On August 23, Taylor Swift released her latest album, entitled Lover. The concept and overarching theme of the album is derived straight from the title as Swift explores the complexities of being in love and the idea of love itself. The album is her biggest release to date as it is 18 songs in length. In addition, it has broken numerous records in regards to sales and features pre-released tracks like The Archer, Lover, ME!, and You Need To Calm Down.
Despite its worldwide success and my self-proclaimed status as a Swiftie, I have some thoughts about her latest project and have rated each song out of five stars at the bottom of this article.
Prior to the release of the album, Swift posted the track list which prompted superficial excitement on my part that was purely based on how appealing each song name was to me. In particular, I became instantly curious about Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince and Cruel Summer. Meanwhile, other tracks like The Man and Cornelia Street were being hyped up by other celebrities and even Swift herself.
Upon my initial listen to the album, I was not disappointed. Anyone who has discussed anything Taylor Swift related with me knows that my favorite thing about her is her lyricism. She has an insanely poetic essence about her and is able to write tracks in a way that seems both extremely personal and relatable at the same time. This album featured a new demonstration of Swift's emotional intelligence and vulnerability, which is a side of her that wasn't fully present on her previous project. I was immediately drawn to tracks like The Archer, Afterglow, Soon You'll Get Better, and Cornelia Street that felt more substantial and vulnerable rather than tracks like ME! which felt almost immature in comparison. In addition to the emotionally vulnerable tracks, I also enjoyed songs like The Man and I Forgot That You Existed, which showcased Swift's more powerful, independent side. I could literally write an entire article that just lists my favorite lyrics on this album because I was quite impressed. She shifts from saying "it isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference" and "all of my enemies started out friends" to more powerful messages like "I don't want to keep secrets just to keep you" or "if I was out flashing my dollars I'd be a bitch, not a baller. They'd paint me out to be bad, so it's okay that I'm mad." Needless to say, I was impressed with the penmanship of Swift throughout this entire project, but that is a long tangent I can't go on right now.
Transitionally I think the album sounded less than cohesive at times. Most noticeably, Swift shifts from the wedding band sound on Lover to The Man, which is a brutally honest, upbeat song about double standards, and then back to a slow vulnerable song in The Archer, which details her role as both "the archer" and "the prey" in relationships. But, I was not surprised at some of the lack of cohesion given the length of the album.
In terms of criticism, my only issue with the album actually comes on the sales side of things. I have a hard time accepting the fact that Swift and her management decided to sell four separate versions of the album while only changing which pages of her journal are included in each. While I absolutely LOVE the idea of including journal pages to add more personal components, for broke college students like myself and the average fan, having four albums at $17 apiece is a very expensive expectation especially given that the music on each album is the same. This decision places a financial barrier between Swift and those fans who can't afford to spend $68+ to engage in the full album experience as intended by Swift. I would have been more okay with her releasing two different versions of the album and splitting her journal pages in half rather than in quarters. Regardless, fans (like myself) can still download the standard version of the album and simply miss out on the personal journal entries and voice memos for now. But, the fact that this is my biggest issue with the album definitely says a lot about the quality of the music itself.
After listening to the album more than a few times (and probably more times than I'd like to admit) I have to give Taylor Swift A LOT of credit. The songs have been stuck in my head constantly, which does nothing but make me return to the album to give it another listen. Even songs that initially felt mediocre or familiar to me like Daylight and London Boy have begun to grow on me as I find myself humming their melodies at work. Despite not currently being in love, the concept of the album is not lost on me. The tracks range from fun and relatable, to vulnerable and tear-inducing, but I find myself drawn to each one regardless of being in love or not. Although reputation remains my all-time favorite Taylor Swift album, Lover created some stiff competition as my love for the album and opinions on each song continues to grow with each listen.
Here's my track by track ranking:
