The ‘lover’ era
Of the multitude of successes found in the Taylor Swift Multiverse of Madness, there is one album that tends to stand out for not necessarily great reasons. Lover, released August 2019, is Madam Swift’s seventh studio album and one that’s constantly discussed and debated over by fans unsure of how to truly feel about the body of work. In my experience with Swifties, Lover is rarely a top pick and is largely associated with the questionable leading single that is “Me!” in collaboration with the infamous Brendon Urie and, more relevantly, her past relationship with the even more infamous Joe Awlyn who is the obvious inspiration behind many of the cutesy tracks.
Personally? No one can make me hate the Lover album. Yes, the lows (“Me!” Ft. Brendon Urie) are quite low, but the highs are really really high! So even though I know we’re all currently obsessing over The Tortured Poets Department, I’d love to take a walk down memory lane, or shall I say Cornelia Street, and take a closer look at the Lover Era.
[Warning: I may get a bit hostile.]
The experimental era
What a lot of people fail to appreciate about Lover, in my opinion, is just how experimental she was with this one. Taylor Swift is no stranger to change when it comes to music and style. As nearly every person in our generation would know, Taylor Swift had humble beginnings in country before making the iconic shift to pop with her album 1989 especially.
However, what’s different about Lover is that it has several very different sounds to it, from the jazzy, almost RnB feeling of “False God” to the folkish feeling of “Soon You’ll Get Better” to the classic Swiftie Pop style of “Cruel Summer” and “London Boy.” One of my personal favorites on the album is surprisingly “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” and one of the main reasons for this is because of how unique the song is from the rest of her discography.
For this reason, I think Lover sitting between Reputation and Folklore in her discography makes a lot of sense, because of how different those two albums are and how strongly cohesive the two mentioned albums are. Lover was the needed mellow body of work to transition us into Folklore.
The pink glitter gel pen era
I’m convinced that people who hate Lover really just hate fun! As a fan of “pink glitter gel pen” songs, as coined by Swifties, I especially love songs like “I Forgot That You Existed,” “Cruel Summer,” “Paper Rings,” and “The Man.” And those aren’t even the only ones on this album! This is the album for pink glitter gel pens and I’m all here for it! The songs are girly, light, and, as mentioned before, fun!
Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good ol’ fashioned punch-me-right-in-the-gut Taylor Swift song (“loml” I’m looking at you!), but sometimes you just need to sip a cute summery drink, listen to “I Think He Knows,” and pretend like your crush is also totally obsessed with you and is definitely, like, aware of your existence or whatever.
the denial era?
Discourse surrounding whether or not “Lover” is a love song nearly made me throw my phone out my window on the third floor. For those of you unaware of what I’m referring to (which is probably a sign that you’re actually well-adjusted as opposed to myself), in lieu of promotion for The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift created several playlists for each stage of grief and “Lover,” the song, fell under denial. This is fine! As my chapter’s Director of Marketing, I love a good gimmick, but what’s not fine is the way that some fans, the ones that use their only brain cell to have opinions served to them on a Twitter platter, actually believe that the song is “not a love song”.
“Lover.” Is. A. Love. Song. The lyrics are clearly written with the intention of being a love song! She even released a remix to be used as the first dance at weddings! How is it not a love song?? Yes, I’m aware that every song on the album is not a romantic song. Like “The Archer?” Hello? Such an anxiety-inspired song, but “Lover???” “LOVER???” Are we dense???
Taylor Swift was at one point in love with Joe, and she wanted to believe that it was going to last. That’s okay! I think we all wanted that at first, but the relationship ending badly doesn’t change how she felt and what this song meant to her while writing and producing the song and literal wedding version of the song. Moreover, what the song means to all of the people who have walked down the aisle to this track. “Lover” is a love song; end of story.
the daylight era
However, I think my main issue with Anti-Lover girls is the take that Lover isn’t a romantic love album. My response? None. I just wonder if they’ve yet to find out that the sky is blue or grass green.
The Lover album was never just about romantic love, and that’s a misconception about Taylor Swift that has followed the woman her entire career. Yes, she does write about romance a lot, which is certainly not a problem to me, but she’s never solely been a romance writer. “The Archer,” again, is a very anxious song about the fear of abandonment and the consequences of being overly self-critical, “The Man” is about male privilege found particularly in the music industry, “False God,” pulling from religious themes, is partially about idolizing something that isn’t true, and “Soon You’ll Get Better” is a very heartfelt song about the fear of losing someone you love, I’m assuming, to illness. The Lover Album was never just a “love” album and most people who really enjoy the album never picked it as their favorite just because of romance. All of Taylor Swift’s albums are love albums. None of Taylor Swift’s albums are love albums. I wish fans would give this album the same level of critical thought that her other albums are granted.
So what is Lover about? I think it’s explained beautifully in the outro of “Daylight;” “I wanna be defined by the things that I love, not the things I hate.” Taylor Swift in the mid-2010s went from being a pop star to the pop star after the massive critical and commercial success that was 1989. In this time, she faced several public breakups and undeserved blows to her reputation due to scandals that were only “scandals” because it was her doing it, and everyone hated Taylor Swift at this time. After dropping Reputation, an era of revenge, but more importantly, reclamation, she realized something. She realized that she doesn’t want to be known as vengeful but as a person who rises above the hatred and chooses kindness and love instead. I truly believe that’s why Lover is called Lover. It’s less about her love life and more about the love she exudes, and it’s for this reason that I’m absolutely in love with the Lover Era.
<3
So now that I’ve stated my case, I hope that at the very least, you will give Lover just one more listen and one more chance. That’s all I have for now! Love ya!