Hello ladies and jellyfish, and welcome to today’s installment of “How many Grammys will this get?” Today, we’re talking about the newest studio album from an artist who needs no introduction. Yes, at this point, if Taylor Swift so much as breathes into a microphone, it’ll shoot to the top of the charts overnight. Swift’s success is unique in today’s pop music landscape, because of the longevity and consistent relevance she’s been able to maintain. Let’s face it, when it comes to popular music, this generation has no attention span. New artists pop up, rule the charts for an album cycle (two if they’re really lucky), and then fade into the background, followed only by their biggest fans. Taylor Swift released her self-titled debut album in 2006. To put this into perspective, the top three songs of that year were “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter, “Temperature” by Sean Paul, and “Promiscuous” by Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland. Now when was the last time you heard any of those names? But thirteen years later, Taylor Swift still dominates the airwaves with every new release. And her seventh studio album Lover is sure to continue that streak. Something that I believe to be a reason for her longevity is the effort she puts into evolving over time, almost “growing up” with her fans. Every Taylor Swift album to this point has come from a slightly different point of maturity lyrically, and has shown evolution in musical style and production choices, ranging from 2000s pop-country to full-on 2010s electropop. So what ‘s the story with this new LP?
Earlier this year, along with the announcement of her upcoming album, Swift released “ME!” as a single, a song featuring Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie, a collab that has been rumored for several years. The song is a bubbly, upbeat ode to self-confidence, set to a bright, rainbow-colored, cotton candy music video. It’s fun, well-constructed, and extremely catchy (although it got annoying pretty fast). This entire sound and aesthetic came off as a very intentional way to establish this new era in Taylor’s career as the polar opposite of her previous album, 2017’s darker and angrier Reputation. However, upon first hearing the album, I observed that “ME!” really doesn’t represent this album as a whole.
The album opens with a track called “I Forgot That You Existed,” a diss track that is almost definitely about Kanye West. Well, so much for polar opposite of Reputation. In fairness, the vast majority of the songs on this album err much more on the happy, positive side, but still, imagine if you will: For months, you see this album promoted as the anti-Reputation. It finally comes out. You hit play. And the first thing you hear is the latest installment in the ongoing saga of Swift’s feud with West (which has been entirely one-sided for quite some time now). But lyrics and Yeezus drama aside, musically, this song is not even close to being a proper album opener. It amounts to fairly chill, electropop background music. Tolerable if you can ignore Swift’s obnoxious vocal inflections, but largely forgettable. For an example of what an album opener should be, let’s refer to Reputation’s opening track, “…Ready for It?” As divisive as the darker, heavily electronic texture of this album was upon release, “…Ready for It?” was the perfect track to open the album. It’s one of the most dynamically intense cuts on the record, and it gives the listener a perfect preview of what’s coming, musically and lyrically, and lines such as “I see how this is gonna go,” “Baby let the games begin,” and of course, “Are you ready for it?” all play into the album-opener feel of this track. Meanwhile, “I Forgot That You Existed” could have just as easily been slapped anywhere into the tracklist, and should have probably been put somewhere in the middle, if it really needed to be included at all.
That being said, the sequencing of this album is completely wrong. And while I try not to deduct too many points for this, it does have a major effect on the listening experience, and is undoubtedly worth some points. “ME!” is the third track from the end, when it definitely belongs closer to the beginning (I’d put it around the one third mark, myself). More emotionally climactic singles such as “The Archer” and “Lover” are way too close to the beginning. The only sequencing choice I strongly agree with is putting “Daylight” at the end (more on that later). Apart from that, this album plays like a shuffled playlist. Though in fairness, it wouldn’t be easy to come up with a coherent tracklist order for this bloated mess. Seriously, there is no reason for this to be an hour long. And I have no issue with long albums, if they can justify their length. The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is over two hours long, and I wouldn’t omit a second of it. But Lover could have easily been cut down to a regular, 12-song LP. Apart from a few really good songs (some of Swift’s best actually), pretty much any of these songs could be easily interchanged with one or two other songs on the album, and not be missed. There are only a few different song structures that are repeated a few times each over the course of this album. So now that we’re four paragraphs deep, let’s talk about which songs I liked, and which ones I didn’t.
Many of these songs are very wholesome songs about Swift’s current relationship, and they come off as very genuine. These are the songs that I feel work the best, and I would have preferred to see the entire album go in this direction. My favorite out of this batch is the title track, “Lover,” a beautiful doo-wop inspired ballad about wanting to be with that special someone always. The more I listen to this track, the more it reminds me of some of the Aerosmith ballads from the 90’s, such as “Cryin’” and “Crazy” (laugh at me all you want, but I love those songs). This mood carries through songs such as “The Archer” and “Cornelia Street.” “Paper Rings” and “London Boy” stay on this lyrical theme, but set it to more up-tempo music. Not quite as good, but harmless fun, nonetheless (although the constant references to British stereotypes in “London Boy” come off as a little silly). Another major highlight is “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” a song that goes deep into an experience Taylor presumably had with heartbreak. In terms of lyrics and vocal performance, this is perhaps the most real, earnest track on the album. As I mentioned earlier, “Daylight” is a perfect closing track for this album. It perfectly encompasses the personal growth that appears to have taken place between Reputation, an extremely bitter and spiteful album, and this one, which tends to focus on more positive subject matter. “Soon You’ll Get Better,” featuring The Dixie Chicks, is a pretty little acoustic track in the early second half of the album. While it isn’t a favorite of mine, it certainly isn’t as obnoxiously country-pop as I would’ve expected from a song featuring The Dixie Chicks.
Now if only the rest of the album could be so pleasant. But alas, many of these songs follow the same formula as “I Forgot That You Existed.” Cringeworthy lyrics, annoying melodies, generic electropop instrumentals and production, and obnoxious vocals from Swift. But dear Lord, some of these lyrics just hurt. For the majority of her most recent work, Swift has doubled down on that quirky and relatable personality in her lyrics and delivery. And if you’re a total Swifty who loves to dress up like hipsters, get down to this sick beat, can’t come to the phone right now, and is unable to possess nice things, I have good news for you. This album absolutely oozes Swift’s signature one-liners and internet-isms. I could go through each of them and think of something smartassy to say about them, but I’ll list just a few of them below and let them speak for themselves:
“In my feelings more than Drake”
“If I was a man, then I’d be the man”
“You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”
“You’re taking shots at me like it’s Patrón”
“You just need to take several seats”
Yikes…maybe this album should’ve been called How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? (but hey, at least Swift dumped that ridiculous “Hey kids! Spelling is fun!” line that was in the single version of “ME!”).
Terrible one-liners aside, many of these songs just don’t stick the landing. While an interesting song about the social struggles of high school, “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” follows virtually the same production and performance values heard in many of the tracks from Reputation. A dark electropop song with melancholy lyrics. Not that this is bad, but it’s just played out, and deviates from this album’s mission of getting away from that mood and sound. In “False God,” Swift uses religious symbolism as sexual innuendo, in a way that is somehow even worse than Ariana Grande’s “God Is a Woman.” Tracks such as “I Think He Knows” and “You Need To Calm Down” are among the songs I mentioned, which follow the same formula as “I Forgot That You Existed.” Songs like these are not as far removed from the Reputation formula as one might think, at least in a musical sense. Take a Reputation song, transpose it to a major key, replace those aggressive dubstep instrumentals with airy, ambient tones, and you have songs that sound happy, but have the same bland, manufactured qualities at their core that many people criticized Reputation for.
And so, what we’re left with is an incoherent mess of an album. Some of Swift’s most mature, genuine, and vulnerable music lies on this album, buried beneath some of her most gutless, uninspired, and frankly cringe-inducing music. And that’s what makes it so hard to form a definitive opinion on this album. As much as I love to make fun of the one-liners and the stan service, I’m not here to take that away from anybody who enjoys it. Just know that if you’re a casual fan who doesn’t care about any of that stuff, the majority of this album probably isn’t for you. Then again, the same can be said for Reputation. This stan-candy personality music is very much pointed exclusively towards Swift’s most loyal fans, and while for most artists, this wouldn’t be an effective way to grow an audience, the turnout from Taylor Swift’s recent stadium tour indicates she probably isn’t worried about that.
Score: 4/10
Favorite Song(s): Lover, Death By A Thousand Cuts
Least Favorite Song(s): You Need To Calm Down, False God, The Man, I Forgot That You Existed
Phil Klinker Music Reviews 