Album Review: Taylor Swift - Lover
The recurring, irreverent, and often quite sexist obsession of the media with Taylor Swift's romantic life has plagued her for the majority of her career, and the ramifications of her dating history have never failed to bleed over, subtly or otherwise, into her music. By the time her initial pop country stylings had been diluted into pure synthpop, her star had grown bright enough that the characterization of Taylor Swift as a serial dating, indulgent celebrity who got back at her many exes by writing songs about them had begun to overshadow the songs themselves. Swift has responded in a variety of ways; her incredibly popular 2014 album 1989 found her using this exaggerated persona as fodder for a fictional tale of harlequin romance on Blank Space (though the most powerful rebuke of her critics was relegated to the bonus track New Romantics), and 2017's reputation, while mostly concerned with her ongoing feud with Kanye West, did find time to further lampoon this portrayal on I Did Something Bad: "I never trust a narcissist, but they love me/So I play 'em like a violin/And I make it look oh-so-easy".
As much material as Swift has gleaned from her personal war with the tabloids, it is impossible to deny that their unfair treatment has affected her image; Taylor has long been ineffectual at actually convincing listeners that the love she depicts in her music is not just a fleeting attraction, and as a result her romantic odes often ring hollow. But Lover is remarkable in just how honestly Taylor is able to portray herself and her feelings, leading to her most sincere and earnest record in quite a while. That the album's lengthy tracklist also features its share of baffling, self-absorbed, and inane moments is unfortunate, but the appreciable amount of quality here does dull their sting somewhat. Whether or not Taylor has finally escaped the media's clutches is still up in the air, but the sense that she is primarily writing for herself once again leads to some of her most compelling material yet.
Taylor's strongest asset has always been her unparalleled songwriting ability, and though her desire to showcase that talent has seemingly declined in recent years, it finds a miniature renaissance in Lover's more traditional approach, contributing heavily to the album's highest points. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, perhaps the most impressively written track here, is simultaneously a tale of a theatrical high school romance and a pointed critique of the modern political reality, replete with cheerleader chants and an attack on toxic masculinity. Her media vilification becomes hallway gossip, election totals become points on a football scoreboard, and America itself becomes Swift's lover, a star-struck infatuation long since faded with only resentment left in its place: "American glory, faded before me/Now I'm feeling hopeless, ripped up my prom dress". The most adult track on reputation, the highly erotic Dress ("I don't want you like a best friend/Only bought this dress so you could take it off") gets a sequel in the form of False God, which opens on a jazzy saxophone riff but transitions into a subdued synth ballad underscored by subtle vocal samples. Swift's voice is appropriately delicate, and even if some of the lyrics are laughably blunt with their sexual overtones ("We'd still worship/We might just get away with it/The altar is my hips"), the more mature evolution in her songwriting is still a welcome development.
The aforementioned sexism is quite clearly on Taylor's mind as well, and The Man is a razor-sharp criticism of her treatment by the press, done by imagining how her perceived flaws would be portrayed as assets if she were a man. Though some of her lyrics come off as needlessly corny and the bland percussion on the beat does nothing to help sell her point, the truth in the majority of her words simply cannot be ignored, and the hypocrisy in the media's treatment of her is made more than clear. This self-indulgent focus does, however, eventually lead to the ineffectual You Need To Calm Down, seemingly a condemnation of homophobia that in reality is at least as focused on Taylor's personal critics. Though this is not a new subject for her, the need to compare flat-out bigotry to Taylor's own 'haters' dulls her point considerably, and in any case her words never getting any harsher than "You need to calm down" and "You need to just stop" in a world where homophobia is pervasive in the highest levels of the U.S. government is weak, to say the least.
Only when Taylor's newfound joy leaves her unable to tap into her writing talents does it begin to wear on one's nerves; London Boy is an incredibly superficial ode to the titular city that only exists to flippantly name-check a few English boroughs in the most boring way possible. Lead single ME! is disgustingly saccharine to the point where even Taylor felt it necessary to retroactively remove her ridiculous shout of "Spelling is fun!" from the bridge; a modest improvement to a song that remains terrible, in large part because of the appearance of someone as untalented as Panic! at the Disco singer Brendon Urie. Meanwhile, I Forgot You Existed suffers from the same issue as her earlier hit single Shake It Off: Taylor writing a whole song attacking people she claims she 'forgot existed' only serves to demonstrate her inability to ignore her detractors (a recurring problem ever since her 2010 hate ballad Mean). It would certainly be less noticeable if she didn't feel the need to litter her aural rebukes with blatantly untrue lines like "It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference", but as it stands this remains the one aspect of her perspective that she has never been able to effectively sell.
Lover is neither a return to the stripped-back, heartfelt ballads of Taylor's 2012 album Red, nor a continuation of the synthpop excellence of 1989, nor a followup to the bitter egotism of reputation. Despite the tumultuous artistic development Taylor Swift has undergone this decade, her newest record sees her yet again making a foray in an exciting new direction, while also containing careful nods to all the eras of her past. Under the somewhat dubious pretense of finally settling into a stable and affirming relationship, Taylor delivers a lengthy tribute to romance that manages to retread all the artistic highs and lows of her recent past while also reminding fans what exactly drew them to her in the first place. Some moments may work better than others, but overall the album's cheerful optimism cannot help but be endearing, and the restoration of Taylor's writing ability is something even the most cynical listeners can appreciate.
6.5/10
Favourite Tracks: Cruel Summer, Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, Paper Rings