Taylor Swift has always been full of surprises, and her new album Folklore was something that no one saw coming. She dropped the entire record hours after announcing it and released the first single “Cardigan” alongside the album launch.
The whimsical music video for this song was directed, written, and styled by Swift herself. It shows the singer playing her piano, climbing inside after it starts sparkling with mysterious bright lights, and discovering a magical forest once she crosses to the other side.
Folklore comes only a year after Swift’s previous album Lover, and she’s written and recorded the entire record while social distancing. The singer described this album as “a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness” as her imagination ran wild in isolation.
“Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory. I’ve told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve. Now it’s up to you to pass them down,” wrote Swift on Instagram.
Folklore was released on July 24th to rave reviews, and it already broke the record for the highest album debut streams for a female artist on Spotify with over 80.6 million streams in its first day.
