Brief 16: folklore

 I listened to the Taylor Swift album ‘folklore’ when it came out, and it provided a very clear example to me of something very important (albeit obvious), which is to always, always, if you intend to form any opinion or pass any judgement on a song or album, listen to it at least twice.

I’d listened to the last three Taylor Swift albums in a kind of paying-attention-to-where-the-kids-are-at type way. While I’d long acknowledged that there were some fine songs, from ‘Love Story’ to ‘Shake it Off’, I’d found each of the albums, as a whole, naggingly knowing, trying, self-conscious, something like that.  I try to be fair-minded to well-regarded popular music, but the rockist prejudices of my youth can sometimes makes that difficult

Even though this one, ‘folklore’ was touted as the “indie” one, the natural one, the artifice-free one, my first listen, on a Friday afternoon, left me in the same bad mood. No, she was trying too hard to act natural, what right does she have to step on the indie-rock toes etc. It was only towards the end of the listen that I noticed the sun was in my eyes all the time I was listening.

The weekend passed, during which I read a nice little review of the album which set some of the songs in context. It is good to read well-written reviews of albums.

Anyway, I listened to it again on Monday and, one way or another, I enjoyed it a lot. I had none of the same hang-ups as I’d had three days before. It’s not, you know, a classic, but that Monday I was able to listen to it fairly. And I liked it. I’ve listened to it several times since – it really strikes a nice balance of pop star/earnest singer-songwriter and allows her skills to shine.

Everything we listen to, every time, we’re carrying our own ideas and prejudices into it, of course we are. Any kind of fair response requires balancing out two different listening experiences. What mainly happens is that the second listen will confirm the prejudices we carried into the first listen, and if our antipathy keeps getting stronger, then it’s probably not worth bothering much more, but, saying that it is a nice experience, occasionally, to be turned 180 degrees by a second listen.