'tis the damn season

In the liner notes of the album, Taylor wrote that one of the song storylines on “evermore” was about “what happens when [Dorothea] comes back [from Hollywood] for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame.” This likely refers to “‘tis the damn season” given the lyrical mentions of both Los Angeles and the winter holidays. Notably, “evermore” was released two weeks prior to Christmas 2020, making the title timely yet ironic.

Aaron Dessner revealed in an interview with Billboard that Taylor wrote the lyrics to the song the first night after they had started rehearsals for the “folklore: the long pond studio sessions” in September, 2020:

“After the ‘folklore: the long pond studio sessions,’ [Taylor] stayed for quite a while and we recorded a lot. She actually wrote ‘‘tis the damn season’ when she arrived for the first day of rehearsal. We played all night and drank a lot of wine after the fireside chat — and we were all pretty drunk, to be honest — and then I thought she went to bed. But the next morning, at 9:00 a.m. or something, she showed up and was like, ‘I have to sing you this song,’ and she had written it in the middle of the night. That was definitely another moment [where] my brain exploded, because she sang it to me in my kitchen, and it was just surreal.” — Aaron Dessner

Regarding the production, producer and co-writer Aaron Dessner told Rolling Stone in December, 2020: “That song, to me, has always felt nostalgic or like some sort of longing. And the song that Taylor wrote is so instantly relatable, you know, ‘There’s an ache in you put there by the ache in me,'” he said. It’s his favorite song on the album:

“‘‘tis the damn season’ is a really special song to me for a number of reasons. When I wrote the music to it, which was a long time ago, I remember thinking that this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made, even though it’s an incredibly simple musical sketch. But it has this arc to it, and there’s this simplicity in the minimalism of it and the kind of drum programming in there, and I always loved the tone of that guitar. When Taylor played the track and sang it to me in my kitchen, that was a highlight of this whole time. That track felt like something I have always loved and could have just stayed music, but instead, someone of her incredible storytelling ability and musical ability took it and made something much greater. And it’s something that we can all relate to. It was a really special moment, not unlike how it felt when she wrote ‘peace,’ but even more so.” — Aaron Dessner