outro. "Marjorie" parallels the thirteenth track on "Folklore", "Epiphany", which honors Swift's grandfather. "Closure", the fourteenth track, is Swift's kiss-off to its subject, a reply to their self-serving request, fake niceties, and pretentious amity. It is an electroacoustic and industrial folk song characterized  by its unusual time signature, and a distinctive, skittering production of brass, piano, to-and-fro strings, electronic creaks, clattering percussion, and synthesized drums. The album ends with the title track "Evermore", a piano ballad that progresses into a thrilling bridge after a tempo shift, where Swift is joined midway by Justin Vernon's signature falsetto in a call and response. Swift navigates depression, desolation and negative notions in her verses, in contrast to Vernon's optimistic and supportive verses that attempt to soothe her, resulting in a realization that her pain is not permanent. The deluxe edition of "Evermore  includes two bonus tracks: Right Where You Left Me" is a country and folk-pop song, portraying the heart-rending fate of a love frozen in time, over twangy acoustic guitars. Similarly, "It's Time to Go" is a bleak song about the narrator's knowledge of when to exit a relationship, such as a friendship, featuring tales of divorce and losing a dream career to an unfit individual; the song contains references to the Taylor Swift masters controversy. Art direction. Following the lush, ghostly, woodland aesthetic of "Folklore", "Evermore" takes upon a wintry theme, a yuletide version of the  former's cottagecore. "Time" stated that "Folklore" is a muted, autumnal palette of sounds and feelings, whereas "Evermore" is its winter companion with lingering sadness and regret. While "Folklore" adapts a grayscale monochrome, "Evermore" employs colors. "The Times of India" opined that "Evermore" embraces "1960s-era Laurel Canyon". Cover artwork. The cover artwork of "Evermore" shows Swift in a barren field, facing away from the camera, looking over the bare trees in the distance, which reflect the last glow of an autumnal sunset. She is seen standing at the edge of a forested area, whereas on the cover of "Folklore , she was seen inside a forest. Her hair is styled in a French braid, as she wears a single-breasted, brown and orange checked flannel coat designed by Stella McCartney, who revealed that it was a sustainable piece from her 23 Old Bond Street Limited Edition Collection", priced at $2,875. The braid has 31 turns, which has been connected with how the album was released two days before her 31st birthday. "The Wall Street Journal" opined that Swift's "every aesthetic decision is deeply intentional and inevitably influential", and her hairstyle in the artwork is "more than just a  braid", a poignant statement. "Stylist" called the hairstyle "messy-yet-chic". Adam Reed, UK editorial ambassador for French beauty company L'Oréal, admired Swift's braid and described it as "simple, supernatural and timeless". According to "Consequence", the cover artwork is "gorgeous in its simplicity", and has Swift facing a field, insinuating "she's inviting the listener to see the field through her eyes." The album cover was the third most-searched album cover of 2021 on the internet, after Kanye West's "Donda" (2021) and Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" (2021). Release and promotion. "Evermore" was released on December 11, 2020 , two days before Swift's 31st birthday, to digital music and streaming platforms only. It is a "sister album" to "Folklore", which was launched less five months prior; both of them are surprise albums announced 16 hours prior to their midnight releases. "Evermore" marked the second time Swift abandoned her long, traditional album rollout. The CDs were released on December 18, 2020. The bonus tracks of "Evermore" deluxe edition, "Right Where You Left Me" and "It's Time to Go", which were formerly physical-exclusive, were released to streaming services on January 7, 2021. Cassette tapes and vinyl LPs of  Evermore were released on February 21, and May 28, 2021, respectively. "Billboard" reported that the delayed release of the album's physical formats is owed to its surprise release and the time-consuming manufacturing process of physical albums, specifically the vinyl copies. Limited number of autographed CDs were sold at select independent record stores. On December 14, 2020, Swift appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". On a December 2020 episode of Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show, English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney revealed that Swift originally decided to postpone the release of "Evermore" by one week to respect the original  December 11 release date of his eighteenth studio album, "McCartney III;" upon learning this, McCartney decided to release his album on December 18 instead so that Swift could move forward with her "Evermore" rollout as initially planned. Three six-song compilations consisting of tracks from both "Evermore" and "Folklore", titled "The Dropped Your Hand While Dancing Chapter", "The Forever Is The Sweetest Con Chapter", and "The Ladies Lunching Chapter" (all stylized in all lowercase), were released to streaming platforms on January 21, January 27, and February 4, 2021, respectively. Singles. "Willow" was released as the lead single of "Evermore", alongside  the album itself, on December 11, 2020. The song was accompanied with a music video directed by Swift. The single debuted at number-one in Australia, Canada and the United States. In the US, it scored her her seventh number-one song, second number-one in 2020 (after "Cardigan"), and the third number-one debut of her career. According to "Billboard", three of the album's tracks were sent to different radio formats—a plan that was adapted for "Folklore" as well. "Willow" impacted US adult contemporary and pop radio stations on December 14 and 15, 2020, respectively; "No Body , No Crime" was sent to US country radio on January 11, 2021, aside "Coney Island", which was promoted to US adult album alternative radio on January 18, 2021. Critical reception. "Evermore" was met with widespread acclaim upon release, with several critics admiring its kinship with "Folklore" and Swift's expansion of her musical boundaries. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 85 based on 29 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Distinguishing Swift as an unrivaled songwriter, Brodie Lancaster of "The Sydney Morning Herald" found "Evermore" traveling  deeper into the singer's fictitious narratives, and praised the depth and variety of its characters. "NME" critic Hannah Mylrea opined that Swift pushes her indie reinvention further in "Evermore", terming it a "freewheeling younger sibling" while "Folklore" is the "introspective, romantic older sister"; Mylrea thought "Evermore" is looser and more experimental, expanding on its predecessor's sonic palette. In congruence, "American Songwriter" designated "Folklore" as the "archetypal older sister—a careful, yet hopeless romantic" whereas "Evermore" is the "bold, scrappy younger one", with the latter being a yuletide evolution of the former's sound. Maura Johnston, writing for "Entertainment  Weekly", asserted that Swift "levels up" on "Evermore" by taking musical risks, and dubbed the sister albums a career-high for the singer. "Spin" critic Bobby Olivier thought the "career-redefining" album finds Swift at her prime, joining "the pantheon of songwriters who consistently deliver despite unimaginable expectations". He regarded "Evermore" a stronger work than "Folklore". Annie Zaleski of "The A.V. Club" also chose "Evermore" over "Folklore", and noted that the former continues the latter's "universe-building" with stronger writing and greater sonic cohesion. "The Guardian" Alexis Petridis said "Evermore" furthers Swift's departure to alternative rock from mainstream  pop, comparing it to her country-to-pop shift in "Red" (2012); he added that it proves her ability to switch genres easily. Calling it heartfelt and ruminative, Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph" lauded the album's emotional songcraft and unhurried tempo, noting its songs are not for stadiums. Patrick Ryan of "USA Today" gave plaudits to its mystical instrumentation and escapist lyrics, stressing that "Evermore" is not a vestige of "Folklore", but rather a sister reinforcing Swift's strengths. In her "Rolling Stone" review, Claire Shaffer saw Swift embracing new genres and ambitious storytelling, and welcomed her new  artistic direction. "The Independent" writer Helen Brown deemed its songs haunting and contemplative, and likened their nature to a campfire setting. Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" stated that the album is more progressive and audacious than "Folklore", although posing as a sequel at first. He explained that "Evermore" explores the complications of adult love more extensively than its predecessor, and flaunts Swift's boldest and richest songwriting. "Variety" critic Chris Willman praised the album's subliminal production and Swift's agile vocals, and underlined its impressionist storytelling style that clicks only after multiple listens. "Stereogum"s Tom Breihan named "Evermore" an expertful  full-on winter album populated by subtle growers shrouded in a sedative atmosphere. Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" commended its diligent sound and poised lyrics, and noted more character studies in it than "Folklore". In less favorable reviews, Chris Richards of "The Washington Post" found the album overlong and rejected the notion of categorizing Swift's 2020 works as indie. Mikael Wood of the "Los Angeles Times" felt that the album is "Folklore"s leftovers, and "simply repeats its trick", but named "Tolerate It", "Gold Rush", "Champagne Problems", "No Body, No Crime" and "Dorothea" as highlights. Year-end lists . By the time Swift unveiled the album, many publications had already issued their year-end rankings of best albums of 2020. "Evermore" rankeds on lists published after December 11, including number-one placements from NJ.com, "USA Today", and "Variety", which it shared with "Folklore". "Evermore" finished at number 20 on Metacritic's aggregated list of 2020 year-end rankings. Commercial performance. Available only via digital music and streaming platforms, Republic Records reported over a million copies of "Evermore" sold in its first-week worldwide, marking Swift's third album in 16 months to do so, and her eighth consecutive studio  album to achieve it; all her studio albums, except her 2006 debut album, moved a million copies in their opening weeks. All of the album's 15 tracks entered the top 75 of the "Billboard" Global 200 chart. Aided by "Evermore" and "Folklore", Swift was 2020's top streamed artist on Amazon Music across all genres. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) named her the best-selling solo artist and female artist of 2020, and second overall. United States. "Evermore" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 chart, topping it for four weeks. It opened with 329,000  units, consisting of 220.49 million on-demand streams and 154,000 digital albums, and earned the biggest sales week for an album since her own "Folklore". It is Swift's second number-one album in 2020 and eighth consecutive number-one debut, making her the third woman with eight number-ones, behind Barbra Streisand (11) and Madonna (9). Alongside "Folklore" at number three, Swift became the first woman in the chart's history to simultaneously have two albums in the top-three. The gap between the number-one debuts of "Folklore" and "Evermore" was 140 days, breaking the Guinness World Record  for the shortest gap between two chart-topping albums by a woman on the "Billboard" 200. The album debuted atop the Alternative Albums chart as well, dethroning "Folklore" from number one; "Evermore" topped the chart for 15 weeks. All of the album's 15 tracks entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 simultaneously, earning five top-40 hits. "Evermore" became Swift's third album to chart all of its standard tracks together, after "Lover" (2019) and "Folklore". Swift became the woman with the most Hot 100 hits in history with 128, regaining the record from Nicki Minaj. With the number-one debut of  Willow, she also became first act in history to simultaneously place an album and a single atop both "Billboard" 200 and Hot 100 charts at two occasions, following "Folklore" and "Cardigan". All tracks appeared on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart as well, except "No Body, No Crime" which debuted at number two on the Hot Country Songs. Due to eight tracks from "Folklore" remaining on the chart alongside the 14 from "Evermore", Swift occupied 22 of the chart's 50 positions—the second most simultaneous entries in the chart's history, behind Linkin Park (23). On the Hot Alternative Songs , Swift claimed 16 spots, besting Machine Gun Kelly's record. Despite its availability for the last two weeks of 2020 only, "Evermore" became one of the top 10 best-selling albums of 2020. It placed eighth on "Rolling Stone" best-sellers list, and tenth on MRC Data's best selling albums of 2020 with 283,000 sales; its sister record, "Folklore," was the top seller of 2020. In April 2021, "Evermore" surpassed a million units in the US. In June, it scored its fourth week atop the "Billboard" 200 with 202,000 units, following its vinyl release. 192,000 of that sum were  pure sales, surpassing her own "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" for the largest sales week of 2021. It marked the 53rd chart-topping week of Swift's career, extending her record as the female act with the most weeks at number one in "Billboard" 200 history and the third-most overall, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. The album sold 102,000 vinyl copies the same week, breaking the former record by Jack White's "Lazaretto" (40,000) for the biggest sales week for vinyl LPs since MRC Data's inauguration in 1991. "Evermore" became the best-selling CD and vinyl album of  2021. In July 2021, it became the best-selling album of the year, with 374,000 copies sold in 2021; "Evermore" was the seventh most consumed album, having earned 818,000 total units. "Evermore" topped the 2021 "Billboard" Year-End Top Album Sales and Top Alternative Albums charts. It further placed fourth on the year-end "Billboard" 200 chart. Swift ranked as the number-one "Billboard" 200 Artist, "Billboard" 200 Female Artist, Top Album Sales Artist, Top Alternative Artist, and Top Alternative Albums Artist. Selling 529,000 pure copies, "Evermore" was ranked sixth on the best-selling albums list of 2021, alongside three  other Swift albums—"Red (Taylor's Version)", "Fearless (Taylor's Version)", and "Folklore"—in the top 10. Other markets. In Canada, "Evermore" appeared at the top spot of "Billboard" Canadian Albums chart, yielding Swift her eighth Canadian number-one album, and her second in 2020. The album spent three weeks atop the chart. Every track from "Evermore" debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 simultaneously—Swift's third album to do so, after "Lover" and "Folklore". All the tracks except "Closure" landed in the chart's top-50; "Willow" became her seventh Canadian number-one hit, with "Champagne Problems" at number six, "No Body , No Crime" at 11, "'Tis the Damn Season" at 13, "Gold Rush" at 14, and "Tolerate It" at 18. In 2021, "Evermore" was the country's seventh best-selling album. In Australia, Swift achieved a "Chart Double" by occupying the top spots of both albums and singles charts simultaneously. "Evermore" entered at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, garnering her seventh chart-topping album. Collecting her second number-one album of the year 19 weeks after "Folklore", Swift broke the record for the shortest gap between two successive number-ones, surpassing the 25 weeks between Ariana Grande's "Sweetener  (2018) and Thank U, Next" (2019). "Willow" debuted atop the ARIA Singles Chart, accompanied by 11 other fellow tracks. It marked her seventh Australian number-one hit, and the second in 2020 after "Cardigan". "Evermore" spent four consecutive weeks at number-one in Australia, tying with "Folklore" as her second longest-running chart-topper, behind "1989" (11 weeks). In the United Kingdom, "Evermore" topped the UK Albums Chart for two weeks. It made Swift the fastest female artist to accumulate six number-one albums in the country (in eight years, 2012–2020), surpassing Madonna (11 years, 1997–2008), and the first female  artist to score six chart-toppers in the 21st-century. The album is her second number-one album in 2020 after "Folklore", establishing her as the first act to score multiple chart-topping albums in a calendar year, since David Bowie in 2016. "Evermore" also topped the UK's Vinyl Albums chart, and the Americana Albums chart where it spent 16 weeks at number one. On the Official Singles Chart, "Willow" landed at number three and gave Swift her eleventh top-five hit, while tracks "Champagne Problems" and "No Body, No Crime" arrived at numbers 15 and 19, respectively, increasing  her UK top-20 hits total to 21. "Evermore" was the best-selling Americana album of 2021 in the UK. In New Zealand, the album launched atop the Top 40 Albums chart, while its tracks "Willow", "Champagne Problems", "No Body, No Crime" and "Gold Rush" charted at numbers three, 24, 29 and 34 on the Top40 Singles chart, respectively. In Singapore, "Willow", "Champagne Problems", "Gold Rush" and "No Body, No Crime" entered the Singaporean Top 30 Singles chart, with the former at number one. In many European territories, "Evermore" attained in its peak multiple weeks after its release. It debuted at  number one in Croatia in January 2021, and reached the top spot in Flanders in its sixth week on the Ultratop 200 Albums, after debuting at number two. It marked Swift's fifth consecutive number-one album in the Belgian region. The album peaked at number two on the Irish Albums Chart in its third week. It opened at number three in its debut week, marking Swift's sixth consecutive top-three album in Ireland; it was the most downloaded and streamed album of the week. Simultaneously, "Willow" also placed at number three on Irish Singles Chart, alongside tracks "Champagne  Problems" and "No Body, No Crime" at sixth and eleventh spots, respectively, rising Swift's sum of top 50 hits to 38. On the Scottish Albums Chart, "Evermore" opened at number five, but peaked at number three after 25 weeks. On Germany's Offizielle Top 100, the album opened at number 24, rose to number six the next week, and ascended to number five in June 2021, whereas it topped the Greek Albums Chart in August 2021. Awards. At the 2021 American Music Awards, "Evermore" won the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album, as Swift's record-breaking  seventh nod and fourth win in the category. Swift was also nominated for Artist of the Year and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, and won the latter for a record-breaking sixth time. At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, "Evermore" contended for Album of the Year as Swift's fifth nomination in the category, following "Fearless" (2008), "Red" (2012), "1989" (2014) and "Folklore" (2020). Impact. Following "Evermore" release, searches for plaid coats jumped 49% in one day. Google Trends data also showed a significant spike in searches for tartan toppers in the same day. Replicas of the flannel coat Swift  wore on the cover artwork quickly sold out on Farfetch. Swift was the world's top paid solo musician of 2020, and the highest paid in the US, thanks to her revenues from "Evermore" and "Folklore", which according to Junkee were "alternative experiments" taken mainstream by Swift's "sheer star power". Swift's fast-succeeding release of "Evermore" after "Folklore" was met with praise. "Variety" compared the double release to that of the Beatles and U2, especially the latter's releasing "Zooropa" (1993) and "Achtung Baby" (1991). "Rolling Stone" dubbed it a "hot streak" reminiscent of Prince in 1987 and  David Bowie in 1977. "Vulture" stated the news of another surprise album from Swift "came as a major shock", as she has been "the industry's most prominent loyalist to the pop-album rollout", who turns her carefully planned releases into "an art of their own". Branding it a testament to her artistic dedication, "Our Culture Mag" praised Swift's ability to make an album on-par with its predecessor in a short time, while concurrently re-recording her back catalog. "NJ.com" thanked Swift for making the "miserable year" a little more endurable, saying no other artist of her stature  created so relentlessly in 2020. "The Sydney Morning Herald" named her "the queen of pandemic productivity". "Stereogum" and "Pitchfork" critics recalled "Evermore" while discussing the quick succession of Lana Del Rey's 2021 studio albums, "Chemtrails over the Country Club" and "Blue Banisters". "The New York Times" said "Evermore" marked a crucial moment in Swift's career and creative development. "CNN" named Swift among the celebrities who "lifted our spirits" during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Times" named her "pop star of the year" for putting out two albums that "won over new audience". "Evermore" and "Folklore" have been lauded as  two of 2020's seminal albums. As per "Vox", the albums threw emphasis on Swift's work ethic, helped critics recognize her musicianship and view her as a dedicated songstress, moving away from the "try-hard" pop star of her mid-2010s. "Billboard" cited the two albums as the most notable examples for how the pandemic veered music in 2020, and forced artists to amend their creative process. "Arre" wrote that Swift bottled the pandemic's cultural crisis in two escapist albums, transporting listeners to "a simpler world whose sensibility is cottagecore instead of apocalyptic", and added that future generations will  get an idea of 2020 through the sister albums, which condense emotions "impossible to articulate". Croatian singer-songwriter Mia Dimšić named "Evermore" as an inspiration for writing "Guilty Pleasure", her entry song representing Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. American singer-songwriter Christina Perri, regarding her 2022 single "Evergone", told "Consequence" that "Evermore" and "Folklore" influenced her to write heartfelt, melancholic songs—which she had wanted to but could not because she felt a pressure to forcefully include happy themes that she was not feeling. Theme park lawsuit. On February 2, 2021, Evermore Park, a fantasy theme park in  Pleasant Grove, Utah, filed a lawsuit against Swift and her team for allegedly infringing its "EVERMORE" trademark, seeking to prevent Swift's further use of the word, and demanded "statutory damages of $2 million per counterfeit mark per type of goods or services sold" or a part of revenues from the use of the title, including legal fees. The park's counsel had sent a cease-and-desist letter to Swift's counsel on December 29, 2020, to which the singer's counsel declined to abide, writing in reply that: "If anything, your client's website traffic has actually  increased as a result of the release of Ms. Swift's recent album which, in turn could only serve to enhance your client's mark". The park claimed that the title of Swift's album "Evermore" confuses consumers, and negatively affects the park's searchability. According to the court documents submitted by the park, the park's visitors enquired the staff about whether the album was a collaboration between Swift and the park, and that on the day "Evermore" was announced (December 10, 2020), the traffic on the park's official website surged by 330.4% in comparison to the previous  day, affecting the park's "Google footprint". The lawsuit also mentions the park's merchandise and original music on streaming platforms under the "EVERMORE" trademark, claiming Swift's album has made them "harder to find". Swift's team denied the accusations in a letter filed in court, referring to the suit as "baseless". The letter stated that "it is inconceivable that there is any likelihood of confusion between your client's theme park and related products and Ms. Swift's music and related products", and claimed that the park's merchandise, such as "small dragon eggs, guild patches, and a  small dragon mount" are not similar to the products sold on Swift's website. In a "Billboard" statement, Swift's spokesperson called the suit "frivolous" and disputed its "true intent", highlighting a Utah Business report, according to which, the park's founder and CEO Ken Bretschneider "has had at least five lawsuits filed against him and the Evermore group by major construction companies, claiming they are owed between $28,000 and $400,000 in construction, mechanic and landscaping fees. Smaller subcontractors who did work on the park have also filed more than 20 construction liens on the Evermore property". On  February 24, 2021, TAS Rights Management (Swift's trademark and copyrights company) countersued the theme park for allegedly infringing Swift's songs "Love Story", "You Belong with Me" and "Bad Blood" by regularly using them in their performances without a proper license. The management claimed that the park "blatantly ignored the numerous notices from BMI and opted instead to continue to benefit from the free and unauthorized public performance of [the songs], despite actual knowledge of the liability and substantial penalties imposed by the Copyright Act to protect artists", and pointed out that Bretschneider reached out to BMI "seeking a  retroactive license that would cover all performances from 2018 through 2021" after anticipating a lawsuit from Swift's management. In March 2021, Swift's spokesperson reported that, as a resolution, both parties have decided to "drop and dismiss their respective suits without monetary settlement". Credits and personnel. Adapted from Tidal, "Pitchfork", and album liner notes. Musicians. Additional instrument recording