It’s that time of year again: pumpkin carving and painting, apple picking, hay rides, haunted houses, crisp air, crunchy leaves, and pumpkin spice everything. Playing in the background like a soundtrack behind all of that? Taylor Swift’s albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.”
Fall is often heavily associated with warm, cozy, relaxing feelings and a color scheme of oranges, browns, and reds. There is also an underlying feeling of a biting harshness as winter creeps closer. These two albums perfectly capture that warm coziness with a subtle bleak sadness.
“I associate these albums with fall because the vibe of ‘Folklore’ is warmth and sorrow, and ‘Evermore’ compliments this with feelings of closure,” said Plainfield North High School senior Emily Semrau.
One specific song in “Folklore” is heavily associated with the autumn season. “Cardigan” is thought of by many as a perfect song for fall. The name itself isn’t just what gives it that fall feeling; the lyrics and overall tone of the song almost scream fall.
“I feel like ‘Cardigan’ is just, like, the perfect song for fall,” said senior Matt Laszlo. “The way that [Taylor Swift] talks about an old cardigan like it’s something cozy and warm, but often forgotten, is exactly what I feel like fall is.”
The whole tone of the song is like when someone comes in from the cold, bitter weather to wrap themselves in a warm blanket and put on, well, a cardigan. The undertone in the lyrics represents the cold sadness of the approaching winter but still going back to the warmth of fall now.
“The song is all about a breakup but how it felt really nice when they were together,” said Laszlo. “In fall, I feel like it’s kind of like remembering summer and how much fun it was before you get to cold, dark, winter; just like in a breakup, you wanna remember the good times before the sadness hits.”
A few other songs that are heavily associated with fall are: the last great american dynasty, exile, willow, happiness, and evermore. They all have the same tone of an undertone of sadness coupled with a warm and longing feeling.
“The vibes are like the wind biting at you but holding onto a warm drink to have that little bit of coziness through the fall,” said senior Cailin Reidy. “The albums are like the crunch of leaves combined with the bare bones of the trees.”
It’s not just the tone of the songs that give a sense of autumn, however. The album covers, music videos, and Spotify clips, also help to invoke those seasonal vibes.
“The use of trees as a common imagery tool in both albums further establishes these fall themes, as well as the orange color scheme associated with evermore,” said Semrau.
Reidy agrees with Semrau’s sentiment, believing that both albums create an overarching feeling of fall.
“There is a theme in the color palette that makes [the listeners] think of fall; the fallen leaves in the gray forest of ‘Folklore’ are more somber and leave more questions and ‘Evermore’ with its falling leaves and the flannel in its cover with its vibrant oranges, reds, and yellows combine to create an aesthetic that [listeners] associate with fall,” said Reidy.
Both albums combined symbolize the entirety of fall, both the beginning with its warmth and comfort, and the end with its bleak cold.
“The albums relate to the autumn season because this is the time where life starts getting a little rougher, homework piling up, the nip of the wind, the chilly days, even simple things like the football season coming to an end and not seeing your friends as much anymore hit deeper through the album’s words and themes,” said Reidy.
