Taylor Swift Fans Reflect on Powerful Impact of 'Folklore' on Album's First Anniversary

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One year after its release, Taylor Swift's fans are taking a moment to reflect on the life-changing impact of the superstar singer's eighth album, Folklore.

Released on July 24, 2020, Folklore represented a surprise pivot towards indie-folk that proved a critical and commercial blockbuster for Swift, earning the album of the year Grammy and topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for eight nonconsecutive weeks.

On Saturday (July 24), Swifties celebrated the first anniversary of Folklore on social media with congratulatory messages alongside selfies with their favorite white cardigan, a nod to one of the album's hit songs, and inspiring words on how the release helped them through the challenging COVID-19 pandemic.

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Taylor Swift Releases ‘The Lakes (Original Version)’ on ‘Folklore’ One-Year Anniversary: Listen Now

"Happy one year to the album that is everything and quite literally saved so many of us during the chaos an uncertainty of last year," one fan tweeted. "Love you and your team of folklorians so incredibly much."

Another Swiftie wrote, "folklore feels like a warm blanket on a cold day, or a warm hug on an especially rough day. Thank you for creating this beautiful album that has saved my life and has made me feel understood. Please never stop making music. I love you."

Swift herself celebrated Folklore's first birthday by gifting fans an original version of the album’s bonus track, “The Lakes.”

“It’s been 1 year since we escaped the real world together and imagined ourselves someplace simpler," the 31-year-old singer tweeted on Saturday. "With tall trees & salt air. Where you can wear lace nightgowns that make you look like a Victorian ghost & no one will side eye you cause no one is around."

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She added, "To say thank you for all you have done to make this album what it was," she continued, "I wanted to give you the original version of The Lakes. Happy 1 year anniversary to Rebekah, Betty, Inez, James, Augustine and the stories we all created around them. Happy Anniversary, folklore."

In this week’s Billboard digital cover story, Jack Antonoff, who co-wrote and co-produced “The Lakes” with Swift, first revealed that the bonus song originally existed in a “big orchestral version,” before Swift decided to strip it down. In the days following the publishing of the interview, Swift fans on social media asked to hear the original version of the track.

“On one of my favorite songs on [Swift’s] Folklore, ‘The Lakes,’ there was this big orchestral version, and Taylor was like, ‘Eh, make it small,’” Antonoff says in the digital cover story. “I had gotten lost in the string arrangements and all this stuff, and I took everything out. I was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’ We were not together because that record was made [remotely], but I remember being in the studio alone like, ‘Holy s--t, this is so perfect.’”

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