Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

It’s been a decidedly cinematic year for Taylor Swift, whose 2020 has so far included the release of both Miss Americana and the concert film City of Lover — not to mention the most recent two in an uninterrupted streak of (so far) six self-directed music videos.

In July, Swift released her eighth studio album, folklore, recorded totally in secret alongside go-to collaborator Jack Antonoff, The National’s Aaron Dessner, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. This month, she’s managed another surprise in the form of folklore: the long pond studio sessions (lower caps Taylor’s own), a concert-documentary hybrid in which the same crew performs the album live. Released Wednesday on Disney+ as part of an ongoing partnership between Swift and the media conglomerate, it’s her debut feature in the director’s chair.

The film moves between Swift, Antonoff, and Dessner as they explain the songs’ origins and play them at New York’s Long Pond Studios. Like many things this year, the bulk of folklore was assembled remotely, with the trio mailing each other files until it was time to be mixed. “I think it’s really important that we play it,” Swift says. “I think it will take that for me to realize that it’s a real album. Seems like a big mirage.” A bandana-masked Vernon joins them remotely around the 20-minute mark to perform “exile,” the album’s only duet.

While Miss Americana was chock-full of tabloid and personal drama, Swift has given herself the space in her own film to keep things strictly about the music; everything that comes up does so either to colour or elaborate on the work itself. Each of the trio is skilled at discussing their craft(s), and Swift and Antonoff are especially captivating in their one-on-one chats. Dessner, for his part, comes most alive in the studio.

Despite not physically appearing in the film, Joe Alwyn somehow has an even bigger presence in it than he did Miss Americana. Swift confirms that William Bowery, a mysterious figure credited as a co-writer on multiple songs from the album, was indeed Alwyn operating under a pseudonym. He’s apparently a talented pianist with a knack for both composing and songwriting, having written the first verse and “entire piano part” of “exile” as well as the chorus of “betty.”

folklore the album was a massive flex of Swift’s power as an artist: it became her seventh consecutive number-one album, even in the absence of a traditional rollout. It was also her first to come with an explicit label — symbolic in its own way of a new chapter. With this in mind, Disney’s involvement in folklore the film feels stifling. There’s no doubt that Swift’s fans will flock to the platform, but she’s made a major artistic compromise in working with a company that insists on muting her “fuck”s. This matters at several points during the album, but risks ruining the chorus of “betty” in particular.

The film is nevertheless a triumphant debut from Taylor Swift the feature director, and, I predict, just the first of many. What it lacks in technical seamlessness — filmed with a robotic camera, equipment appears in the frame at multiple points — it makes up for in musical adroitness and a coziness that’s very welcome as the season turns.