Taylor Swift is America's Lover

Fab or drab? Fab

Rating: 7/10

After months of rainbow-tinted Instagram pictures and dip-dyed hair, Taylor Swift's seventh album is finally here. The country-darling-turned-pop-princess released Lover on August 23, 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. Now that it's been a few weeks since the initial hype, I've listened to the album enough times to realize that it gets better with each listen.

During the first run through, the album is disappointing. It sounds like a ditzy, bubblegum collection of songs designed to attract fans that hadn't even been born when Swift released her fourth album. I stopped listening halfway through the tracklist. The songs I had gotten through, plus the unfortunately childish singles Swift had released ahead of the album's debut, painted the record in an incredibly juvenile light. It seemed as though the high hopes I had held for the album were dashed by its obvious pandering to elementary school children.

However, this seems to be the case for most of Swift's albums. Their lead singles are designed to build up anticipation for the forthcoming record through radio play. This results in catchy choruses without much substance sung by seven-year-olds during sleepovers-- think "Look What You Made Me Do" from Reputation and "Shake It Off" from 1989. These songs are alarmingly misleading. Fans who judged Swift's self-written album Red by its lead singles missed out on "All Too Well,"my personal favorite track of hers and arguably the best song of Swift's career.

With that in mind, I decided to give Lover a fair chance. I'm so happy I did.

Lover is Swift's most revealing album to date, especially in terms of her elusive relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. Playful songs such as "London Boy" begin to grow on listeners the more they play the album, showing how even some of the more childish tracks are still enjoyable. Swift wears her heart on her sleeve in quieter, more personal tracks like "The Archer" and "Daylight." The songstress is able to invite listeners into her private world while keeping the lyrics relatable; listeners can mold each track to their personal lives while recognizing the intricacies of Swift's own experiences.

Not only is Lover her most revealing record to date; it's also her most diverse. After five years of playing to a pop audience (to which she continues catering on this record), Swift goes back to her country roots in songs like "Lover" and "Soon You'll Get Better." She pleases each of her fans by mixing genres effortlessly. "Cruel Summer" echoes Swift's 1989 single "Wildest Dreams," showing that Swift isn't disregarding her past; she demonstrates her artistic growth by using it to strengthen her current sound. Lover is the culmination of Taylor Swift's discography and life story expressed through heart-wrenching, upbeat paeans to all the love in her life.

Rather than reviewing each song individually, here's a comprehensive guide to Lover:

SONGS TO BLAST IN THE CAR WITH YOUR FRIENDS:

• "I Forgot That You Existed"

• "Cruel Summer"

• "London Boy"

• "The Man" (you'll roll your eyes at the chorus, but it's catchy)

• "Paper Rings" (the perfect dance party song, even when you're alone)

SONGS TO LISTEN TO WHILE STARING OUT A WINDOW PRETENDING YOU'RE IN A MUSIC VIDEO

• "Cornelia Street"

• "Death By A Thousand Cuts"

• "Afterglow"

• "Daylight"

SONGS TO PLAY THROUGH YOUR HEADPHONES AT MIDNIGHT WHILE LAYING IN BED WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

• "Lover"

• "The Archer"

• "Soon You'll Get Better"

• "It's Nice To Have A Friend"

SONGS TO SKIP WHEN THEY COME UP ON SHUFFLE

• "I Think He Knows"

• "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince"

• "False God"

• "You Need To Calm Down"

• "ME!"

BEST LYRICS

• "Free rent, livin' in my mind" from "I Forgot That You Existed"

• "I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you" from "Cruel Summer"

• "I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?" from "Cruel Summer"

• "He looks up, grinning like a devil" from "Cruel Summer" (Swift's rasp merits its own Grammy)

• "All's well that ends well to end up with you" from "Lover"

• "Babes, don't threaten me with a good time" from "London Boy"

• "My love was as cruel as the cities I lived in" from "Daylight"

• "Clearing the air, I breathed in the smoke" from "Daylight"

FABIANA'S FAVORITES

• "It's Nice To Have A Friend" (this track captivated me since the first listen; even though it isn't one of the album's lyrically strongest songs, its unique sound makes it an instant stand-out)

• "London Boy"

• "Cruel Summer"

• "Paper Rings" (I originally didn't like this track, but I found that it really grew on me with each listen)

• "Cornelia Street"