Rating: 7.5/10

I won’t lie: I’ve never been a Taylor Swift fan. I always felt that I wasn’t in the target demographic for her music and apart from hearing the occasional chart-topping single, I never delved deeply into her discography. With the release of her seventh studio album, ‘Lover‘, I honestly think I have overlooked the twenty-nine year old pop star, as the album is actually quite special.

‘Lover‘ is an eighteen track project, with production from Swift herself, as well as a lot from acclaimed producer Jack Antonoff. His own album, released earlier this summer, Red Hearse, really emphasised his production and musical talents, but on ‘Lover‘, the tracks that he produces are on another level. An immediate standout for me was the song, ‘I Think He Knows‘; the verses are backed by a simple bass-line and the sound of fingers clicking, but when the chorus kicks in, it is a struggle to not start bopping your head. The built up drum beat, catchy falsetto chorus, and backing vocals all layer together perfectly – Antonoff and Swift truly know the ingredients for a killer pop song.

The album as a whole is just so nice to listen to. The track ‘False God‘ opens with a little saxophone snippet, which at first seemed a bit odd, but then the snippet returns during Taylor’s chorus and it’s great. Then on penultimate track, ‘It’s Nice to Have a Friend‘, Taylor enlists the help of producer Frank Dukes, for a cute little track backed by steel drums. Even on the more traditional sounding pop-tracks, without Antonoff’s trusty synths, the production just makes Taylor sound really good. The album’s title track, ‘Lover‘, has a really nice echo effect over the vocals, which helps the chorus and lyrics feel so much more raw and real, especially over the simple drum and guitar-based instrumental.

This project to me, showed really maturity, as Taylor discusses the strengths of her relationship, as well as coming to terms with some of the issues in her past. Her attitude is definitely more one of acceptance and growth, rather than ‘revenge’ which seemingly fuelled Taylor on her last album, with singles like ‘Look What You Made Me Do‘.

An issue I’ve had with some of Taylor’s romantic tracks before is that they just make me cringe and it all feels quite artificial. There are definitely moments on ‘Lover‘ that to me do seem a bit forced, such as ‘Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince‘, which is seemingly a multi-faceted metaphor reminiscing on a high school romance and the glory days of America’s political climate? But questionable love songs like this are made up for by the sincere and deeply personal tracks on the project like ‘Cornelia Street‘, ‘Daylight‘ and the ode to her mother, ‘Soon You’ll Get Better‘.

I have to also highlight the track ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts‘ briefly. Part of me was slightly sceptical about the song before my first listen, as I read that the song was inspired by a Netflix original movie, rather than any real life-experience of Taylor. Despite this, the track feels so pure, as Taylor details her struggles in getting over a previous relationship. The personal lyrics, with the relatively simple musical backing, in addition to Antonoff’s fast-paced piano part over the chorus makes this song a perfect “sad bop” (to use Taylor’s own description.)

From reading this review so far, you might be a bit confused as to why I’ve not rated the album higher. The primary reason comes from the two singles ‘You Need To Calm Down‘ and ‘Me!‘. My main issue with the tracks is that I just feel that they don’t fit with the album’s vibe as a whole. Taylor’s had her album of getting one up on the haters on her last album, and does she really need to tell her fans, ‘you can’t spell “awesome” without “me”, sixteen songs into an album that has oozed with maturity, self-confidence and self-love. If Taylor had kept the album’s focus, purely on the synth-infused Antonoff ‘sad-bops’, with the occasional more ballad-style track, I honestly feel this could’ve been her ‘4:44‘.*

That said, lyrically there are other points across the album where Taylor is lacking. There’s been enough written about the lyrics of ‘London Boy‘ in the past few days, so I won’t go into it too deeply, but as catchy as the track is, for a British listener it is near impossible to take the lyrics seriously without cringing at all, as it almost seems like Taylor is trying to brag about how multicultural she is – which I’m sure wasn’t her intention.

‘Lover‘ is a good album, but it annoys me that it wasn’t great and it frustrates me that Taylor still makes cheesy pop songs like ‘You Need To Calm Down‘ and ‘Me!‘. This album proves that she is capable of creating so much more and I hope that her growth continues.

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*To clarify what I meant by this, when I stated that the project “could’ve been her ‘4:44’” this is in reference to JAY-Z‘s 2017 album, which was critically viewed as a much more personal and slick project than his other albums in recent years, specifically thanks to the title track, ‘4:44‘ which detailed his infidelity in his marriage.