This Friday afternoon, Taylor Swift released her seventh album, Lover. Whereas Reputation was about Taylor’s search for a genuine connection amidst the trappings of being a celebrity, on Lover, she feels liberated, and happier to be alive and in love. While the two opening singles (“ME!” & “You Need To Calm Down”) to this album didn’t set people’s worlds on fire, Lover is a stronger album than those songs would have you believe. Believe it or not, those songs sound much better within the context of the album.
The core of this album portrays Taylor as smitten; head over heels in love. When you’re in love, you start to see it in everything. Love is the ups and downs of life (“Paper Rings”). Love is the times you share (“Cruel Summer”). Love is the places you go (“Cornelia Street” & “London Boy”). Love is a religion (“False God”).
Sonically, Lover has a good measure of slick, upbeat synthpop (in contrast to the overbearing production of Reputation), courtesy of frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and new contributions from Lorde producer Joel Little. If you’re a big fan of the poppier songs off of Red and 1989, this album is a treat. I can’t help but feel like “Cruel Summer” sounds almost exactly like Amy Shark’s “All Loved Up”, which Jack Antonoff produced the year prior. The title track “Lover” feels like a distilled and matured version of Taylor’s most romantic songs, and captures the warmness of 50’s folk and doo-wop in the vein of songs like The Penguins’ “Earth Angel”. Throughout the album, there are hints of nostalgic pop-rock (“Paper Rings”) and a much welcomed callback to Taylor’s country roots (“Soon You’ll Get Better”).
But the album is also more than just a love letter. The album opens with “I Forgot That You Existed”, as song about an old friendship gone awry. Fans speculate that this song may be about Karlie Kloss, but I initially thought this was about her former manager, Scott Borchetta. “Soon You’ll Get Better” features backing vocals from the Dixie Chicks, and is a heartwarming song dedicated to Taylor’s mother.
In the leadup to this album, Taylor also mentioned that it would feature some songs with political undertones. At the time, I felt that this was somewhat a cause for concern. After all, Katy Perry promised the exact same thing two years ago with Witness, an album which failed to deliver that to say the least. But in the songs in which she explores these topics, she does so tastefully from a position which shows actual experience with the topics at hand. Take “The Man”, for example. Here, she looks back at her career, wondering if things would be different if she were male - calling out sexist double standards in celebrity culture and the music industry. “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” (That’s a title if I’ve ever seen one.) is a double-meaning song; while it recalls a high school romance on the surface, it also sees Taylor reckoning with what her original reputation as “Americas sweetheart” means in today’s politically volatile landscape.
Overall, Lover is a relieving step back up from the disappointing Reputation – an album which compiled some decent-to-good songs with some of the worst of Taylor’s career. Still, it’s far from her best album, and mostly suffers from a fair bit of filler. While it isn’t her longest album, it is the one with the most tracks in its standard form. Stretching out albums to play the streaming game was not a trend that I wanted to catch on outside of the hip-hop world, but unfortunately it has obvious effects here.
My rating: 7.5/10.
Highlights: Cruel Summer, Lover, The Archer, Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince, Cornelia Street, Soon You’ll Get Better, Afterglow
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