Album: evermore
Year: 2020
. . .
evermore, released just two weeks before lockdown Christmas 2020, was styled as a year-end gift from Swift to her fanbase, who had started the year looking forward to seeing her in concert and ended the year not seeing pretty much anybody at all.
Which is why it’s ironic that one of the key tracks is “’tis the damn season,” another character study all about coming home for the holidays and wanting to fuck your ex. Who’s heart you so obviously broke by leaving in the first place. Hell, it could even be the poor bastard who got his heart broke in the previous song, “champagne problems,” though Swift has said it’s actually the character “Dorothea” who we meet a couple songs later. Of course, none of this matters, because the chorus is universal.
So we could call it even
You could call me “babe” for the weekend
‘Tis the damn season, write this down
I’m stayin’ at my parents’ house
And the road not taken looks real good now
And it always leads to you and my hometown
Musically, “’tis the damn season” is anchored by a trembling, echoing guitar probably played by Dessner, but it’s one of those songs that starts adding instruments — organ, cello, random drum machine hits, even horns — without ever feeling cluttered. It’s all atmosphere, adding extra gravity to a song that’s as horny as it is sad. Two great tastes that taste great together, all of which, er, comes to a head on the bridge.
Sleep in half the day just for old times’ sake
I won’t ask you to wait if you don’t ask me to stay
So I’ll go back to L.A. and the so-called friends
Who’ll write books about me if I ever make it
And wonder about the only soul
Who can tell which smiles I’m fakin’
And the heart I know I’m breakin’ is my own
To leave the warmest bed I’ve ever known
We could call it even
Even though I’m leaving
And I’ll be yours for the weekend
‘Tis the damn season
Maybe because it was her second album that year, evermore didn’t seem to get as much acclaim as folklore, though honestly, that might have been because the critical establishment had basically shut down for the year, as the practice is to get the best-of lists down by Thanksgiving, leaving little room for an album that comes out in mid-January.
None of which stopped evermore from being Taylor Swift’s eighth-straight #1 album on the Billboard album charts, of course. Or, I’m assuming, the soundtrack of millions of lockdown Christmases where people just texted or zoomed with that ex they would have otherwise seen.
“’tis the damn season” Official Lyric Video
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