Taylor Swift surprised fans on Friday by dropping her eighth studio album, 'Folklore', seemingly out of nowhere.
The 16-track body of work, which comes to us less than a year after her last effort, 'Lover', is – in true Taylor Swift fashion – already breaking records. It sold more than 1.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, and has also made history on Spotify and Apple Music.
With 80.6 million streams, 'Folklore' receives the title of album with the most first-day streams by a female artist on Spotify. Meanwhile, over on Apple Music, it's the most-streamed pop album in 24 hours on the platform, with 35.4 million streams.
While fans the world over have been captivated by Taylor's transformation from country star to glittering pop songstress, 'Folklore' sees yet another shift in her sound as she heads into the woods and explores the realm of indie-folk.
With many of us struggling to even prepare three meals a day during the drag of lockdowns, of course Taylor managed to create this entire album with a host of collaborators, all in isolation.
Way to make us all feel inferior, TSwift.
"Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, 'Folklore'," Taylor wrote in a social media post. "Before this year I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed."
Among a host of people involved in the album are Bon Iver and Jack Antonoff.
