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In this lockdown year, Taylor Swift decided once and for all to shed her upbeat, country-pop-electronic-dance queen musical approach in favor of a sound more befitting trying times. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen, she wanted it darker. To help her along with her stylistic transition, Swift engaged the services of producer, songwriter, and musician Aaron Dessner, best known for his work with the dark, moody rock outfit the National. Dessner wound up producing and co-writing about half of “Folklore” which came out last July and almost all of “Evermore,” which got a surprise release last week.
Swift’s longtime producer, Jack Antonoff a New Jersey native who attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County wasn’t pushed aside by Dessner; he still contributed in various measures to both albums. In addition to Dessner, Swift invited her friends in the Grammy Award-nominated sister folk-rock trio, Haim, to provide harmonies on “Evermore,” and she wrote them i