On Friday Taylor Swift dropped her seventh studio album, Lover, to Swiftie fanfare. Twitter was a buzz with hashtags, Instagram was bombarded with selfies featuring the Lover filter and Facebook was a minefield of music bloggers quick to judge.
But like with all of Taylor's music, you need more than a few listens to really understand the depth and thus appreciate the craftsmanship behind each album. Understandably, for critics and maybe even in the back of fan's minds, the bar was set low. Lead singles ME! and You Need to Calm Down (YNTCD) may go down as two of the worst Swift songs of all time.
To clarify, they aren't altogether bad, it's just hard to believe that the girl who wrote "Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralysed by it / I'd like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it" could ever think that "Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ohh I'm the only one of me" was a good thing to sing.
It's because Taylor sets such a high standard that anything that doesn't pierce right through your heart, making you an emotional wreck seems to fall, well flat.
Taylor Swift during the promotional shoot for Lover
Source: Rolling Stone
Yet we have been blessed with the Lover album. It emerges in the wake of the aforementioned sloppy lead singles rather unscathed. Taylor is at her best when she isn't trying to sell you a narrative. Her best lyrics come from relatable personal experiences such as love, loss and heartbreak. And she strikes this chord beautifully throughout the majority of the album.
She is one of the greatest lyricists of this decade. And the best thing is that she doesn't even need to try. You can feel when Taylor is reaching and the result is songs Like ME! and YNTCD. But when she gets it right, doesn't she soar?
Since Friday fans have been captioning their selfies and crafting tweets to include some of Lovers lyrics. My personal favourites? These beauties from Cruel Summer- "I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you / And I snuck through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate..." and "The whole school is rolling fake dice / You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes..." from Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.
Lover is a great departure from the Reputation era. Everyone has different sides and you can't blame Taylor for trying to score a win after being "cancelled" by the internet. In her eyes she was scorned and thus Reputation was born. Yet, while her fans will run with her down any road, Reputation could have been any pop songstress' album. There were no stand out lyrics that upon listening you felt emotionally paralysed or triggered.
Reputation wasn't a complete album. In amongst the spiteful tracks were quite touching love songs inspired by arguably her most stable boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. Reputation felt more like a move inspired by elements of publicity and restoring image than it was a musical one.
Along with a masterful songwriting tool kit, Taylor can also deliver sold out, one of a kind stadium shows
Source: Total Management
But Swifties know that her best music comes from a place that is entirely relatable. Despite the departure of her last album, you can feel Taylor finding her way back to her groove. This music isn't so much about brand as it is humanity.
Sure there are statement songs like The Man that seem to fall flat, but there are also wonderfully poetic songs. Soon You'll Get Better will have even the coldest of hearts wondering why there is liquid coming out of their eyes. One listen and you can instantly tell that Cruel Summer is going to be a stadium smash. Think the roar of the crowd at the Reputation tour when the video montage accompanying Getaway Car starts- Cruel Summer exudes that energy and more.
The Archer is also another wonderfully poignant song. The lyrics evoke so much emotion and it takes me back to the first time I heard All Too Well. Not to be dramatic but that has to be one of the most well written songs of all time (thank you Jake Gyllenhaal- but also, it's time to give Tay her scarf back). The way Taylor can paint a picture is like no other. One listen to that song and every emotion comes flooding through as your body reacts to every single lyric.
Taylor is at her best when the production is at a minimum. The heavy lifting is done through her lyrics. Back beats, electric guitars and vocal effects seem to detract from what she is trying to convey. And it doesn't make the songs anymore catchy. When thinking about her discography, the best songs are the ones where Taylor's vocals are trusted to do the heavy lifting- a feat that she would win an Olympic gold medal in. Think old favourites like Mine and Back to December.
A still from Taylor's highly regarded 1989 world tour
Source: Billboard
So while this is not the best album we fans have ever had, it was pretty close. But you have to take into account the lead singles ME! and YNTCD. Then again, our favourite pop princess has always had trouble deciding what singles should introduce her latest albums to her legions of adoring fans.
Depending on what day it is, what the weather is offering and my overall mood in general, the best album Swift has ever graced us with is Speak Now or 1989.
Yet while this isn't her best album, I can't help but feel like Lover is a monumental step in the right direction. A step towards embracing that even while the world is calling for her to be more outspoken, she is best when she stays in her musical lane. A step towards discovering that she can evoke more emotion through her lyrics than anyone in the last decade. A step towards realising that the power of Taylor is not when she is trying to prove a point, but when she lays her heart down on the page.
Taylor's songs are so transformative because they explore the things that we all feel, yet lack the right words to express. The greatest compliment anyone can pay Swift is the fact that despite everything, there are hundreds of thousands of people across the world who would do anything to be her. And that's thanks to albums like Lover.
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