Taylor Swift has spent much of her career defending her musical bona fides and creative decisions. On her country-geared early albums, she tirelessly established over and over again that the hopes, daydreams, and romantic travails of a teenage girl merited respect. With 2012’s versatile Red, Swift successfully made her mark on genres beyond country, while 2014’s 1989 was a full-fledged, triumphant push onto pop stardom’s A-list. Of course, along with that greater fame came even more scrutiny into her love life, friendship squad, supposed frenemies, and stance on current events. Swift took this criticism to heart on 2017’s pop patchwork Reputation, which veered between sweet romantic snapshots and biting lyrics directed toward the actions of various Haters™.
Reputation didn’t quite hit the mark, as both its music and lyrics felt like exhausting hyperbole. But in interviews around Lover’s release, Swift’s emotional clarity has been impossible to miss. She’s put up a tall fence around her private life and long-term relationship with boyfriend Joe Alwyn; been forthright about her stance on LGBTQ rights and politics for the first time; and frequently stressed the importance of artists owning their work. It’s perhaps no surprise that Lover—the first album with music she owns outright, thanks to a new major-label deal—finds Swift in a confident headspace, secure in the knowledge she has no need to prove herself to anybody.
This freedom also means Lover is one of her strongest, most relatable albums to date. In fact, from song one, Swift’s narrators speak from a position of power. “I Forgot That You Existed” captures the exact moment a switch flips and someone no longer lets a toxic person (an ex? a former friend? a bad co-worker?) take up brain space. Swift is deliciously flippant as she half-speaks lines such as, “I forgot that you existed / It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference.”
A delightfully pointed track called “The Man” is equally straightforward, as Swift outlines in no uncertain terms the double standards to which strong women such as herself are subjected. “If I was out flashing my dollars, I’d be a bitch, not a baller,” she sings in a crisp, no-nonsense tone. And the Knife-like electro-pop single “You Need To Calm Down” is highlighted by the savage snark she directs toward homophobes: “You would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign / Must’ve taken all night.”
As the latter song implies, Lover’s protagonists are also encouraged to share hard-fought, real-talk wisdom. Source material naturally includes heartbreak; the melancholy “Cruel Summer” details an ill-fated fling with a “bad, bad boy,” while the Someone Great–inspired “Death By A Thousand Cuts” is an agonizing look at the experience of trying to get over someone. Attempting to extrapolate intel on Swift’s real-life relationships is futile, however: Lover’s lyrics are aspirational glimpses into love’s day-to-day joys that (mostly) don’t explicitly reference Alwyn or other boyfriends. Instead, her lyrics drop just enough breadcrumb hints into reality to make songs more believable.
But it’s certainly no coincidence that Lover’s most resonant songs involve narrators bold enough to get into romances with actual stakes, just like she has in recent years. “I Think He Knows” is a sassy song about the giddy first blush of a reciprocated crush, a Swift lyrical sweet spot: “He got that boyish look that I like in a man / I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans.” “Afterglow,” meanwhile, stars a contrite protagonist taking the blame for screwing up and hurting their partner, and the protagonist of “Cornelia Street” realizes the thought of a breakup means a place with shared memories would be too painful to revisit. Only “London Boy,” between its too-convenient name-checking of both current fashion collaborator Stella McCartney and London landmarks, falls on the wrong side of cheesy. (Those who noted parallels to Ed Sheeran’s equally syrupy “Galway Girl” aren’t far off.)
Music-wise, Lover matches this forward-thinking perspective, as it’s more focused than Reputation and boasts smart sonic detailing throughout. Faint church bells peal occasionally in the background of “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” quite a wounding sound when you’re nursing a broken heart, and a chorus of background harmonies adds subtle warmth and verve to multiple songs.
In even better news, Lover boasts the kind of uniform sonic mood board last heard on 1989. The album mixes contemporary touchstones—think pastel-tinted, Carly Rae Jepsen-style indie-electro-pop—with plenty of piano and modernized spins on retro flourishes. The horn-accented “I Forgot That You Existed” is soulful girl-group bubblegum, for example, while an exuberant “Paper Rings” is glammy new-wave surf-pop. The title track, which Swift wrote herself, is even better: With its pizzicato strings and waltzing tempo, it’s hazy indie folk that conjures both Mazzy Star’s violet sighs and a vintage country torch song.
Swift wisely sticks to a smaller core group of writing and production collaborators on Lover, which also helps the album’s cohesion. Annie Clark co-writes and adds guitar to “Cruel Summer,” while a partnership with Joel Little yields both shimmering pop rainbows (the Brendon Urie-featuring rom-com romp “ME!”) and cinematic gloom (the synth-pop horror show “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince”). Long-time foil Jack Antonoff turns in his best, most effortless work yet with Swift, as the pair dabble in snappy funk-pop (“I Think He Knows”) and sparse, James Blake-reminiscent R&B (the sax-seared “False God”).
However, Lover’s sleeper stunner is “Soon You’ll Get Better,” Swift’s collaboration with Antonoff and her long-time faves Dixie Chicks. The heart-wrecking song alludes to Swift’s mother’s real-life cancer bouts (“What am I supposed to do? / If there’s no you”) as the country superstars contribute fiddle, banjo, and soothing harmonies. It’s no accident that “Soon You’ll Get Better” is both brutally honest and the most country-leaning tune she’s made in years: With the subject matter, the song feels like Swift’s version of a warm blanket or comfort food—a throwback to a time when her mom’s health was better, and she was an ambitious young country hopeful finding solace while listening to the Dixie Chicks.
“I once believed love would be burning red / But it’s golden, like daylight,” Swift sings on Lover’s swooning ballad closer, “Daylight.” Although the line is a callback to Red’s title track, it’s also Swift rather insightfully pointing out her own personal growth. For all of its rich production and lyrical complications, Lover has a simple premise: embrace gratitude and listen to the insights that emerge after a perspective recalibration. As always, Lover is an album Swift made for her fans. But it also feels like a record she made for herself, unburdened by external expectations and her own past.
136 Comments
A “MINUS”!!!??? Taylor was right, haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate.
Is she really still talking about Tom Hiddleston on this album or did I get that wrong? I hope I did, as that man already suffered enough, surely.
If there are any songs set in a low key, we’ll know.
This comment deserves more appreciation.
Most of the album seems to be about her boyfriend Joe Alwyn who she has been dating for 3 years now.
She’s definitely proved she can make unmemorable pop drivel. If you are looking for the Millennial answer to “Stairway To Heaven”, keep looking.
“Cruel Summer” is kind of like a sequel to “Getaway Car” and is about how her FWB relationship with her current boyfriend overlapped with her showmance with Hiddleston.
I can’t even listen to Soon You’ll Get Better too much. Cried the first time I heard it; stunner is correct.
Yikes, just started listening to it hear at work and had to stop in the first chorus, because I could feel that coming. I’ll wait for a more private moment.
Definitely listened to this at work… And I cried. Having just lost my mom, this was a shock, but absolutely beautiful.
Aahahahaha oh my god. That’s pathetic.It really isn’t surprising this was so rated by Annie. A simple glance at her history Of music reviews and posts reveals really embarrassing taste.
Someone seems like he doesn’t have supportive parents.
So amusing. If the review other than Annie rated it lower, I might expect you cheering so loud here.
You okay, buddy? Something going wrong in your life?
Do you consider being born a miserable prick to be “something going wrong”?Then, yes.
Same. One of my closest friends just died of cancer so it was way too real.
I know this isn’t a sophisticated take, but I absolutely love ‘London Boy’, not for its lyrical depth, but because it 100% reminded me of a relationship I had with a girl from Montreal where she showed me around her city for hours together. Also, I quite like the ‘Springsteen, faded blue jeans, Tennessee whiskey’ line.
You’d probably love Santogold…
London Boy is one of the better songs. I love Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” too. This review was out of line
I guess I’ll check this out. After hearing “ME!” I expected the rest of this album to be full of cloying, childish songs, but then she came back and surprised me with “Lover” which is effortlessly lovely and might be the best Taylor Swift song I’ve ever heard.
It is cloying childish music. Mass produced garbage praised by Buzzfeed poptimists and outlets that make a cut on big studio releases.
Seriously. I heard a song on the commute this morning: Was it Lady Ga Ga? Tay-Tay? Katy Perry? Gwen Stefani?It was Alicia Keys (no disrespect). But they all sound alike. Damn – I could have sworn it was Ga Ga.
Alicia Keys doesn’t sound anything like those other artists to me…
I know!! But I could have sworn it was Ga Ga. Just me; I don’t listen to the radio cept when in the car:/
I find that happening to me more and more as well. Megan Trainor used to have a doo-wop style, but she’s conformed to sounding the same as all the other pop acts. Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj would be indistinguishable if it weren’t for Nicky’s penchant for rapping in silly voices. Heard a song that the other day I could have sworn was Ariana Grande, but it was some lesser known pop star I’ve never heard of.
Hey, thanks. I blame it on EDM and just – generally- an “assembly line” sensibility when it comes to producing and selling music. If I heard a John Mayer song I would recognize it. Same with Adele. I’m not even a fan, but they are singular. Gaga used to be too. But I guess everyone just wants a predictable beat with enough ‘edge’ to provoke some kind of “emotion” within the listener. I have heard a LOT of music in my life time (as I’m sure you have). None of it inspires me; none of it is memorable. It might as well all be pumped out by the same producers and their studios.
None of those artists sound alike if you have ears to hear it. It’s like when my mom used to tell me Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen all sound the same . . . no, mom, they don’t.
I’ll admit I’ve briefly mixed up Taylor Swift with Katy Perry when surfing radio channels. To me Gaga, Gwen Stefani and Alicia Keys are all so unique in their sounds I find it hard to believe anyone could actually confuse them.
Yeah Alicia Keys doesn’t sound like any of those others. Actually they all sound very different vocally. I might give you Gaga and Keys sounding a little alike because their voices are both more full-throated. Gwen Stefani sounds like no one else at all.
Just look at what you call yourself 🤣 Need I say more???
Go fornicate a fascist while tweeting a fetishising reaction gif and”literally SCREAMING” at whatever mediocre pop culture item a social media algorithm tells you to consume that week, you human pox.
You sound upsetHere’s a blanket and some hot cocoa.
I bet your piss is drinkable.
Don’t know what your politics are, bud, but I’ll absolutely agree with you: This album is one-thousand-percent formulated corporate-treacle bullshit. In a few days, they’ll be streaming songs from it at the big-box where I work a second job, and I’ll be wishing for the trillionth time that I hadn’t shitcanned my credit. Fuck “music” like this.
I’m always suspcious of people who call music childish. These are generally the same people who dislike any music that teenage girls like just because teenage girls like them.
You’re a worthless fuck with no need for self expression. Your suspicions and thoughts don’t register as noteworthy in a functional world. Play mute in a hole somewhere.
Ooh, and also an MRA neckbeard. Not at all surprising.
Canned response from a worthless twat. Off yourself for the good of the world.
Canned? Nope, that was an original all for you. I think I won’t off myself. I’ll stay here because my existence makes you so very mad.
Your existence makes me laugh. I’m sure many more. Keep existing,but if you want to stop them laughing at you you know what to do. 😉
I’ll just point out to “them” how you star all your own posts like a loser so they can laugh at you instead.
Word. Me was a cringe-y first-single choice. We streamed the album a few times at work today, and the overall effort feels much adult, and pleasingly cohesive! That said, the cotton-candy-rainbow aesthetic feels like the $19 Target knockoff of Kacey Musgraves’ whole deal, so minus 5,000 points.
Yeah for someone so often called a corporation, she sure let her image slide this time. That isn’t even Tumblr fan art quality album art…
‘Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing’ was a cringe-y first single choice.
I had a similar reaction to the single vs the rest of the album. For me, this has now happened 3 albums in a row with Swift
Not a huge fan of some of the production on this album but damn T-Swift can write well
Are you stupid? That’s not her writing.
She entirely wrote 3 songs on the album and has a writing credit on the rest of them…?
Alright, man. Whatever you say.
I have no idea if Swift writes the majority of her songs, but a writing credit means nothing. Beyonce gets a “writing credit” i.e. kickback, on every one of her songs, and I’m not convinced she can write a shopping list.
just let the lady make her music
She has a co-writing credit on all of her songs, and there’s certainly a more coherent style throughout her discography, but for what it’s worth, she’s the sole writer on the entirety of Speak Now, and most of her other albums have individually written songs as well.
Yeah, but I suspect that says more about you than them though.
No doubt, my point is more a writing credit really has nothing to do with actual writing in pop music most of the time. The talent gets a writing credit and more $$$, and the songwriter still makes more than if they had sole credit but sold the song to a not quite as A list talent.
That doesn’t explain the ones where she’s the only credited writer. She’s renowned for coming up with the guts of the song herself. If the Beatles were around today, George Martin would (rightfully) get writing credits on their work; it doesn’t mean that they were talentless puppets with no part in the songwriting process.
This was no diss at Tay Tay. Just more of an observation that all is not always as it appears. I guess my attempted disclaimer in my opening line should have been more clearly written.
But each beyonce song has between 7 and 21 credited writers. No disrespect because as long as the song is enjoyable it doesnt truly matter, but she either knows one or two prolific song writers that match her style and are good at writing catchy pop or she’s a part of the equation.
Taylor has a pretty distinctive lyrical voice. The music has changed from country-pop to pop-pop, but the way she writes hasn’t changed much. I don’t think her output would be so coherent if it was all written by committee. Plus if her shtick was that easy to imitate, other stars would be doing it.
She recorded herself in the process of writing a lot of her songs for Reputation and I believe she will release similar videos for this album as well. Several producers and writers have come to her defense saying she usually comes with the songs mostly written and just needs a tweaks here or there. Look up interviews with Jack Antonoff, Liz Rose and Ryan Tedder. Here’s her writing the song Gorgeous:
“ Look up interviews with Jack Antonoff, Liz Rose and Ryan Tedder “I don’t feel like a lobotomy, sorry.
She’s simply too talented and beautiful, she hardly seems real. Swift is like a anime character designed to be the prettiest woman in the world. I wouldn’t be suprised if sometime in the future they reveal she’s an android designed to be the perfect human being, an überweib.
i mean, if you find people who look like mule deer sexy and that happens to be your niche, good on you, but maybe leave the rest of us out of those declarative statements? i’m an elk man myself
…she tirelessly established over and over again that the hopes, daydreams, and romantic travails of a teenage girl merited respect. Nah, I don’t wanna.
Is that really what they’re going with? Hahaha
I can’t believe that this album has 18 songs – which is at least 4 too many – and is *still* as good as it is. Best album she’s done since Red IMO. That throbbing low-end pulse on “I Think He Knows” is worth the price of admission all on its own.
I don’t care about the number of songs so much,but an album should clock in at no more than 40-45 minutes.
🤣🤣🤣
Laugh all you want, there are a tiny number of great records that are more than 45 minutes long. The double album has been a 40 year punchline for a reason.
‘Exile On Swift Street’
Starting in 2012, she’s just been using the same pop producers as everyone else to write her songs for her. Your happy with her being just another attractive performer in the pop machine?
You mean to co-write her songs *with* her.I’m happy with her being an interesting singer/songwriter. Could not give a shit about her looks or the machine she does it in as long as she delivers results.
I am not exactly sure how much she is co-writing. I would guess lyrics, but the melodies sound so generic nowadays. They sound less like a continuation of her work. Of course, all I know of her music is her singles, so she may have album tracks that are more distinctly her voice.
“You are” not your
You forgot a comma and a full stop, Capt. Grammar.
I probably would be if I were a pop singer.
As the husband of a devoted Tay-Tay fan, I’ve had to listen to this and
all her other stuff for years. I will admit, I like quite a few of her
songs. Mostly from RED but a few from REP. This album thus far has had
both of us really “meh” I think we’re just either finally too old, or
the whole cycle of Taylor album excitement has burnt us out. I
personally have never liked her as a person or celeb. I find her
shallow, forever-the-victim, schtick tiring. I will admit she has
talent. But as said better over on The Root, she’s Snapchat. Something
I’m aware of, seems very popular and white-girls seem to love, but it’s
just not for me. But what do I know, I mostly listen to 80’s Japanese
city-pop ??
I’m not commenting on her talent, which I’m sure is ample, or her achievements in life, which appear extremely impressive. But Taylor Swift is very much a mass marketed construct, a company as much as a human being. I’m sure the person at the center of all that is complex and perhaps even worth listening to, but when reviews like these focus on a narrative of personal growth, like a supermarket checkout display with People magazine blabbering about How Jennifer Aniston Found Love or some shit, I find I just don’t care. There may be things truly worth appreciating on this album, but appreciating art is not the same thing as holding up a hyper-wealthy product/person cyborg as a dreamy example to give all of us little folks in the ditch a fleeting sense that we can be better people too. I have also noticed that Taylor Swift is on my lawn again. I have called the police. They told me she now owns my home.
She’s been writing & playing her own songs since she was 12 (her third album Speak Now is entirely self-written), so yeah, they’re going to focus a lot on her personal growth as a songwriter.
I don’t see how she has grown as a songwriter… the main shift in her career was increasingly handing over the reins to other (better) melody writers. She’s essentially a “change a word, take a third” sort of “songwriter” for the most part — sure, she’ll have a couple vanity solo credits thrown in per album, but come on. At this point her team of songwriters is just another part of the Taylor Swift Apparatus. I guess that’s growth in like a… 80/20 rule, corporate synergy sort of way? Or like, did I grow as a cook when I hired my personal chef? Sometimes I tell him what kind of cheese to use. So I’m like a co-chef.
Absolutely. What Pop Star has ever had something to “prove,” let alone one who has been one of the most popular acts on the planet for a decade.
Yeah, she’s a pop machine. But she’s always been a pop machine uniquely of her own making. Part of this is that her privilege gave her a power many don’t have when breaking into the business (her Dad was part owner of her label), and part of it is that her massive success from such a young age has allowed her to extend that power even further.So, yes I think a fair amount of mass-market cynicism creeps into her work (her previous album especially), but it’s still interesting to me, because it always seems like she’s very much the one driving the decisions, so in that way her albums are artistic representations of who she is as a person. That person just happens to be more nakedly corporate-minded than most artists like to admit. I mean, does any other pop-star talk so openly about business side of the industry?
I think the part in her narrative about priveledge while true, is overblown. There are so many executives in the worlds with a good percentage who’s childrens want to be musicians (or more likely dj’s cuz it’s less work), and her dad owning part of the label, while important doesnt hold a lot of water to me. HOw many massive success stories have come out of Jack White’s label? There are so many labels out their. I never loved her music and each passing album I leap farther and farther from her market demo, but it’s amazing the lengths that people go to to knock her down. She writes catchy songs that are broad and popular. She’s like the modern family of pop.
“she” writes. That’s my only problem with people who absorb pop music. You’re fooling yourself if you think “she’s” writing this, as if she’s on a tour van with a guitar and pen and paper and coming up with melodies.
“her Dad was part owner of her label”Is this true? I remember hearing the story of she and her mother coming down to Nashville when she was a kid going door to door on Music Row handing out her CD to the different labels. I of course sould be misremembering, or maybe I was just lied to.
Her mother did drive her around Nashville handing out demos, but nothing really came of it as far as I know. The way she got her deal is that her dad transferred to Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office (her parents both work in finance) so she could pursue music full time, then he bought a piece of Big Machine records, where she signed.
Well shit. I’m gonna go have a talk to my parents about all the ways they have failed me because I did not know that was an option for getting ahead in life. lol Thanks for the info.
She had a development deal at 13.The deal with Big Machine records was better because they would release her album with her writing sooner.And her dad bought 5% of the company after the deal was given.
You know, its funny. I would find everything in your second paragraph interesting too, except that you could take virtually all of it and tell me it’s about Madonna 25 years ago, and I would believe you without question. It’s interesting how often that’s true for a certain stripe of female blockbuster pop star.
Maybe you should have a listen first. Nothing like a bunch of unnecessary thought wasted on that comment. I didn’t even finish it. Being an artist is being open to all kinds of talent and music whether you like it or not. I don’t have to like someone’s music to know they’re gifted and yes I am educated. As a classically trainer opera singer I have quite a knowledgeable background. That’s irrelevant however. Keep on growing Taylor good for you! Some people only want to rain on everyone else’s parade. PS You bet she’s a corporation…go girl go! Earn your stripes!
You get that there’s a bit of a contradiction when you respond to a comment you haven’t read all the way through by saying I should listen to the album in question, right? I’m sure it’s a good album. Nothing against Tay Tay per se. From what I’ve heard she’s great at what she does. I’m more criticizing the profit-driven way we process celebrity narratives, manufacturing stories of supposed personal triumph and creating a false sense relatability to people with an obscene degree of privilege as a means of distraction. I mean, you don’t have to agree, but the concept is worth a little more thought than “you go girl!” i’init?
The difference in not finishing a comment before responding and not listening to an album is one of those things a group of people spent a lot of time crafting (for better or for worse) and the other one was a knee jerk response
Jesus you are such an embarrassment to humanity. Thank God for climate change.
Maybe you should have a listen first.I didn’t even finish it.
Hmmm…
Pop music is like modern blockbusters in that it requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief to enjoy. It’s like Marvel movies, they can be good despite being multi-million dollar endeavors pushing a certain brand. Lover is like Avengers End Game, if you’re invested it’s very emotional and well done, but if you just look at all the money it’s guaranteed to make its hard to take seriously.Though you should check out Soon You’ll Get Better before you’re too hard on her. It’ll fuck you up
And I’m an incredible hypocrite because I enjoy all manner of profit-driven mass media. I mentioned this thread to my wife last night, and she pointed out that I like the Beatles. To which my response was something along the lines of, “Well that…different time…I…clearly…you don’t understand…Andy Warhol…marketing…medium is the…IT’S JUST DIFFERENT OK?!” That said, I’m not actually making a point about the album, which I haven’t heard, just the way her and other A-list celebrities are talked about and the outsized, distracting role they play in society. Look, if Taylor and her hoopla gets you through your day, good on the both of you. I make no judgments. Just think it’s a point worth mentioning. And I can’t with that song right now. My mom’s dealing with her own health stuff and going to a frightened child place about that is just not where I need to be this morning. Maybe later.
taylor who?
T O O L – F E A R I N O C U L U M – 3 0 A U G 2 0 1 9
I mean, it leaked like 3 days ago. You’re behind.
Hey, I’m gonna get something out of browsing these comments after all — I’m gonna go listen to that Tool album.
“I Forgot That You Existed” captures the exact moment a switch flips and someone no longer lets a toxic person (an ex? a former friend? a bad co-worker?) take up brain space. Swift is deliciously flippant as she half-speaks lines such as, “I forgot that you existed / It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference.”For my money I’ve always shook out as indifferent about her music, while finding her haters to be more pathologically bonkers than her fans are obsessively obnoxious, but I mean come on this sort of rhetorical maneuver is the lamest. You write songs about people living in your head rent free, not people you haven’t thought about in a long time and are totally over.
Similar variations of this include:1. Who cares about what the critics have to say! (followed immediately by a point by point attempt to refute them) 2. I’m the least racist person I know! (followed immediately by a series of racist dog whistles)
I just tried listening to a few tracks, and I dunno, pop music is just engineered to sound so shrill these days. Yeah I turn 40 in a few days big whoop wanna fight about it?
Funnily enough, it was about two years or so after I turned forty (ah, 50 looms!) that I kinda just stopped caring about what genre a music was in, and just let myself like whatever I liked. The world of pop opened up to me in a way it never could have for a younger version of myself (who knows, maybe I just got lazy!). Love Carly Rae Jepsen, discovered Robyn (slightly less “pop,” I guess, but still). With Swift, I don’t LOVE her, but the songs I like, I really like. Paper Rings is so much fun, and Cornelia Street is killer . . still listening, but I imagine I’ll end up digging about 4-5 songs on this album quite a bit.
I graduated from high school in the early 2000s, meaning I had the opportunity to listen to Outkast and instead chose to fill my head with classic rock and bands that played on Ozzfest.Now that I’m an adult, I am determined not to use “how much does this sound like the stuff I grew up with?” as a criterion for listening to music.
Oh I’ve never limited myself to genre, it’s just pop music lately seems engineered to have every sound be as shrill and LOUD as possible to make it easier to hear on phone speakers.
Can I get a TL;DR for whatever imagined bullshit TSwift is “done proving?”
I think she’s been swimming upstream trying to prove that she’s (1) a songwriter (hence why her third record is entirely self-written and the majority of her songs before 1989) and (2) that she isn’t a white supremacist. The second was actually so weird to me because there was nothing about her that really screamed white supremacist to me. (Conspiracy: most of that reputation was fabricated thanks to Scooter Braun, the dude who manages Kanye West and who owns the masters to her first six albums). Damn this is still too much for a TL;DR.
1989 felt like she’d grow as an artist and put a lot of the stuff behind, especially the boyfriend drama baked into some of the songs (admittedly, We Are Never Getting Back Together is likely her best song), but she continues to just put out stuff that seems stuck in the same place. Which makes it a fine product as there are always going to be 14 year old girls, but when Robyn, Jenny Lewis, PJ Harvey and even Arianna Grande are putting out albums that show the evolution as an artist, it’s really difficult to find the time and attention for Swift when she’s rehashing a lot of lyrical and musical themes.Obviously music for teenage girls isn’t for me, so it gets difficult for me to feel sad about this. It’s just that weird feeling when the pop star that’s your own age is out with music that feels like it’s the same as before, just with different production values.
Re: “I forgot that you existed / It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference.”How about: “I forgot that you existed / It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just… I forgot…”
I’m truly shocked at Brendon Urie’s climb into pop idol status. I remember seeing Panic! At The Disco at the Metro around 2006 and they were…well, they’ve changed a lot. I was never a huge fan, but I guess I have to give them props for evolving and keeping their fingers on the pulse. It’s rare to find a band that tweens/teens consistently like from 2006 to 2019 without much of a lapse in interest.
panic at the disco debuted as a pop act created by a label and they continue to do so.
no thank you
Somebody wake me up when people are going to realize that Taylor Swift is not the greatest thing since Yates. That was Shaun Ryder.
My mind’s headline put a period after “done”.To quote my local Amish bartender:
“‘Tis no album but it’ll make a fine coaster, English.”
A-I fucking hate popism. I am 100% fine with everyday listeners enjoying whatever they want, but someone with a critical idea should not be considering this kind of cynically constructed product as having any valid artistry to it. I didn’t like the new Courtney Barnett album very much but it has 1000x more artistic value than this utter shite.
So many triggered folks A- feels generous but it’s definitely a solid effort despite the first two singles being the cheesiest ones
Yeah. Why is it that Swift always seems to sabotage decent albums by rolling out the worst songs as singles?
Great pop album, and much better than Reputation [shout out though to Delicate and Call it what you want. Cruel Summer, False God, and It’s nice to have a friend, are tunes!
‘The Resonant Lover’? Sounds hott.
I’m not entirely sure what I think of this album yet.I’m still engrossed in the new Sleater-Kinney, and looking forward to Lana Del Rey., this week. And the bits of this album I’ve listened to, haven’t quite grabbed me just yet.
Taylor is at her best when she embraces her 70s Laurel Canyon Singer-Songwriter, and thank goodness there’s plenty of that here. My problem is with Pop/ Rock/ R&B is that there are very few songs like “Lover” in this world. There are a lot of songs about falling in love, many great songs about sex and many great albums about breaking up (Rumors, Blood on the Tracks, Sea Change, Blue, Here My Dear, Let it Be). There are very few songs about actual domestic bliss. Lover, CSNY’s “Our House “, Wings “My Love “ “Lovely Linda “ and “Maybe I’m Amazed.”, John Lennon’s “Woman “. I mean I don’t want all the gory behind the scenes details, but an actual entire album about actually making adult relationships work and the day to day stuff would be an excellent idea.
That may be one of the better takes of Taylor Swift I’ve found. She really should embrace that 70s soft-rock not quite country/not quite pop mode more and less of the “productions” she often indulges in. Those breezy songs are typically the better ones.
So, “she’s done proving herself?” Does that mean she’s not auto-tuned?
I had a similar thought… If she’s done proving herself I suppose she’s come to terms with garbage tier pop star status.
Yes, but does she have talent?
Okay, but what does any of this have to do with her cosplaying a legendary bird from Pokemon in that photo?
This is an excellent review of an amazing album. “Paper Rings” and “I Think He Knows” are two of the giddiest and most delightful songs I’ve heard in years. They perfectly capture that rush and swoon of a new romance.
Modern pop doesn’t do much for me — I say this regretfully — and as expected this album didn’t really land, but damn if You Need To Calm Down isn’t a fun song.
I like some of her stuff, I hate some of her stuff- I don’t have a strong opinion of Taylor Swift either way, but I’m always open to giving her albums a listen. Overall, Lover isn’t as good as 1989, but it’s a lot better than reputation.
B+
In other words . . . . If you are a fan of her work, you’ll like this one.If you aren’t already a fan, this won’t make you one. And Swift doesn’t care.
Tay’s an amazing songwriter and she crafts earworms like nobody else in the game. Everybody and their mothers have heard at least one or two TS songs in their lives.
That being said, Lover is one of her best albums in a while, even though I really loved rep. Shoutout to Afterglow for the mid-80’s ballad vibe (best song from the set), Death by a Thousand Cuts (the crappy Netflix movie which served as source material is crap though) and London Boy is an amazing song, what are u talking about Annie? c’mon
I think the title track is a stunning piece of pop perfection. Of course she wrote it herself.
I’m neither the target demographic for Swift nor a particular fan, but I gave it a try. I’ll admit I laughed a bit at “I Forgot You Existed” but everything after that was so samey and (and the album is so long! Eighteen songs!) that it really became an undifferentiated goop of cloying candy-colored pop. The stuff that caught my attention (e.g. The Man, Cornelia St.) all felt like something else warmed over.
Of all things, it reminds me of 311’s Transistor, where through sheer length, anything particularly good gets diluted by the mass of very similar stuff around it.
Taylor Swift is done proving herself Maybe she should send the memo to her angry fan mob pissed at Tool for stealing her #1 Billboard spot. lol
maybe i reach too deep into the ‘josie and the pussycats’ theory of nothing in pop is authentic or real….but if you don’t think every single word she says, shirt she wears, tweet she makes isn’t thought over and manipulated by a giant pop machine…. then i dont know what to tell youwriting this review as if she sat in a room with a pencil and paper, wrote all these songs, and recorded it like a true artist…. it’s silly, i’m sorry. the album can still be great btw. But i always like to say “the team who created this taylor swift album did a great job”…it’s much more honest to the truth.“they” saw how people were turning on her when they tried the “SHES A POP PRINCESS, DONT GIVE A SHT, FCK YOU” thing didn’t work…so they quickly went back to the drawing board and said “lets go back to make her seem relatable and just some sad girl sitting in a room in the village hangin with her cat”.