At the 64th Grammy award show held on March 3, 2022, Jon Batiste’s “We Are” was announced as the winner of the most anticipated award, Album of the Year. Yet, a majority of the general audience watching from home has not heard of him, nor has listened to his music. With a list of 10 eligible winners, the Album of the Year award should have been awarded to someone else.

That someone else being the multi-talented, lyrical genius Taylor Swift. Nominated for her album Evermore, which came out Dec. 13, 2020, Swift was a top contender for the award. Viewers, including myself, were deeply disappointed when Swift’s name was not announced at the ceremony.

Evermore is dubbed as the “sister album” to Swift’s previous album Folklore, which won the Album of the Year award at the 2021 Grammys. This victory made her one of three people, and the only woman, to ever win three of the prestigious awards. Hoping to follow in Folklore’s footsteps, Evermore was created with a special craft that only Swift can make.

The album has 15 songs with another two bonus tracks as part of the deluxe version. Swift worked with the same team that she wrote folklore with, including producers Jack Antanoff and Aaron Dessner, as well as the mysterious William Bowery, who was revealed to be Swift’s boyfriend and new writing collaborator Joe Alwyn. The album also features collaborations with Bon Iver, The National and the girl band HAIM.

Swift’s incredible story telling and impeccable lyricism shines through all of the songs.
With tracks like “champagne problems” and “tolerate it,” Swift can easily make a listener cry tears of sadness and admiration. Delicate songs like “coney island” and “marjorie” and angsty songs like “no body, no crime” and “closure” make the album diverse in the way that there is a song for everyone to enjoy.

Swift stands out from the other nominees in the category, which included her previous rival Kanye West, Justin Beiber and more. Evermore is incomparable to the other albums; it is far more sophisticated and is composed in a way where the album completely flows as one body of work.

Some argue that Evermore was not deserving of the award. They mention that the album has weak spots, specifically with songs “cowboy like me” and “long story short.” People do not give the two songs enough credit, in that they tell amazing stories and have a personal connection to Swift. Long story short, they just have not fully listened to and absorbed the songs.

Even so, these so-called “weak spots” were not pointed out on any of the other nominees’ albums. Controversy swarmed West’s album “Donda” and Justine Beiber’s “Justice” had cringey songs like “Yummy” and “Peaches.” Are the lyrics, “I get my weed from California” really grammy worthy?

In the end, Evermore did not win the award. The album was highly deserving of the award and would have made Swift the only artist in Grammy history to have won four awards in the Album of the Year category. If the tracks were given proper attention and a thorough listening, it would have come out on top.