Every year since Taylor Swift released her 2020 album folklore—her first of two surprise releases that year, which was later paired with evermore—fans have posted about the former album track “August” on the first of the month. An annual tradition for Swifties, on Tuesday (Aug. 1) Taylor responded by sharing new visual stimulation around her lovelorn ballad with a new lyric video.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Get in the car,” wrote Swift on Twitter, referencing a line in the song. “It’s August.”
But I can see us lost in the memory / August slipped away into a moment in time / ‘Cause it was never mine / And I can see us twisted in bedsheets / August sipped away like a bottle of wine, run the lyrics on a magenta-tinted cloudy screen.
Written by Swift and co-produced by Jack Antonoff, “August” is part of a trifecta of songs on folklore centered around the end of a summer romance. Along with tracks “Betty” and “Cardigan,” Swift’s fictitious love triangle is told from all three perspectives, from James, Betty, and an unnamed girl, with “August” coming from the latter’s point of view.
Though it only peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 5 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, “August” has remained a beloved song to fans, wallowing in the regret and failed August romances—But I can see us lost in the memory / August slipped away into a moment in time.
“What happened in my head was, ‘Cardigan’ is Betty’s perspective from 20 to 30 years later, looking back on this love that was this tumultuous thing,” said Swift explaining the song in the 2020 folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary. “In my head, I think Betty and James ended up together. So, in my head, she ends up with him, but he really put her through it.”
Swift continued, “‘August’ was about the girl that James had this summer with. She seems like she’s a bad girl, but really she’s not. She’s a sensitive person who really fell for him, she was trying to seem cool and seem like she didn’t care, but she really did, and she thought they had something really real.”
Photo by John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
