Picking up where she left off with the “cardigan” video back in July, Taylor Swift brings us a companion single (to go with a folklore’s companion album, evermore) called “willow.” Just as maudlin and indie–which somehow works for Swift, despite the disingenuous feel–the “narrative thread,” tied together (pun intended) by the key visual of a golden string, doesn’t apply to the lyrics of “cardigan” so much as the ones contained in “invisible thread” a.k.a. track eleven on folklore. Overtly about Joe Alwyn, that also seems to be the case here; after all, he’s been quite the muse for Taylor since as far back as 2017’s Reputation.
While some might get all excited that Swift is suddenly being “racially inclusive” by casting an Asian boy (Taeok Lee, who toured with Swift on the Red Tour as well–because Tae and Tay, get it?), there’s an undercutting tinge of insensitivity based on the fact that she seems to be using him to underscore an East Asian (he’s Korean, by the way) legend about the red thread of fate. A legend that declares there is an invisible string forever tying together two soul mates from the very beginning of their lives. And that no matter what obstacles occur in between, they will perpetually be bound together. For Swift, obviously, that person is Alwyn (at least, let us hope–because that would really be an upset to the veracity of the myth; and yet, myths are just that: little tales we tell ourselves to believe). ‘Cause it damn sure wasn’t queerbaiter Harry Styles (though, come to think of it, Swift is apparently a queerbaiter too, based on the eagerness of listeners to falsely interpret “betty”).
Watching Swift take the plunge back inside of her piano despite the rough waters she endured in “cardigan,” she is immediately transported to an idyllic setting with, what else, a willow tree behind her. Staring into the reflection of the water, it isn’t a Narcissus quality we get, so much as a Peter Pan one (she previously sang in “cardigan,” “Tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy”). The boy in the reflection is one she seems destined (or doomed, depending on your level of cynicism about love) to meet again and again, no matter where she ends up (in this scene’s case, a Neverland-esque milieu). Their paths are inextricably linked, and apparently both lead to some weird version of a cultish outdoor bonfire ritual (after encountering one another at some off-brand Renaissance-type fair… clearly, Swift is a little behind on glomming onto a cliched “Brooklyn” vibe).
Although she is delightedly surprised–struck, if you will–every time she sees this boy-turned-man, it begins to affect her less and less as she realizes he is “The One” (“the 1,” as the song on folklore is called) for her, and that all she needs to do now is surrender to Fate, or whatever. As she phrases it in “invisible string,” “Time, curious time/Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs/Were there clues I didn’t see?/And isn’t it just so pretty to think/All along there was some Invisible string/Tying you to me?” Pretty, indeed. Or at least a cute little story to tell in a music video.
The J. M. Barrie-centric visuals continue to abound, at least in terms of what’s evoked by the lyrical description of the intro to “willow”: “I’m like the water when your ship rolled in that night/Rough on the surface, but you cut through like a knife.” Pirates, Captain Hook–you get it (we all know Wendy had a pirate fetish beneath her prudish exterior). But there’s no “crude” Megan Thee Stallion sentiments here, only warm, fuzzy ones in keeping with the calming tones that folklore established earlier in the year.
In other words, folklore ran so evermore could crawl. And when Swift herself crawls out of her piano yet again, this time wearing a pioneer woman meets Mennonite chic dress instead of a cardigan, it is not to an empty “cottage,” but toward the arms of the man who was tied to her by an invisible string. It really is a shame Swift couldn’t cast Alwyn in the role.
Then again, it goes back to Swift’s carefully curated wokeness ever since Lover came out (complete with the eponymous video’s Black Mirror-ripped premise and black male lead). Just be glad she didn’t get more overtly pandering by casting a Native American soul mate in homage to the willow tree (a.k.a. Grandmother Willow) in Pocahontas–because like she says, “I come back stronger than a 90s trend.”
