Lover by Taylor Swift - ALBUM REVIEW

Taylor Swift is such a frustrating artist. I'm sure everyone who is a Taylor Swift fan can agree with me on that, because whatever era of Taylor Swift you're most inclined to like, you're bound to have been disappointed by her in the past. For me, unfortunately, this is her biggest disappointment. Yes, even more so than the controversial Reputation, which, while it fell flat on its face in more than one instance, at least had the feel of a new era of Taylor Swift. This just feels like 1989-lite, and the payoff is far, far worse.

While there are some legitimate gems on this album - notably "The Archer" and the Dixie Chicks collaboration "Soon You'll Get Better" - much of it feels like pop filler, making the whole album feel like filler by default. I can't help but think that if this album had been considerably trimmed, it would have fared much better. Did we really need an hour of this?

That's not even taking into account the legitimately bad songs, like "London Boy" which is probably the most brainless song she's ever written, or "ME!" which comes in a close second and features the worst Brendon Urie performance I've ever heard. If you're looking for the worst two seconds in pop music of 2019, look no further than Urie squawking out "U can't spell AWESOME without ME!!!" The fact that they devoted the entire bridge to these non-jokes that everyone heard years ago is baffling to me, but what's even more baffling is that this was the lead single. Not a good sign for the album to come. Why is Taylor Swift so bad at picking lead singles, anyhow?

I'd like to say that the good on this album at least outweighs the bad, but I'm not even sure that's true. There are more great songs on here than Hollywood's Bleeding, but many of the other songs feel like they were rushed to push out this album and put to death the sting that Reputation did to... well, her reputation. But taking the exact bad musical ideas of Reputation and smothering them in kitties and rainbows does not a good album make. In fact, it makes it an even less distinct project not worth caring about in the slightest. I will give credit to some of the songs on here which are peak pop Taylor Swift, but after a boring album like this I desperately wish she'd just try country again, something I would not have said five years ago. But it's pretty clear at this point that Pop Taylor Swift's well has run dry, and I'm not really interested in seeing what happens next unless it's a genre pivot. Sorry.

5/10

Best Tracks: "Cruel Summer", "The Archer", "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince", "Soon You'll Get Better" (ft. Dixie Chicks)