Album: folklore: the long pond studio sessions
Year: 2020
. . .
In September of 2020, Taylor Swift and her co-conspirators on the folklore project, Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, all got together in upstate New York to play the folklore songs in the same room, with the result was released on Disney+ in late November, as well as a live soundtrack of those sessions.
Which was, of course, a luxury most of us who were collaborating on songs over the internet didn’t have. So when Sedan Delivery pitched Disney+ on all of us getting together at Parkwood Studios in Madera to play the songs we’d been working on for the Exile on Messenger project, they just said, who?
This was, of course, somehow both more and less of an authenticity move than even folklore itself. More, because the songs were actually played live all at the same time; less, because it was godsamned Disney+ special, released so folks could watch it during their lockdown Thanksgivings.
And while the songs weren’t so much reinterpreted as they were (somewhat) stripped-down, what that usually meant that on a song like “mirrorball,” there wasn’t a keyboard wash over everything, nor were there multiple Taylor Swift overdubs on the vocals. Which, on a song like “mirrorball,” made it that much more powerful. Especially on the chorus, when Swift somehow almost reproduces her overdubbed harmonies to help land the melancholy of the chorus.
Hush, when no one is around, my dear
You’ll find me on my tallest tiptoes
Spinning in my highest heels, love
Shining just for you
Hush, I know they said the end is near
But I’m still on my tallest tiptoes
Spinning in my highest heels, love
Shining just for you
Love her singing on “hush,” but also the way she highlights the alliteration of “tallest tiptoes” and “highest heels” as Jack Antonoff quietly strums along with her and Aaron Dessner not-quite as quietly arpeggiates a slightly over-miked guitar underneath. It’s all ridiculously lovely, of course, and there’s another great bit of singing on the humblebragging “I’ve never been a natural / All I do is try try try” on the bridge.
That said, folklore: the long pond studio sessions almost immediately got overshadowed by the release of Taylor’s second 2020 album, evermore, and with 2021 & 2022 being dominated by the first of the “Taylor’s Versions” albums, it didn’t really get anything resembling its due until a vinyl version during Record Store Day this year, which sold out it’s 75,000 copies and landed at #4 on the Billboard Albums Chart and is now averaging $65.00 on Discogs if you want a copy.
“mirrorball (long pond studio sessions)”
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