Latest editorial
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
Album reviews with Mik Sabiers: August 18, 2020
Latest releases from Taylor Swift, david newton andStephen EvEns
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
Taylor Swift
folklore
(Republic)
★★★★
RELEASED with no advance promotion but shifting 1.3 million copies on its first day of release, folklore is the surprise eighth album from Taylor Swift that delivers a stripped-down and different musical take on her usual upbeat confessional electropop.
Marking a shift from her more mainstream back catalogue, folklore primarily pares everything back to guitar, piano and vocals but it’s all in the lyrics that blur reality and fantasy over an almost indie-folk sound.
More from this author
MIK SABIERS leaves The Itch gig rejuvenated and energised
MIK SABIERS detects a serious message beneath the fun and frenzy of a classic 1980s Grebo scene band
