Usually when an artist releases an album they spend months advertising it, dropping teasers, and hyping it up. Taylor Swift is an exception to this process. She released her album Evermore on her 31st birthday with little publicity, yet it blew up and reached the top charts within days. In Evermore, Taylor goes back to her delicate, innocent country roots but her sophisticated language and ideas break that innocence and grant her more respect while talking about these topics.  

While most people cannot relate to a failed marriage proposal or being caught in the middle of a murder scheme, many can relate to bad relationships(friendly or romantic), struggles with mental health and coping with loss. 

Evermore features 17 songs ranging from the slow paced and melancholy toned, “Happiness” to the upbeat but disturbing “No Body, No Crime”. 

“Happiness”, a song whose title is very misleading, is about learning to let go of a relationship after expectations were not met. It is about learning to push past the pain and strive for happiness. Her line “There was happiness because of you, but there’ll be happiness after you” reminds her listeners(and even Taylor herself who has been through a lot when it comes to relationships) that it is always possible to find happiness. This is a lesson that resonates well with almost anyone. In addition, this song features two references to the book, The Great Gatsby, the lines are “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool” and “All I need now is the green light of forgiveness.” While Taylor hasn’t come out saying that this song is related to the book, many fans think a connection is a possibility and allows Taylor to appeal to almost any high schooler who has read the book and fans of literature. 

With similar themes, the song “Closure” is about learning that closure means different things to different people. The narrator talks about how her ex-partner needs closure for his peace of mind and just to be able to say that they ended things on good terms. The narrator doesn’t agree with this and wants to cope on her own. This song raises awareness to the ways that different people cope with things. 

The song “Marjorie” discusses the emotions and feelings when a family member or friend passes away. Taylor wrote the song about her Grandmother, Marjorie, and the lessons that she taught Taylor. Lyrics like “Never be so kind you forget to be clever. Never be so clever you forget to be kind” are pieces of advice that her grandmother gave her. Lyrics like “What died didn’t stay dead…you’re alive in my head” show how Taylor honors and remembers her grandmother. In addition, towards the end, Taylor says “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were singing to me now” and the background music features an edited voicemail her grandmother left her. Listeners who have lost someone close to them can hear the different elements and connect to them. 

One of the more popular songs on the album, “Champagne Problems,” discusses a failed marriage proposal from the perspective of the girl who said no. This song digs deep into mental health and how people can’t always understand a full picture. Champagne problems is a phrase used to describe an issue that consumes someone but is a very privileged issue. In this case, the narrator’s champagne problem is having a strong relationship to someone fairly wealthy and successful but not being ready to marry them. She even says that she doesn’t know why she can’t marry him; she just knows she is not ready. This song digs deep into the way people feel in relationships, the narrator says that she is going through some mental health issues but her “hometown skeptics” don’t know that so they judge her for saying no. While a wedding proposal could be a little extreme, many people can relate to having a relationship not work out either for moving too fast or for inexplicable reasons. Also many people can relate to feeling depressed and turning things down because they do not feel like themselves. 

One of the more upbeat songs on the album is “No Body, No Crime.” This song is about a wife suspecting her husband is cheating on her and when she disappears her friend knows that the wife’s husband murdered her. The friend takes things into her own hands and makes the husband disappear. Taylor also name drops the chain restaurant Olive Garden to make a serious story a little lighthearted; “Este wasn’t there, Tuesday night at Olive Garden”, to which Olive Garden has tweeted jokes about. The song also plays off of gender roles as Taylor says “I’ve cleaned up enough houses to know how to cover up a scene.” In this line she uses her role as a housewife to show how unsuspect she would be in the murder. While this song is enjoyable to listen to, it also digs into infidelity, gender roles and friendship. 

Taylor’s songs are written as stories which makes them easy to follow and fun to piece together. Some of the ideas in the song are a little outrageous like covering up a murder, but the underlying themes are very strong and relatable. Evermore is one of Taylor’s best albums with sophisticated language and varying themes that are sure to resonate with any listener.