seven | Taylor Swift Switzerland (2024)

folklore (2020)

“seven” is fittingly track seven on Taylor’s eighth studio album, folklore (2020). It is a story about a childhood friend who seemed to have an unhappy life at home. Taylor reflects back on her innocence when she was seven years old, and how she thought that all problems could be easily solved.

Background and Lyrical Theme

All tracks of folklore were conceived by Taylor as imageries and visuals from her deep subconscious, a result of her imagination “running wild” while isolating herself during the Covid-19 pandemic. “seven” was the second song that Taylor and her co-writer and producer, Aaron Dessner, wrote for the album, following “cardigan“. Dessner recalled that “cardigan” and “seven” laid out the roadmap for writing the rest of the album. He classified the song as “wistful and nostalgic”, a contrast to its “hazy” predecessor “mirrorball” and the following track “august“, which he viewed as the most pop song on the record. He feels that “seven” is as a defining moment of folklore, commemorating friendship and nostalgia. Taylor herself said the following in the 2020 documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions:

“seven” is a nostalgic and “wistful” folk song innocently presenting the pureness of childhood friendship being dragged out of a seven-year-old Taylor by her inability to comprehend the emotional and physical abuse of her friend from their parents. Two little girls in the Pennsylvania woods, trying and failing to understand each other. It’s a lost childhood bond, from the perspective of a kid too young to recognize that her friend’s angry dad is the ghost in their family’s haunted house. (The traumatizing fathers on folklore are a plotline in themselves.) The little girls dream of escaping, running away to be pirate twins, but there’s no resolution — just a mystery that gets more confusing as she tries to live with it. Aaron Dessner told Vulture in 2020:

Live Performances

Taylor first performed “seven” as part of the concert film and documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions (2020), together with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. On “The Eras Tour” (2023), “seven” serves as a spoken interlude, introducing the “folklore act” of the show. On June 17, 2023, Taylor chose it as the first surprise song for her “The Eras Tour” show in Pittsburgh. Aaron Dessner was the surprise guest and accompanied her on piano. Taylor introduced Aaron and the song by saying:

Critical Reception

Several critics pointed to the song as highlight on folklore. Rebecca Karpen of PopMatters described the song as “heartbreaking” and found its narrative “horrifying”, with a young Taylor failing to understand her friend’s abuse, stating that it made her “cry in the middle of 4th Avenue in broad daylight.” Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone ranked it as the 19th best song in Taylor’s catalogue at the time, praising the “mystery that gets more confusing she (sic) tries to live with it.” In a review published in The Guardian, Laura Snapes described the loss of innocence depicted in “seven” and the self-interrogation it reflects as “devastating.” Slate‘s Carl Wilson opined that “writing of child abuse with this lightness of touch is a feat”. In an NPR critics roundtable, Ann Powers chose “seven” as a standout on folklore, arguing it defined folklore‘s underlying web of memory. Ryan Leas of Stereogum wrote that it “leveled [him] each listen” and ranked it as his 4th favorite song of 2020.

Commercial Performance

Following the release of folklore, “seven” debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart alongside the album’s 15 other songs and at No. 11 on the Rolling Stone Top 100. Additionally, the song debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. The song reached the top 20 in Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Lyrics