Taylor Swift’s New Album, ‘Lover,’ Is Good, but That’s Not Good Enough Anymore
Taylor Swift’s album Lover is not not good. Released last night in a pastel haze of butterflies, stars, and rainbows, it’s safe to say there are some objectively good songs. But these are 18 songs manufactured by a pop-hits algorithm, and by trying to please everyone, she’s actually pleasing no one.
It’s like she made a list of the boxes this album had to check and went down that list one by one. Ex-boyfriend shade? Check. Feminism? Check! Lyrics that subtly hint at her friendship with Karlie Kloss? You bet. Obligatory song about how much she loves Joe Alwyn? It’s there! Allyship with the LGBTQ+ community? Done. But in the year of our Lord 2019, that’s not what we need from Taylor, or anyone else, for that matter.
Let’s start with the lyrics. At nearly 30 years old, Taylor is still relying on high school jock and cheerleader tropes to fuel her songwriting. Take “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” as an example. She literally talks about football players, the hallways, and her prom dress. She mentions being a teenager more than once. On an album that was supposed to be her most mature, it screams juvenile. Most of Taylor’s fans have grown up with her, meaning high school was a long time ago for the majority of us. So, like, who is this album actually for?
If you can get past those to be able to listen to the songs themselves, it’s not that much better. Yes, they are “good” in the way that you’ll probably add a few of them to your pre-game playlist because everyone will be able to sing along, but they’re also kind of boring. “Cruel Summer,” arguably the best song of the 18, still sounds like something you’ve heard a million times. The first few chords of “Soon You’ll Get Better” sound freakishly similar to “Teardrops on My Guitar.”
As much as people sh*t on Reputation, at least it was different than anything Taylor had done before. “Look What You Made Me Do” is a borderline obnoxious song, yes. It is also a huge departure from anything on 1989 and was a breath of fresh air when she released it. Sure, the whole “I’m edgy now” thing didn’t really work, despite the copious amounts of black eyeliner she caked on, but at least she took an artistic risk instead of playing it safe.
When you compare Lover to some of the other albums and songs put out by women in the pop genre this past year, it’s even more apparent. “Thank u, next” changed the way the world thinks about breakup jams. Billie Eilish is 17 years old and already in a class of her own. Don’t even get me started on Beyoncé, who released an album of a performance she did more than a year ago and still dominated the cultural conversation when she did it. Also, LIZZO and her FLUTE.
After waiting two years for new T-Swift songs and then enduring an exhaustive hype cycle that spanned the entire summer, Lover should have been a goddamn work of art. Instead, it’s an entire album that feels recycled from everything Taylor has already created. That’s not the worst thing in the world, but it also could have and should have been better.
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