Evermore (stylized in all lowercase) is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was a surprise album released on December 11, 2020, via Republic Records, less than five months after Folklore, her eighth studio album. Evermore was a spontaneous product of Swift's extended collaboration with her Folklore collaborator Aaron Dessner, mainly recorded at his Long Pond Studio in the Hudson Valley. Swift described Evermore as an offshoot of "the folklorian woods"—an escapist, cottagecore-inspired direction she first ideated with Folklore during the COVID-19 pandemic; she regards them as sister albums. Evermore blends alternative rock, indie folk and chamber pop styles, carried by fingerpicked guitars, somber pianos, lavish strings, and sparse percussion.
Earning widespread acclaim from critics, Evermore was praised for its character studies, experimental production, and Swift's nuanced vocals. Reviews regarded the album a sequel or a counterpart to Folklore, and various publications listed it in their 2020 year-end rankings. Evermore was nominated for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, a second consecutive nomination for Swift in the category after winning it with Folklore the previous year. Dessner and Long Pond have achieved mainstream notability since Evermore's release.
The album reached number one in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Republic Records reported over a million copies of Evermore sold in its first week globally. It was Swift's eighth consecutive Billboard 200 number-one debut, spending four weeks atop the chart, and achieved various chart feats in Australia, the UK and the US; in the latter, the tracks "Willow", "No Body, No Crime", and "Coney Island" impacted pop, country, and alternative radio stations, respectively.
After the release of Folklore, Swift wrote two songs, "Closure" and "Dorothea", for Big Red Machine, which is a supergroup by Dessner and Justin Vernon, the frontman of American indie folk band Bon Iver; the songs ended up on Evermore instead. To celebrate Folklore, Dessner casually composed an instrumental track "Westerly", named after the location of Swift's Rhode Island home. An hour later, Swift wrote "Willow" to the track and sent it back to him. .
I have no idea what will come next. i have no idea about a lot of
things these days and so i've clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all.
That thing always has and always will be music
And may it continue, evermore
