Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

Receiving widespread critical acclaim, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions was praised for its music, intimacy, visuals, and insight provided on Folklore, with many critics labeling the film an admirable supplement to the album. It received an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Imbued by the sessions, Swift wrote and recorded several new songs off-screen while shooting the documentary. These songs came to be a major portion of Swift's ninth studio album, Evermore (2020), which was released fifteen days after the documentary. The film received the Gracie Grand Award for Outstanding Special or Variety.


Accompanying the film's premiere, a live album soundtrack, entitled Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (From the Disney+ Special), consisting of the recordings of the live performances featured in the film, was released to music streaming and digital platforms. For the 2023 Record Store Day, a run of 115,000 limited-edition vinyl LPs of the album was released exclusively via independent record stores across the world, selling out in three days. The album topped the US Billboard Soundtracks, Vinyl Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, and Tastemaker Albums charts, and became the first-ever Record Store Day-exclusive in history to enter the top 10 of the overall Billboard 200 chart, landing at number three.

Synopsis[edit]

In September 2020, Swift and her co-producers for her eighth studio album, Dessner and Antonoff, assembled together at Long Pond Studio—a secluded, rustic cabin in upstate New York—to play the complete album for the first time in the same room after writing, recording, and producing it in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was the concert documentary, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, where the three performed stripped-down, acoustic renditions of all 17 tracks in order, while revealing the creative process, stories, and inspirations behind the songs through discussions.^[1]


The film's premise on Disney+ reads: "Taylor Swift performs every song from her best-selling album, "Folklore", in a truly intimate concert experience. Accompanied by her co-producers, Aaron Dessner (of The National) and Jack Antonoff (of Bleachers), along with a guest appearance by Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver), Taylor filmed the event at the historic Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, a setting that evokes the nostalgic, wistful nature of the album. In between live performances, she and her collaborators discuss the creation and meaning behind each song, and also share the challenges and joys of remotely producing this acclaimed and record-setting collection".^[2]

Release[edit]

Like the release of Folklore, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions was a surprise release, announced hours before its launch at midnight.^[6][10] It was released on Disney+ on November 25, 2020^[13] and on Hotstar in India and Indonesia on November 26, 2020.^[14]

Impact[edit]

American comedian Jimmy Fallon released a parody of the documentary on YouTube, titled Fallonlore: The 30 Rock Sessions, featuring American hip-hop band the Roots. In the skit, Fallon wrote an album in quarantine, enlisting Questlove and Black Thought to help him finish it remotely. Months later, the trio gather at 30 Rockefeller Center to perform their tracks together for the first time. The setlist included songs titled "Peed My Pants in an Applebee's", "Song About Milk", "Sourdough Heart", and "Fuzzy Wuzzy" featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay.^[28]


Most of the songs on Evermore—Swift's ninth studio album and Folklore's sister album—were recorded while filming The Long Pond Studio Sessions.^[29]


A still from the film was featured in a 2021 television advertisement by The New York Times, titled "The Truth Is Essential: Life Right Now", showcasing a variety of articles from the publication.^[30]


The Department of English of the Queen's University at Kingston, a public research university in Ontario, Canada, offers a fall semester course titled "Taylor Swift's Literary Legacy (Taylor's Version)", with a syllabus requiring students to watch and analyze many of Swift's works, including Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions; the course objective is to examine Swift's music, its literary references, and her sociopolitical impact on contemporary culture.^[31]


After the release of Folklore, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions and Evermore, artists such as Maya Hawke,^[32] Gracie Abrams,^[33] Ed Sheeran,^[34] King Princess,^[35] and Girl in Red^[36] desired to collaborate with Dessner and record songs at his Long Pond Studio. Dessner stated, "After Taylor, it was a bit crazy how many people reached out. And getting to meet and write songs with people you wouldn’t have had access to… I’m so grateful for it." He described the studio as a "creative oasis" for artists.^[35]