Taylor Swift Live in London: The Eras Tour Sets a New Bar for Stadium Shows

When Taylor Swift released her soft, folky pair of lockdown albums for 2020 – Folklore and Forever – it made sense to think she was slowly coming out of her maximalist pop star phase and settling into her thirties with less of a craving for the limelight.

Instead, in the four years since the albums' release, he's released six more albums, including four as part of an ongoing re-recording series, and become more of a ubiquitous cultural force than ever.

With the most dedicated and rabid fans on earth behind her, Swift's mantra of late has been that more is better, and it's served her well for better and for worse. On the other hand, it inflated her 11^u studio album, Department of Tormented Poetsto an odd 31 songs, but it also landed her on The Eras tour, one of the biggest cultural moments of the decade so far.

Very, very few artists could pull off a show of this scale and in this context – 10 of her 11 albums are given their own segment of this Wembley Stadium performance with custom sets, outfits and moods – but Swift has the devotion and adoration of a legion of fans (as well as the money) to dive deep into her own tradition and put on a mesmerizing show that never goes below 100 mph.

For Folklore and Foreverthe Swift sits atop a mossy cab, while the new Department of Tormented Poets The section sees her go across Broadway, roused from her slumber by her effervescent dancers – costumed mimes – before album highlight 'I Can Do It With a Broken Heart'.

If there were concerns that these three albums might not translate to stadium settings, once again it's her fans who carry her. Even the most delicate, intimate pieces – ForeverEspecially her “Marjorie” – she is fervently screamed at, with little to no disconnect as a result. Although a Swift tour of the theaters playing Folklore and Forever still a tantalizing prospect, the songs more than hold their own on this massive scale.

Aside from the wonder of songwriting and creativity, The Eras tour is also amazing for Swift's sheer stamina. Although she leaves the stage for costume changes between each period, she's rarely off-screen for more than a minute at a time during the three-and-a-half-hour show, before appearing and gliding across the massive stage. and sidewalks again, never letting her voice suffer as a result. A swarm of dancers surround her at all times, perfectly inhabiting her past: a brilliant feat of acting as well as live performance.

While the tour spans all eras of Swift's career, her most recent albums get much more airtime. The set kicks off a five-track journey through 2019 Lover (the album he couldn't tour due to the pandemic) and wraps up with 13 tracks in 2022 Midnight and Department of Tormented Poets. While it's all enthusiastically received, it occasionally makes for slightly uneven pacing.

Revamped hit 'Cruel Summer' anchors the set's first section, but the set's emotional climax arrives a little early with 1989The jam-packed set of 'Style', 'Blank Space' and 'Shake It Off' for over an hour before finally exiting the stage. While there aren't many casual Swift fans in attendance at all, there's a slight sense that they may be dwindling over the past two seasons.