‘Lover’
Taylor Swift’s latest album dropped in August, and I’ve been sitting on my thoughts about it for a while, giving them some time to mature.
First, my general feelings:
I was extremely excited for this album in the months leading up to its release, but in the week or two right before it came out, I started to lose a little bit of hope. After all, despite my glowing initial reviews of the first two singles, “ME!” and “You Need To Calm Down,” neither of them had a lot of replay value; I soon got tired of hearing both of them. “ME!” was too simplistic and juvenile, and YNTCD was just too political. When “The Archer” was released, I was still extremely excited, and it got me thinking that the album would have a wide range of sounds, which turned out to be completely accurate. But when the “Lover” single came out, I was taken aback by how distinctly country the beginning of the song was, which turned out to be a hint that the whole album would be extremely sonically diverse. Listening to the “Lover” single made me happy, and I’m sure it made Joe Alwyn happy, but it’s not particularly relatable for fans who haven’t found their happily ever afters (in fact, quite a few songs ended up being too specific to be relatable).
When the album was finally released and I started listening to the first track, all of the hope that had been waning away in the weeks before was immediately restored. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too many tracks later before some of that hope began to wane again. Overall I like the album, but I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t her finest work. The album has a LOT of lyrics, and it’s frankly too long. At least two songs, if not three or four, could’ve been left out altogether and the album would’ve been better for it.
There were several recurring themes that I found quite interesting, yet they’re still largely unexplained. Examples include: the color blue, religion, and patriotism.
Also, Lover is not at all sonically cohesive. It has often been compared to Red on account of it’s strong lyrics, but this is another thing they have in common. The order of the tracks is astonishingly bad, especially given how well they could’ve been placed. Seriously, a couple of the transitions gave me whiplash.
Song by Song:
“I Forgot That You Existed”: 7.5/10
This song was fun and instantly revitalized my excitement for the album the first time I heard it.
“Cruel Summer”: 9/10
One of the strongest tracks, hands down. At this point on the first run through, I was convinced the album was gonna slap. It reminded me a lot of 1989, which was, in my opinion, Taylor’s strongest record.
“Lover”: 5/10
This song is sweet and the type of thing you’d write for someone you want to spend your life with, so I don’t think you can fault her for writing it, it just isn’t super relatable for a lot of people, as I mentioned before.
“The Man”: 0/10
Taking things a step further than “unrelatable” is “The Man,” which down right alienates half the people in the world, and soured the whole album, and to an extent, her entire discography. This song tries to make a political/social point, and it sucks for that reason alone, but the misandrous nature of this track is what makes it my least favorite Taylor Swift song ever. To hear her tell it, being a man makes life a breeze. Nobody will ever question your credibility if you have a wiener. Being a man makes you complex and cool. All men have unshakable confidence and are always socially dominant alpha males with no fear. Nobody ever criticizes a man’s sexuality or paints their virility in a negative light (which is especially false for same sex attracted men — did her ignorance simply allow her to overlook that demographic, or did she determine that the lyric doesn’t apply to that group because they’re not really “real men” — in any case, it’s very problematic). She seems to think that men don’t deal with real problems and that being a man makes life easy, which is a notion I find personally hurtful. She doesn’t owe me anything and she can write whatever she wants, but as a long time fan and vociferous defender of Taylor Swift, this song made me feel extremely unappreciated. If she wanted to comment on how the media portrays her, she should’ve referred people back to “Blank Space,” because that was the purpose of that song, it didn’t presume hurtful things about entire groups of people, and she’s never going to top it anyway.
“The Archer”: 6/10
I’d been hoping for a devastatingly sad song on this album, and this is as close as we got. I’m not mad, it’s extremely introspective which I think is terrific, but I don’t think anyone is crying their eyeballs out over it.
“I Think He Knows”: 8.5/10
This is one of the album’s high points, and it kicks off the strongest segment of songs in a row (roughly tracks 6-11). The song is just fun.
“Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince”: 5/10
I have an unfortunate feeling that this may be the “So It Goes…” of this album. They’re both track 7 and they’re both sonically dull and to my untrained ear. However, they couldn’t be more opposite from a lyrical perspective. “So It Goes…” was very flat and repetitive, while MAATHP has a ton of lyrics and metaphors, which certainly work in its favor.
“Paper Rings”: 5/10
This feels very mid 00s, kids’ movie montage-y. It reminds me a lot of Walking on Sunshine and Daddy Daycare. It has a few good lyrics and is fun and upbeat, but I just don’t love it. Half the time, I end up skipping it before the end. It’s like musical Splenda: sweet but fake.
“Cornelia Street”: 6.5/10
This is another track that almost feels too specific, but it is very sweet and has grown on me since I first heard it. I just can’t figure out if she wrote this song about a romantic or platonic relationship.
“Death By A Thousand Cuts”: 7.5/10
This song isn’t really fast, but it’s a little faster than I expected. I really like some of the lyrics though, particularly this one:
You said it was a great love, one for the ages, but if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages?
I don’t know enough about how music is produced to know if this is a possibility, but if so, I think a mashup with “All Too Well” would be incredible.
“London Boy”: 4/10
The song sounds fun, but its another very specific song that people who haven’t been to London won’t be able to appreciate as much. Also, the weird line about a “Tennessee Stella McCartney” seems like a corporate decision to sell more ugly, airbrushed-looking t-shirts that nobody asked for.
“Soon You’ll Get Better” (feat. Dixie Chicks): 2/10
This song might have people crying, but illness and death weren’t exactly the themes I was imaging when I said I wanted something devastatingly sad. I’m surprised this track made the album actually, it seems too private to belong. It feels like you’re witnessing something indecent, as if you’ve just walked into a room to find someone mourning the death of a loved one. Call me heartless, but… skip.
“False God”: 4/10
This song is interesting. It’s a lot more, uhh, sensual than anything Taylor has made in the past. I don’t love it and I don’t hate it, it just feels different.
“You Need To Calm Down”: 4.5/10
In regards to my statement that this song is too political: don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Taylor’s contribution to the fight for LGB equality with this track. Also, I see how YNTCD fits with the overall theme of the album being “a love letter to love itself.” It’s just that you can only listen to a song with such a strong political message so many times before that’s all you hear, and I don’t think that makes for great music, regardless of how catchy it is or even how you feel about the message.
“AfterGlow”: 6.5/10
A very solid track; introspective and entertaining.
“ME!” (feat. Brendon Urie): 2/10
As I said before, this song is a bit juvenile. It’s simplistic and just doesn’t really fit with the others on the album; not what I would’ve picked for the lead single.
“It’s Nice To Have A Friend”: 1/10
The beginning of this song sounds like it should be opening credit music for a day-in-the-life documentary about a resident of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. It only gets worse from there. It’s slow and boring, and I skip it without hesitation.
“Daylight”: 9/10
This is probably the best song on the album. It’s reflective and refreshing, it doesn’t try too hard, and it’s a great conclusion for the album that this could’ve been.
In Conclusion:
This album just doesn’t hit the same as her previous ones. There were a couple good tracks, but there were also some really bizarre choices made, and overall, the album wasn’t very relatable. As I mentioned earlier, it’s her prerogative to write whatever sort of songs she wants to, and it certainly seems that this album was written for herself, but in turn that makes for an album that’s far less relatable than any of her past records.
Had Lover been 3-4 songs shorter, more sonically cohesive, and had less of that “musical Splenda” vibe, it would be really good. But as things stand, the album lacks replay value. I’m already tired of it, and I don’t feel obligated to keep listening to it. In fact, Taylor is on a clear downward trend since 1989, and given the slap to the face dealt by “The Man,” I’ve decided to take a step back from TS. I’m still a fan, but I don’t feel the same level of emotional commitment I did before this album. At least we have “Beautiful Ghosts” to look forward to.