Taylor Swift - Lover

A song-by-song analysis

1. I Forgot That You Existed

Favorite Lyric: In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah / Your names on my lips, tongue-tied / Free rent, living in my mind

While “…Ready For It,” served as a preamble for the brasher tones of reputation, “I Forgot That You Existed” doesn’t introduce Lover’s sound quite as earnestly. Still, I don’t think Taylor could’ve picked a better introductory track. What’s the main takeaway from this cheeky, good-vibes-only opener? Swift’s in a much healthier head space now than she was during the gloomier days of her sixth album.

The song functions as a season finale recap of sorts. As if to say, “last we spoke, I endured an unfortunate breakup and the drama that ensued nearly killed my vibe…but we’ve moved on to brighter days and there are entirely new storylines to explore!”

“I Forgot That You Existed” is the palate cleanser we didn’t know we needed, washing away the burnt aftertaste of reputation, clearing the debris for something much smoother and sweeter. Welcome to the Lover-era.

2. Cruel Summer

Favorite Lyric: I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you

It’s 1:54 pm on August 22nd and I had zero intention of listening to any tracks off of Lover before its official midnight ET drop. I know that’s how Taylor would’ve wanted it, but my curiosity is getting the best of me…plus, I have access to the leaked MP3s.

You know when you finally find out where your parents hid your Christmas presents before Christmas morning? Well that’s how I feel, except I’m 25 and currently slumped in a cubicle. I need to open just one. Just one gift to make sure this Christmas will be a good one, ya know? Or at least to confirm it’s on par with the Christmases that came before it.

Oops! I streamed “Cruel Summer” and the clock has yet to strike midnight. So sue me, but I now know that Taylor has made good on her unspoken promise: songs off the album will exceed any and all expectations set by her originally released singles.

“Cruel Summer” is a legitimate bop, an instant jam fit for summer night drives with the windows down. Though nothing revolutionary compared to some other tracks featured on the album, Taylor Swift on cruise control is hard to hate. Saint Vincent and Jack Antonoff collaborated on this one, which hopefully means Pitchfork gives Lover the critical praise it deserves.

Does anyone else hear Miley Cyrus ft. around the 2:03 timestamp? I swear that is her voice.

3. Lover

Favorite Lyric: My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue / All’s well that ends well to end up with you

I woke up to several texts the morning “Lover” dropped asking if it would be my wedding song. Of course the idea had crossed my mind, just as it had crossed the minds of every 13-year-old on Tumblr.

In “Lover,” Taylor echos sweet nothings over an acoustic guitar and lazy piano, creating this really rosy, head-over-heels moment on the album. A classic romance anthem with a wedding vow-shaped bridge, the tenderness of Lover is sure to make any listener swoon. This track is so close to vintage ballad perfection but has been immediately disqualified from landing a high spot on my ranking (see end of post) for one specific reason: the word “lover” is a little gross.

Lover, not the song or the album, but the word is sickeningly sappy and…somewhat sexual? So while it’s cute to envision a bride and groom swaying to this track on a candle-lit dance floor, I can’t help but cringe every time Swift sings, “you’re my, my, my, my lover.” I’m sure any father-of-the-bride would agree.

P.S. I read that before Taylor wrote this song, she was going to title the album “Daylight.” Isn’t that such a better name for this record? I think so.

4. The Man

Favorite Lyric: They'd say I hustled, put in the work / They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve / What I was wearing, if I was rude / Could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves

There were a lot of things we knew about the “The Man” before even listening to it, most notably that it would likely fall into the same politically-charged category as “You Need To Calm Down.” I feared a song that calls out sexism so openly could land short of expectations just because it has so much to live up to, but this track caught me off guard in the best way possible. I think it stands out as Swift’s most empowered moment on the album.

A playful and punchy gender-flipped script, “The Man” features some of Taylor’s sharpest lyrics, “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man.” Ditching wishful role reversal for the opportunity to call society out on its ridiculous double standards, “The Man” reads like a refurbished “If I were A Boy.” It’s catchy, relevant, and brilliantly captures the subtle (and not so subtle) injustices of gender inequality. She nailed this one.

5. The Archer

Favorite Lyric: 'Cause all of my enemies started out friends / Help me hold onto you

The #1 complaint I saw on Twitter about this track was that “it never builds” (and we therefore, can’t dance to it). True and false. The guttural bass and unbreakable synth definitely build…but not quite how you’d expect. Upon first listen, I assumed “The Archer’s” ever-pulsing beat would explode into something epic right around the chorus, simply because it creates a premeditated tension that demands release.

Swifties were quick to point out that the song’s sound builds in the way one might pull a bow-and-arrow. Totally on board with this observation, and bonus points to Taylor for being so all-encompassing with her archery metaphor.

This just happens to be track five of Lover, and for those completely in the dark, the coveted track five slot has historically been reserved for Taylor’s most emotionally resonant song on every album. Swift’s lyrics are self-reflective here, as she explores her insecurities and relationship anxiety, “Who could ever leave me, darling? / But who could stay?”

Taylor Swift, the vulnerable lyricist, is my favorite Taylor Swift, but I really do not like when she goes all Hans Christian Andersen on us. I’m out on the nursery rhymes and fairytale imagery, especially at this stage of her career. “All the king’s horses, all the king’s men / Couldn’t put me together again.” Let’s leave Humpty Dumpty out of this. Please?

6. I Think He Knows

Favorite Lyric: I am an architect, I'm drawing up the plans / It's like I'm 17, nobody understands

On an 18-track album, the chances of a solid song getting lost in the shuffle is pretty much inevitable. I’m sorry, “I Think He Knows,” but you are lost in the shuffle, especially considering the four tracks to follow you are some of Lover’s finest. It’s not your fault, I’m just not sure Taylor knew where to go with you? Even tight syncopation and an airy falsetto chorus don’t help you stand out among your 80’s pop brethren.

This is the “So It Goes” of Lover, and I don’t anticipate hearing it on Taylor’s next stadium tour. If she does happen to perform “I Think He Knows,” then I’m headed straight for the bathroom (yes, it’s important to think these things through ahead of time).

Here’s the thing, if this song was released as a Carly Rae Jepsen single, it’d receive infinitely more attention and praise. But being on a Taylor Swift album is like being admitted to the ivy leagues of pop, and I’m just not sure how this song got in.

7. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

Favorite Lyric: You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes / We're so sad, we paint the town blue / Voted most likely to run away with you

If there’s one song on Lover worthy of university seminar-level analysis, it’s “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince.” Only a song offering this much to unpack is worthy of such a Harry Potter-esque title.

On its surface, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” sounds like an eerie ode to the likes of Riverdale and HBO’s Euphoria. Lines like they whisper in the hallway she’s a bad, bad girl linger over peppy cheerleader ad-libs (o-kay!), creating this high school is great for some, but a nightmare for so many others sensation.

American politics has entered the chat.

Taylor’s use of high school tropes is nothing new and while I could argue that recounting tales of football teams and homecoming queens at the age of 29 is somewhat regressive, I’d be completely missing the point. Here, Taylor uses high school romance as an allusion to the American dream; football culture works as a proxy for the toxic masculinity that has plagued American politics.

In “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” I think we find the perfect fusion of old and new Taylor Swift, as she asserts her newfound political wokeness through the familiar high school imagery that drew listeners to her crafty lyricism in the first place.

8. Paper Rings

Favorite Lyric: The wine is cold / Like the shoulder that I gave you in the street

Lets F-ing Go! I think this might be my favorite song off the album, and I’m not even totally sure why. It’s just an orgasmic rush of nostalgia that came out of nowhere! Taylor went straight pop-rock with this one, and the track’s jumpy energy is a much needed interruption from Lover’s overarching 80’s synth-pop sound.

Every time I play “Paper Rings” I get a surge of endorphins that sends me reeling through an entire decade until I’m suddenly costarring in some 90’s teenage romcom. I have zero critiques for any song that makes me feel like I’m dancing in a suburban bedroom on the set of some old-school Disney Channel original movie…even if Taylor does throw out the term “baby boy.” We’ll look past that, just this once.

Now this is a track I’d want played at my wedding. And if not, I’ll be shower shimmying to it for years to come. Thank you, Taylor—this song quite literally, rocks.

9. Cornelia Street

Favorite Lyric: We were a fresh page on the desk / Filling in the blanks as we go / As if the street lights pointed in an arrow head / Leading us home

I like to imagine “Cornelia Street” picks up right where “Delicate” left off, and while there’s little room for romance in a post-bar hookup…leave it to Taylor to paint a drunken makeout session in the back seat of an Uber in a completely different hue.

Swift’s songwriting at its peak brings a sense of enchantment the ordinary. From long drives to dive bars on the east side, she’s mastered the art of romanticizing the mundane. Swift does exactly this in “Cornelia Street,” waving a wand (or pen, rather) over everyday objects, from creaky floors to flung open winds, until all is dusted with a glimmering gold.

“Cornelia Street” sits gracefully between a love ballad and a breakup anthem. Swift is not singing of how a romantic endeavor came to be, nor how it fell apart. Instead, she relays the inner turmoil that aches in her attempts to keep together the pieces of a-great-thing-going.

10. Death By A Thousand Cuts

Favorite Lyric: Quiet my fears with the touch of your hand / Paper cut stains from our paper-thin plans

I rejected “Death By A Thousand Cuts” at first, shuffling it around my plate like green bean casserole on a full thanksgiving platter. This song smells a little funky, so I figured I’d digest the more familiar items in front of me before exploring such a unfamiliar entree.

I’m on my 8th plate of thanksgiving leftovers, and turns out I fricking love green bean casserole! That is to say, “Death By A Thousand Cuts” is a really high quality song.

Between the chaotic piano riffs and that finger pop sound created by pulling a thumb from the cheek, “Death By A Thousand Cuts” has a lot of moving pieces that oddly fit together once you figure out the jigsawpuzzleness of it all.

I am in love with these lyrics, especially in light of the fact that Taylor wrote this song with Netflix’s Something Great in mind. She captures such a resonant dimension of post-breakup angst: in the aftermath of a failed relationship, the sharpest pain isn’t the breakup itself but the unavoidable flashbacks to how great things once were. “Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts / Flashbacks waking me up” *chefs kisses*

11. London Boy

Favorite Lyric: Show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride

This is a skip for me. Not denying it’s a bop, I know it’s probably pretty high on other people’s lists. Personally, I just have this weird thing about how American culture romanticizes the UK, and this song kind of epitomized that fixation for me. Wish the lyrics were more Joe Alwyn-specific instead of being pumped with every possible British cliche.

That’s all, moving on.

12. Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. Dixie Chicks)

Favorite Lyric: Holy orange bottles, each night, I pray to you / Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too

How can a song so deeply personal resonate so universally? “Soon You’ll Get Better” is a very special track that will not be ranked among the 17 others because it cant’t be. It’s too raw for repeat, a masterpiece I’ve listen to once and have now tucked away safely into a mental treasure chest.

I do need to point out that Swift’s allusion to medication as holy orange bottles is some of the most hauntingly poignant imagery from her entire repertoire.

13. False God

Favorite Lyric: Religion's in your lips / Even if its a false god, we'd still worship / We might just get away with it / The altar is my hips

“Don’t Blame Me” and “Dress” had a child, and her name is “False God.” She’s been hooking up with The Weekend, caught a nasty virus from The 1975, and I am living for all of it.

Backed by a saxophone that leads Taylor like some sensual spirit guide, “False God” marks the most uncharted territory Swift has explored sonically to date. It’s sexy, smooth, and oh so mature. How in the hell is this sultry number two tracks away from “ME!”? I can’t wrap my mind around it.

Anyway, getting total CRJ vibes here but unlike “I Think He Knows,” this song sticks…hard. It’s way too easy to get lost in the sultry heat of “False God,” and I can only pray a track like this paves the way for future experimentation from Swift.

P.S. thank whatever god (true or false) this didn’t end up being a Trump diss track, as was anticipated.

14. You Need to Calm Down

Favorite Lyric: You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate

Does “You Need to Calm Down” wreak of Corporate Pride? Absolutely. Is Taylor Swift a longtime apolitical popstar desperately trying to make up for lost time by sprinkling LGBTQ+ celebrities around a cotton candy trailer park in this song’s music video? Sure.

Am I going to piss and moan because a public figure is using her massive platform to promote social change and garner signatures for the Equality Act? No.

Political undertones aside, this song is catchy but the chorus has way too many vowels, which makes me kinda dizzy. “Shade never made anybody less gay!” and “snakes and stones never broke my bones!” are pretty good punchlines, but also make me cringe in the same way that receiving a mom-written block the haters note in my middle school lunchbox would.

15. Afterglow:

Favorite Lyric: Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves

Full disclosure…it’s 10:37 pm on a Friday night and I’m about ready to call it quits on the song-by-song analysis here. “Afterglow,” you’re getting the short end of the stick because even though I didn’t listen to you nearly as much, I’m still gonna throw you in the same bucket as “I Think He Knows.” Actually, I’m ranking you some steps below because you’re honestly more of a sleeper. Again, it’s not that you’re a poorly written or produced song by any means, but you simply will never live up to your high achieving peers.

It’s a bummer because I feel like the title “Afterglow” has so much potential, but this song is neither a grower nor a shower. Skip.

16. Me! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco)

Favorite Lyric: N/A

ME! is a sonic migraine of a song that I’m not going to waste time reviewing because no quantum of pastel, butterflies, and vocoder can salvage absolute trash. Was the nail in this song’s coffin when Taylor decided chanting hey kids, spelling is fun! made for a cute interlude? No lol, the song was already too far gone.

Whatever. I think Swift purposefully sets the bar low and basically just used this song’s music video as a basket for all her cryptic, little “Easter eggs.” Ironically, the fact that Taylor featured Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco proved to be the biggest Easter egg of all…because just like Brendon is, this song is now irrelevant.

17. It’s Nice To Have A Friend

Favorite Lyric: Church bells ring, carry me home / Rice on the ground looks like snow

I want to say I hate this one, but I’m going to refrain because there’s something oddly alluring about how an eerie children’s choir coupled with marimba makes me feel like I’m walking outside on a bright, snowy day. This track is mysterious to me, especially because its so structurally unique from everything else we’ve hear thus far. However, as the shortest and the second-to-last song on the album, “It’s Nice To Have A Friend” presents itself more as a deliberate afterthought. Unlike “Afterglow,” this track isn’t acting as if it belongs in the big leagues. “It’s Nice To Have A Friend'“ knows she stands out, and therefore we must accept her an an artful addition to the Lover collection.

At the end of the day this is a skip for me, but I’m not going to discredit the fact that this song functions as a wind down track (think last 10 minutes of a CorePower Sculpt class) from the syncopated synths and lyrical sensory overload that define the majority of this album.

18. Daylight

Favorite Lyrics: I wanna be defined by the things that I love / Not the things I hate / Not the things I'm afraid of / Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night / You are what you love

Celebrating the release of this album has been such a fun journey for me, from reading into cryptic social media posts to drafting this song-by-song analysis over the last 12 hours. Needless to say, I’m a little sad for the anticipation factor to be over…but damn, could we have gotten a more amazing album out of all this?

I’ve grown up with Taylor Swift. She’s helped me make friends from ages 15-25, heal from heartbreaks of every variety, own my reputation at its worst, and love with every every inch of my being.

I don’t know what my life is going to look like if and when she decides to release an eighth album. I have a feeling things could look pretty different from where I am now…but I’m excited for all of it.

I could not have dream up a better way to close out this album than with “Daylight,” and that is where I’ll leave you.

Take time to listen to “Daylight,” it will not disappoint.