Hoax

"Hoax" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It is the final track of the standard edition of her eighth studio album, Folklore (2020). Swift wrote the track with its producer Aaron Dessner. A slow-paced piano ballad, "Hoax" tells a story of a flawed but everlasting relationship, driven by motifs and imagery. Critics noted the track's multiple references of her past songs and gave it mixed-to-positive reviews; some of whom praised the lyrics while others deemed it unmemorable. Commercially, "Hoax" peaked at number 71 on the United States's Billboard Hot 100 and entered on the charts of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It was featured on the concert documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020). Background and production American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her eighth studio album, Folklore, on July 23, 2020, and its release date at midnight. The album's standard edition consisted of 16 tracks and it concludes with "Hoax". Swift previously began work on Folklore during the COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020, and enlisted first-time collaborator Aaron Dessner as a producer. "Hoax" was written alongside eight songs by Swift and Dessner, who produced all of them. Due to the lockdown, they were separated and therefore created Folklore by exchanging digital files. Whereas much of the songs they worked on stemmed from Dessner's instrumental tracks, "Hoax" was written first and then produced. It was the last track penned for Folklore; Dessner thought the album was finished before Swift sent the lyrics of the song. She told him to focus on to not "try to give it any other space other than what feels natural" to him before developing the production. What Dessner came up is a slow-paced piano ballad with orchestration written by Rob Moose. It incorporates acoustic and electric guitars, OP1, synth bass, viola, violin, and strings. "Hoax" was recorded at Long Pond Studios in Hudson Valley. The vocals were recorded at Kitty Committee Studio in Los Angeles and the instruments were recorded at Hudson Valley and Brooklyn. The song was mixed at Long Pond and was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City.