Taylor Swift’s latest offering Evermore has set a new UK albums chart record in the run up to Christmas. The Nashville native’s ninth studio LP – a surprise release on December 11th – is her sixth UK number one album in just 8 years. This surpasses the previous UK record for a female artist held by Madonna, whose 2008 album Hard Candy became the pop icon’s sixth chart-topper in eleven years. Swift’s latest triumph also represents the quickest dash to six chart-topping records in the UK since Westlife and Robbie Williams’ similar successes over the first six years of the 2000s.
With her sixth UK Number 1 album #evermorealbum @taylorswift13 claims the fastest accumulation of six chart-toppers since 2006 #taylorswift https://t.co/dWMLstV1S5 pic.twitter.com/ZD6jYafdU1
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) December 20, 2020
Further to this, the 31-year old songstress has achieved the rare feat of securing two number one albums in the space of a year. Evermore‘s ‘sister record’ Folklore (another last-minute surprise release in July) also stormed to the top of the charts on its release. It was the first example of such a double-success since 2016, when David Bowie’s final studio album Blackstar and his posthumously re-released greatest hits album Best of Bowie both climbed to the summit.
Swift is now battling with rock royalty in the form of Paul McCartney for the Christmas Number One album berth, with the final chart standings due to be announced tomorrow afternoon. The Beatle is expected to pip his American rival to the post with McCartney III – and in so doing bag his first solo chart-topper since 1989’s Flowers in the Dirt. Swift is also an outside challenger for the coveted Christmas Number One single with Willow (which peaked at third place in the last pre-Christmas chart), though Nottinghamshire YouTube sensations LadBaby are favourites to secure a hattrick of festive successes with their latest, Journey-parodying single Don’t Stop Me Eatin’ in aid of Trussell Trust.
Evermore, which includes collaborations with HAIM, Bon Iver, and The National, was seen by Rolling Stone as an expansion of Folklore‘s “goth-folk vision”, and has been hailed by The Guardian for its “emotionally resonant” experimentation in “country noir”. The Independent praised the album’s fresh lyrical direction, saying: “Though it takes a while for the melodies to seep through the tasteful burbling of acoustic moods, Swift’s country-honed storytelling gifts are guaranteed to draw listeners in, transforming our speakers into campfires. She says all the time spent reading and watching classic novels and movies over lockdown encouraged her to look beyond her personal, tabloid-shifting dramas, and she sings these “17 tales” from the perspectives of fresh, fictional characters. And she’s great at it.”
Swift herself has spoken warmly about the new record, which was largely co-written and produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, and compared it favourably to its 2020 predecessor. She told Variety: “With this one I have this feeling of sort of quiet conclusion and sort of this weird serenity of we did what we set out to do and we’re all really proud of it, and that feels really really nice.“
