| "Epiphany" | |
|---|---|
| Song byTaylor Swift | |
| from the albumFolklore | |
| Released | July 24, 2020 (2020-07-24) |
| Studio |
|
| Genre | |
| Length | 4:49 |
| Label | Republic |
| Songwriters |
|
| Producer | Aaron Dessner |
| Lyric video | |
| "Epiphany" onYouTube | |
"Epiphany" is a song by the American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift from her eighth studio album,Folklore (2020). She wrote the track with its producer,Aaron Dessner. Anambient andchamber pop song, "Epiphany" consists of a slow piano line, cinematic strings, and howlingbrass. The lyrics reflect upon the devastation caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic and are a homage to healthcare workers during the pandemic.
"Epiphany" received favorable comments from many music critics, who praised the song's sentiments and themes as well as Swift's vocals, but some found the slow pace and production drowsy. Commercially, "Epiphany" reached the top 50 of several national charts, including in Australia, Canada, and Singapore, and peaked at number 57 on theBillboard Hot 100 in the United States. It wascertified platinum in Australia, gold in Brazil and New Zealand, and silver in the United Kingdom.
Folklore was conceived by Swift as figments ofmythopoeic visuals in her mind, a result of her imagination "running wild" while isolating herself during theCOVID-19 pandemic. One such visual was of her paternal grandfather Dean, who fought at theBattle of Guadalcanal, an Americanmilitary campaign against theEmpire of Japan, fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 inWorld War II. These concepts formed the central idea of "Epiphany".[2][3]
[Dean] never talked aboutit, not with his sons, not with his wife. Nobody got to hear about what happened there. So I tried to imagine what would happen in order to make you never be able to speak about something. I realized that there are people right now taking a 20-minute break between shifts at a hospital who are having this trauma happen to them that they will probably never want to speak about. I just thought, this is an opportunity to maybe tell those stories.
Swift penned "Epiphany", whileAaron Dessner composed its instrumentals and produced the song.[5] On July 23, 2020, Swift announcedFolklore and revealed its track listing where "Epiphany" placed at number 13. The album was released on July 24, 2020. As a reference to the song, a picture of Dean is also featured in the music video for the album's second track andlead single, "Cardigan".[6]
.jpg)
To me, it's like a nurse, doctor, or medical professional, where med school doesn't fully prepare you for seeing someone pass away or just the difficult emotional things that you'll encounter in your job. In the past, heroes were just soldiers. Now they're also medical professionals. To me, that's the underlying mission of the song. There are some things that you see that are hard to talk about. You can't talk about it. You just bear witness to them.
"Epiphany" is anambient[7] andchamber-pop tune[8] set to a glacial piano,[9] a howlingbrass[10] and orchestrals.[11] Dessner stated that he imagined "glacial,Icelandic sounds with distended chords and this almost classical feeling" when Swift described the idea of the sound she wanted for "Epiphany."[12] Therefore, Dessner slowed down compositions from different instruments and reversed them to create a "giant stack of harmony," and added piano for a cinematic trope.[5]
Melodically, "Epiphany" is ahymn,[13] displaying Swift's reverent and "angelic" vocals.[9] A homage to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the song's lyrics describe the devastation caused by the pandemic, while deeming doctors and nurses as soldiers on beaches,[14] correlating their emotional distress to that of herveteran grandfather Dean at the Battle of Guadalcanal.[15] In the first verse, Swift sings of Dean on the 1942 battlefield, attending to a soldier bleeding out. In the second verse, she switches to a 2020 medical ward which has patients breathing with difficulty and nurses attending to faltering patients.[16] Swift parallels the pressure both sets of workers endure as they help patients and serve their country while experiencing trauma and witnessing death, and having to reconcile with that to continue serving.[15] Thebridge andoutro also mention how both workers get "only 20 minutes to sleep" and yet "dream of someepiphany."[16]
"Epiphany" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Sarah Carson, reviewing forI, deemed "Epiphany" a "spectral" track that immortalizes the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]Maura Johnston ofEntertainment Weekly also called it spectral, writing that the song is driven by "Swift's exploration of others' inner worlds", which allows her to "take on new voices".[18]The Atlantic writer Spencer Kornhaber dubbed Swift's vocals in the song a "translucent beam", with hersyllables falling "slowly like ash". He added that a song like "Epiphany" should not work for "a woman of great privilege" like Swift, who connects two traumas that "aren't her own", but it does work because she "writes with a care and empathy that feel almost priestly".[16] Writing forSlate, Carl Wilson summarized "Epiphany" as a "narratively striking", "topical song" that starts with the image of "an army storming a beach" and then shifts to a modernoperating room, where "a woman'svital signs are crashing as someone holds her hand through plastic shielding"; Wilson added that Swift describes these scenes in "warm measured syllables" similar toKate Bush's 1989 song "This Woman's Work".[19] Annie Zaleski ofThe A. V. Club wrote that the composition of "Epiphany" echoes the "glacial piano work" by Canadian musicianSarah McLachlan,[20] whilethe New York Times' Jon Caramanica compared it to works by Irish singerEnya.[21]
Kitty Empire ofThe Observer favored the song's sombre lyricism but disliked the "pillowy" instrumentation. She stated that "Epiphany" incorporates "a medicalsubplot chiming gently with the suffering being wreaked bycoronavirus", dotted with Swift's "emphatic yelps", but its music is a "miasma of gingerly fingered piano and consolatory tonalities", resulting in an unmemorable track.[22]Insider reviewers Callie Ahlgrim and Courteney Larocca named "Epiphany" as their least favorite track onFolklore. Ahlgrim opined that the track contains intriguing vocals and lyrics, but is a "bit snoozy, and a bit too long", while Courteney Larocca complimented its "pretty background music", but downplayed it as "awar drama in song format". However, they agreed that "Epiphany" showcases the versatility in Swift's writing.[23] Katie Moulton, writing forConsequence of Sound, said that "Epiphany" seems to try to "connect periods of global and American crisis, from World War II to COVID-19", but felt that the idea is "muddled". She, however, picked the lyric "Hold your hand through plastic now" as a standout.[24]NME critic Hannah Mylrea found the song "slightly sluggish".[25]
Upon the release ofFolklore, "Epiphany" debuted at number 57 on the USBillboard Hot 100 chart,[26] number 11 on theHot Rock & Alternative Songs,[27] and number 24 on theRolling Stone Top 100.[28] The song further reached the number 29 on Australia'sARIA Singles Chart,[29] number 27 inSingapore's Singles chart,[30] and number 44 on theCanadian Hot 100.
Credits are adapted from theliner notes ofFolklore.[1]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[36] | Platinum | 70,000‡ |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[37] | Gold | 20,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[38] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[39] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)