"Coney Island" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring the American band the National. Swift, William Bowery, and the brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner wrote the song for Swift's ninth studio album, Evermore (2020). The track was produced by the Dessner brothers, and Matt Berninger contributed guest vocals. An alternative rock and indie folk song, "Coney Island" features lyrics that depict a separated couple reflecting on their past relationship.
Republic Records released the track to adult album alternative radio in the United States on January 18, 2021. Some music critics commended the vocal chemistry between Swift and Berninger, while others deemed his vocal performance out of place; they generally considered "Coney Island" a standout track on Evermore. It peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Global 200 and reached the national charts of Australia, Canada, Portugal, and the United States. The track received gold certifications in Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand. Swift performed it live three times on her sixth concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Background and release
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Taylor Swift wrote and produced her eighth studio album, Folklore, with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff.[1]Surprise-released on July 24, 2020, it was met with critical acclaim and commercial success.[2][3] The album incorporated new styles for Swift and departed from the maximalist pop sound of her previous works.[4][5][6] In September2020, Swift, Antonoff, and Dessner assembled at Long Pond Studio in the Hudson Valley to film Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, a documentary that features Swift performing all of the seventeen tracks of Folklore and discussing the creative process and inspirations behind the album.[7][8] After filming, the three celebrated Folklore's success and unexpectedly continued writing songs while staying at Long Pond.[9] The result was Swift's ninth studio album, Evermore, which she described as a "sister record" to Folklore.[10] It was surprise-released on December 11, 2020, with "Coney Island" appearing as its ninth track.[11][12]Republic Records released the song to US adult album alternative radio on January 18, 2021.[13]
Production and composition
Dessner and his twin brother, Bryce, sent Swift some of the instrumentals they made for their band, the National, including the instrumental of "Coney Island". Swift and William Bowery wrote its lyrics and recorded her vocals. After listening to the demo, the four collectively observed that the song was closely connected to the National, envisioning Matt Berninger (the band's lead vocalist) singing it and Bryan Devendorf (the drummer) playing its drums. Dessner informed Berninger, who was "excited" for the idea; the band assembled to work on the track.[14]
Dessner recorded "Coney Island" at Long Pond with Jonathan Low, who recorded Swift's vocals with Robin Baynton and mixed the track. Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone mastered it at Sterling Sound Studios in Edgewater, New Jersey, and Sean O'Brien recorded Berninger's vocals at Knobworld Studios in Los Angeles. Dessner provided drum machine programming with Devendorf and played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, high-string guitar, and synthesizer; his brother Bryce played piano and synthesizer and was the orchestrator for the cello (Clarice Jensen), drums (Devendorf and Jason Treuting), violin (Yuki Numata Resnick), and percussion (Treuting). Devendorf's brother, Scott, played bass guitar and pocket piano for the track.[8]
The narrative of "Coney Island" is set in Coney Island, an entertainment area in New York City.
At 4 minutes and 35 seconds long,[15] "Coney Island" is an alternative rock and indie folk song written in the waltz tempo.[a] Swift sings with a breathy head voice and a mezzo-soprano singing voice, while Berninger sings with a baritone vocal range from the second verse through to the end of the song.[b] The narrative revolves around a story set in Coney Island, an entertainment area in New York City, where Swift and Berninger alternately express the viewpoints of two former lovers who contemplate their past relationship and blame each other.[21][22] The lyrics convey the emotion of feeling lost in a failed romantic relationship ("Breaking my soul into two looking for you/ But you're right here/ If I can't relate to you anymore/ Then who am I related to?").[16][19] Berninger sings in his verse about the feeling of self-absorption that resulted in losing the partner ("The question pounds my head/ 'What's a lifetime of achievement?'/ If I pushed you to the edge/ But you were too polite to leave me").[23] In the refrain, Swift sings, "I'm on a bench on Coney Island, wondering where did my baby go", before rhyming it with "the bright lights, the merry go", in a reference to merry-go-rounds.[21]
Critical reception
Some music critics praised the vocal chemistry between Swift and Berninger and considred "Coney Island" a highlight from Evermore.[c]Spin's Bobby Olivier described it as a "wonderfully dark duet" and lauded the fusion of Swift's and Berninger's vocals,[18] and Stereogum's Tom Breihan similarly considered it the darkest track on the album, alike "The Last Time" in Swift's fourth studio album, Red (2012).[28]The Daily Telegraph'sNeil McCormick deemed it one of Evermore's "strangest songs" and believed that Berninger's performance elevated the song's quality; he added that Swift's "lucid and melodious" vocals counterpointed "the mumbled intensity" of his baritone.[24]Variety's Chris Willman compared "Coney Island" to "Exile" (2020), another similar duet on Folklore, and found the lyric "We were like the mall before the internet/ It was the one place to be" a "rare laugh line".[22]
Some critics commented on the songwriting and Berninger's vocal performance. The Guardian'sAlexis Petridis thought "Coney Island" had lackluster songwriting that lacks in depth and believed it would have been a forgettable track without Berninger's performance.[17] On the contrary, Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky and Beats Per Minute's Ray Finlayson opined that his vocals felt out of place on the song.[20][29] The latter felt "Coney Island" sounded like a conversation between a father and his daughter rather than two romantic partners due to the vocal differences between Swift and Berninger.[20] The track appeared in rankings of Swift's discography by Rolling Stone'sRob Sheffield (26 out of 274)[26] and Vulture's Nate Jones (181 out of 245).[30]
Swift performed "Coney Island" on piano as a "surprise song" three times on the Eras Tour (2023–2024).[44] She played it for the first time at the first Atlanta show on April 28, 2023.[45] She performed it with Sabrina Carpenter as part of a mashup with Swift's single "White Horse" (2008) at the first Sydney show of the tour on February 23, 2024; Billboard's Hannah Dailey picked the performance as one of the best 25 moments from the tour.[46][47] Swift played the track in a mashup with her song "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" (2024) at the sixth show in London on August 17, 2024.[48]
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Evermore.[8]
^Bruner, Raisa; Chow, Andrew R. (November 27, 2020). "The 10 Best Albums of 2020". Time. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
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