Taylor Swift performs live at the O2 Arena in London (Photo: Alex Elms for Live4ever Media)
Taylor Swift is streaming the bonus track which was initially available on the physical form of her Folklore album when it was released at the end of last month.
‘the lakes’ sticks with the vibe of Swift’s eighth studio album – another commercial blockbuster – which Live4ever summed up as being, ‘Laced with clever intrigue and deft touches’, in our 8/10 review:
“With repeated listening all is not quite as cabin-in-the-woods as it seems though. Swift’s ability to sketch all-American love within the frame of innocence remains second to none (‘cardigan’, the frankly gorgeous, banjo picked ‘invisible string’), but suburbia glints; the pulsing ‘my tears ricochet’ and ‘august’ both underlining an effortless gift for sophisticated contemporary pop which neither lockdown nor inner peace can dull.”
“Inevitably however, some of the manipulative jockeying for leverage over her translates into sardonic one liners or an intentional slip for hacks to earn their pay over. On ‘this is me trying’, the effacement translates into words like, ‘You said all of my cages were mental/so I got wasted like all my potential’, while if you aurally squint hard enough, ‘peace’ contains a middle finger extended to her uber-nemesis Kanye West.”