Folklore Album
“holiday house” edition concept
Project Type
Packaging Design, Music Design
Tools
Adobe Indesign & Photoshop
folklore: “holiday house” edition is an anniversary release concept of Taylor Swift’s 2020 quarantine project folklore. Pulling from the story told in “the last great american dynasty,” the holiday house edition expands on the lore of the titular Rhode Island house owned by Swift. In this edition, we leave the folklorian woods and go to the beach.
“It’s hard to grapple with the knowledge that it’s been three years since the world changed so suddenly. The way it closed us off from each other, and how we clung to anything to help us through the unknown. As you know, that’s how folklore was born. This album was a guiding light through dark times. It was an escape into a forest, a small town love affair, a house by the sea soundtracked by crashing waves and windy days.
This new release is in honor of folklore’s third birthday. The “holiday house” edition is named after the Rhode Island house where so many fascinating people mingled and created folklore of their own—including myself. Featured on this album are four never before heard tracks pulled From the Vault.
Two songs, "whispers in the garden" and "better you’re gone," are continuations of the teenage love triangle. Whispers tells Inez’s side of the story and offers an explanation for her gossiping in the form of a pining love song for her best friend, Betty. "better you’re gone" is a piano ballad from the perspective of Augustine, six months removed from the events of August. She’s still heartbroken over James and she cycles through the memories of that summer while making an attempt at convincing herself that she’s better off without him.
“catalina” is an upbeat folk song that tells the story of a whirlwind romance that takes place during one summer weekend on Santa Catalina Island. Finally, we have “gilded age,” a five-minute winding epic near and dear to my heart. It tells the story of the 19th-century Newport elite and the way class, sex, and race conflict in its rigid social scene.
This is folklore: “holiday house” edition and I hope you welcome it into your lives the way you so graciously did with the original project. May these additional stories become one with you and passed down for years to come.
