Taylor Swift offers a polished gem on album No 8, Folklore

Eighth album Folklore captures Taylor Swift in a reflective spirit, unconstrained by her pop reputation.

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, whose eighth album Folklore was released in July 2020.

POP

Folklore

Taylor Swift

Republic/Universal

★★★★

 

Spare, resounding piano chords provide the steady beat beneath Swift’s defiant voice heard on The 1, the opening track to her eighth album. There’s little of the brash, sugary, countrified Swift who has saturated pop radio from the mid 2000s onwards. Even the imagery on the album cover speaks to the less inwardly obsessed Swift of 2020. Folklore is a sepia-toned, earthy creature that shifts with the atmosphere, and it presents a woman who has confidently stepped out of the sequins and stadium lights, knowing her voice is compelling enough to carry this stylistic shift. Tapping Aaron Dessner of rock band The National as co-writer and producer has injected a melancholic and vintage craftsmanship to 11 of these 16 songs. As insightful and personal as Swift still is here, she is no longer inclined to write songs to ex-boyfriends or jealous rivals. Her winsome croon on the lovely Cardigan has Lana del Rey vibes, which is a winner for anyone who loves the classic blues and soul singers of the 40s and 50s. Swift is well-schooled in every aspect of the music business, from songwriting through to production and the politics of celebrity. She has taken powerful producers to court and called out lecherous radio personalities. She is so relatable in her frankness and vulnerability that she has won over an audience of young girls, as well as their parents, brothers and boyfriends. On self-aware track The Last Great American Dynasty, Swift sings of “women with madness and men with bad habits,” then muses, “Who knows, if I hadn’t shown up, what could have been?” Album No 8 is a polished, beautifully crafted gem that reflects the light and inevitable darkness through multiple prisms. Justin Vernon of indie folk act Bon Iver lends his sweetly plaintive, unpretentious voice to Exile and accelerates from zero to peak heartbreak in under a minute. Folklore captures Swift in a reflective spirit, unconstrained by reputation. She has crafted an album underpinned by both her personal memories — and perhaps folklore — that are universal: nostalgia, romance and the unpredictable yet nourishing natural world.

Cat Woods

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INDIE POP

The Prettiest Curse

Hinds

Pod/Inertia

★★★

The finest moment in album No 3 from Hinds comes with the line, “Can I tell you something about you and your band.” It’s a statement: it’s the uninvited comments received from men who, apparently, know the band’s music better than it does. The band’s lyrical response? “Dude, do I know you?” Such pointed humour permeates the Spanish indie-pop quartet’s latest release. More pop than anything it has released before, The Prettiest Curse brings new synth instrumentation and clearer melodies. It wields an endearing, almost bratty aesthetic, while blending lo-fi shoegaze with guitar lines designed to hook, gliding over what feels like a latent J-pop influence. Such artistic development might come at a cost, though: I suspect this album might resonate best with a new audience, leaving long-term listeners retreating to the more lo-fi songs heard on previous releases.

Tiarney Miekus

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INDIE ROCK

Sideways to New Italy

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Ivy League

★★★½

This band may house three guitarists, each of whom take turns writing songs and singing lead, but beneath that textured interplay and varied vocal delivery is a rhythmical engine that’s very much a constant. Bassist Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie crucially propel the Melbourne act’s melodic riches into robust, muscular jams on this second album, all without ever crossing the five-minute mark. While wider terrain is traversed nonetheless — take the funky elasticity of The Only One and the throwback Laurel Canyon twang of The Cool Change — the locked-in consistency of songs like Falling Thunder and Cameo hoards precision hooks in rapid succession, despite occasional missteps such as the spoken word section on the album opener. This is sharp guitar-pop a la Teenage Fanclub made better by committee.

Doug Wallen

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CLASSICAL

Songbirds

Ensemble Offspring

ABC Classics

★★★★½

For centuries, composers have turned to upper wind instruments to illustrate birdsong. Celebrating 25 years of music-making, the Sydney-based group Ensemble Offspring has created an attractive album of short pieces inspired by birdsong. The birds here are percussionist Claire Edwards, clarinetist Jason Noble and flautist Lamora Nightingale. Nine composers have created eleven miniatures. They range from two beguiling bird-scapes from Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose, to an extended three-movement exotic aviary by Gerard Brophy. The two wind players soar throughout the album but sadly the ever-amazing Claire Edwards seems tethered to her vibraphone. After a while, the ear yearns for relief from the sameness of register and texture, the busy flutterings and prevailing euphony. Otherwise, this is an alluring and ear-catching album.

Vincent Plush

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ROOTS

Self Made Man

Larkin Poe

Tricki-Woo/Rocket

★★★½

Festival favourites from Bonnaroo to Byron, Nashville-based blues and roots duo Larkin Poe follow up their 2018 Grammy-nominated album Venom & Faith with another strong set. Sisters Rebecca (guitar/vocals) and Megan Lovell (lap steel) have provocatively named their fifth longplayer Self Made Man, riffing on female independence and empowerment. “Baby’s on her way / She ain’t comin’ back,” sings Rebecca Lovell on the Joan Jett-inspired title track. Elsewhere the sisters rip through heavy gospel (Holy Ghost Fire), searing Southern rock (Scorpion, Back Down South), and drop a gear for a brace of acoustic blues in Danger Angel (“she’s comin’ for your soul”), and folk-blues standout God Moves On the Water, a 1929 traditional by Blind Willie Johnson written about the 1912 sinking of the Titanic whose lyrics the Lovells have updated with references to more recent disasters.

Phil Stafford

Playlist: Ella Hooper, singer and songwriter

Five songs on high rotation

01. The Barrel Aldous Harding

Brilliant artist, amazing writer, singer, dancer, dresser, everything. She is the whole frickin’ package.

02. Witchi Tai To Harpers Bizarre

Emotional and spiritual elevation in two minutes, 40 seconds.

03. Circle the Drain Soccer Mommy

I’ve been waiting for music like this to make a comeback! Sweet melodies with dark lyrics — my favourite combo.

04. Oxbow Waxahatchee

The groovy, hypnotic opener to Katie Crutchfield’s incredible album Saint Cloud. I have this thing on insanity repeat.

05. A Lotta Things Bonny Doon

I’m so taken in by the easy feel of this song, how all the elements work together effortlessly. Silver Jews on Valium.