The 10 best albums

1 FOLKLORE

TAYLOR SWIFT

After exploring the upper reaches of pop maximalism on her past projects, Swift makes a powerful about-face on an album that’s as much an experiment with emotional delicacy as it is a lush take on the intersection of folksy storytelling and contemporary pop. Swift has been a public figure for well over a decade, but never before has she sounded so consistently vulnerable, so at home in her voice and so willing to play with sounds: hypnotic string plucks, angelic chorus hums, the unexpected gruffness of Bon Iver’s vocals on “Exile.” Her lyrics, meanwhile, are sharp and tinged with layered bittersweetness. Some trade on the is Swift finding the beauty—and power—in stillness and reflection, perhaps the most we could hope from quarantine.