Album: evermore
Year: 2020
I can’t remember if evermore was more or less of a surprise that folklore initially was. And while nobody suspected Taylor Swift of going all Robert Pollard on us, it was still unprecedented for her to release two albums in two years, much less two albums in six months. But that was 2020: the most unprecedented year of any of our lives.
And while folklore was basically split between collabs with pop gun for hire Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner, evermore was pretty much all songs Swift worked on with Dessner, because it clearly got good for her.
And while evermore was a bit more experimental than folklore — and featured collabs with Bon Iver & the National (of course) as well as HAIM — the one I gravitated to at first was basically a sad piano ballad, driven by Dessner’s gently insistent piano, over which Taylor sings about a life-changing evening between a doomed couple. As you do.
Because I dropped your hand while dancing
Left you out there standing
Crestfallen on the landing
Champagne problems
Your mom’s ring in your pocket
My picture in your wallet
Your heart was glass, I dropped it
Champagne problems
Of course, the “he wants to propose, she wants to break up” (or vice versa) isn’t exactly the newest topic in the world — Swift focuses less on the proposal itself than the aftermath, dwelling on the woman who rejected the proposal, but everybody’s reaction, as the piano is joined but a guitar waltzing around the rest of the song and a bridge that gets more and more insistent as it goes forward.
One for the money, two for the show
I never was ready so I watch you go
Sometimes you just don’t know the answer
‘Til someone’s on their knees and asks you
“She would’ve made such a lovely bride
What a shame she’s fucked in the head,” they said
But you’ll find the real thing instead
She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred
This of course, is wishful thinking. He might. He might not. And while clearly they both would be happier not married to each other — it would just take him longer to realize it — she can only hope that he’ll find someone that would be what he wanted her to be.
And while “champagne problems” wasn’t technically released as a single, it still charted as if it was, because that’s a champagne problem of being the biggest artist in the world. And so, it made it to #15 on the U.K. singles chart, #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, which makes me wonder if folks heard it on the radio and liked with without knowing it was Taylor Swift. Probably.
“Champagne Problems” (Official Lyric Video)
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