6. Lover (2019)
After the dark palette of Swift’s Reputation era, Lover brought out pastel hues and a light shimmery musical tone – a “love letter to love itself” as Swift herself declared. The album feels like a dose of serotonin with fun pop numbers ‘Me!’ and ‘Paper Rings’, and gorgeously realised love songs in ‘Lover’ and ‘Cornelia Street’. Ultimately Lover is about love in all forms, none more so than on The Chicks collaboration ‘Soon You’ll Get Better’, which is about her mother’s battle with cancer.
But Lover isn’t an album of pure pop fluff. This version of Swift isn’t frightened of making political statements as she demonstrates on ‘Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince’, which refers to the Trump election victory.
Running through rose thorns / I saw the scoreboard / And ran for my life.”
‘Miss Americana & The HeartBreak Prince’
She also champions LGBTQ+ rights on ‘You Need to Calm Down’ (“Cause shade never made anybody less gay”) and takes a feminist stance on ‘The Man’. It feels like a return to the retro feel of 1989 but overall it lacks the cohesive soundscape of that album.
Rating: 7/10