Taylor Swift - New Album: 'Lover' (Out 8/23/19)*

Credits are up. Annie Clark worked on a song! My highest hopes are for the songs with Jack Antonoff. Out of all the co-writers she’s worked with, I tend to like their collaborations best.

Taylor Swift and St. Vincent Collaborate on New Song “Cruel Summer” | Pitchfork

 

Even when I was 15, senior boys were certainly not flirting with me in the hallways at school. That's a track I never related to, because I was a much bigger dork than Taylor when I was in high school.

I don't know if I would say I find the early albums "too juvenile." That's not entirely the problem I have with them. It's everything (lyrics, arrangements, performances) taken together that just no longer gels with my listening habits. I don't listen to much country, anyway. More a "feel" thing, that maybe I can't describe accurately in words. And there are still great songs on all of the albums. (And I'm find promising never to listen to 'Boys' again. I think it's dreadful and I have since I was 14. )

'Lover' is one of three tracks written solely by Taylor. Makes sense. It had all the hallmarks of Taylor Swift solo from the moment I first heard it.

 

I don't really agree with this. The last two albums, not including Lover, which I haven't heard yet, to me had precious little of the strong lyric writing hallmarks on display through Red and which made me a big Swift fan with Fearless.

I don't think she writes much anymore with the beginning-middle-end sense of narrative action (she's become more of a tell not show writer), or the kind of scene setting visual detail that made her so special. She also doesn't get off the same kind of emotionally dense lines or just plan nifty phrase making that we all celebrated in her music for so long ("You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" or "Now you call me up just to break me like a promise/so casually cruel in the name of being honest"). She also gave up entirely on writing harmonically different bridges. Now the bridges just consist of a section of the with a faster rhythmic melody line shape. Her efforts to write kind of extended metaphor/image/trope songs that she did so well for so long, like "Getaway Car," just kind of seem less consistent and inspired.

Very few of the pieces on 1989 or Reputation came close to the heights of her best work -- "Clean" and "New Year's Day" come to mind ("Wildest Dreams" I thought was pretty good too). She had some new kind of moments on the last couple of records where she offered something new and exciting -- "Blank Space" was a great song at her own expense, whose charm kind of got sold out by the woe-is-me-for-being-famous songs on Reputation. And for someone who, to me, seems so awkward and unsexy when she's trying to project sexiness on stage, "Dress" on record is surprisingly as smoldering as anything Prince could have done. But I think a lot of the work has become blandly generic radio pap. At it's best it's catchy and pleasant enough -- "Delicate." At it's worst, "Look What You Made Me Do" is feels like a put-on. And a lot of the rest of it, like "Me," is just kind of forgettable. She's certainly capable of much better, but what do I know, she's selling like hotcakes.

(I must say, I've also rarely been a fan of anything Jack Antonoff has ever done -- thought I did like "Green Light" and "Supercut" from the last Lorde album -- so it's perhaps not surprising that a lot of Taylor's work with him has left me cold.)

 

Have any of the non single tracks leaked yet?

Incredible in this day and age if they haven’t.

 

Or as I saw on r/popheads: "This song is Taylor tayloring superhard, and I am here for it."

 

The whole record has apparently leaked. I have read lots of song reviews on r/popheads.

I have it pre-ordered on amazon mp3, so I just have the four released songs right now. I may go by Target in the morning and get one of the special editions. No new music, but sounds like comes with poster and pics and such.

 

I think there’s about 5 deluxes altogether!

Quite expensive for what they are. Here they’re about twice the price of the regular CD.

 

Target.com: $12.99 for reg CD; $16.99 for the deluxe

You're right that there are 4 or 5 deluxe editions. I guess you would need them all for all the posters and add-ins. I don't expect I will do that. I never have before on her music. Usually the iTunes Store or amazon mp3 purchase has been enough for me. So if I buy a CD, it will be just one copy.

 

The deluxes have nice packaging, but I’m not paying £25.

 

Mmm...I love the lyrics on 1989 and Reputation. Still uniquely visually and emotionally compelling to me. It's different from her earlier works, though. She is less verbose. I think she has begun writing in tighter, shorter phrases. Packing strong images into fewer words. I hear the words and I'm inside the moment with Taylor. All my opinion! A few samples of some of my favorites:

So it goes
He can't keep his wild eyes on the road
Takes me home
Lights are off, he's taking off his coat. (and then the ''mmm...yeah")
- 'Style'

I'd kiss you as the lights went out
Swaying as the room burned down
I'd hold you as the water rushes in
If I could dance with you again
- 'Dancing with Our Hands Tied'

I'm spilling wine in the bathtub
You kiss my face and we're both drunk
Everyone thinks that they know us
But they know nothing about
All of this silence and patience, pining and anticipation
My hands are shaking from holding back from you
- 'Dress'

Tossing, turning, struggled through the night with someone new
And I could go on and on, on and on
Lantern burning, flickered in my mind for only you
- 'This Love'

The drought was the very worst
When the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst
It was months and months of back and forth
You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can't wear anymore
- 'Clean'

Dive bar on the east side, where you at?
Phone lights up my nightstand in the black
Come here, you can meet me in the back
Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you
Oh damn, never seen that color blue
Just think of the fun things we could do
- 'Delicate'

 

Maybe target.com will ship to you.

 

I have watched the video many, many times. But I never caught this line - because the context of the video is different when she gets the note.

This line means she's already in bed. He texted her in the middle of the night to come meet her at the bar.

 

TS released a promo video advertising the Target special editions for Lover; in the video, she noted that they were available at Target, of course, but she also suggested that buyers outside of North America (US?) could probably figure out how to get the special editions via her website.

 

Here is the music video for "Lover."

 

It's hardly anything new. How many times have singles or albums been repressed with differences, or songs originally released as singles re-edited once they appeared on album? All those digital files of ME that everyone bought originally will stay in place (and will float around the web in some form or another...) Even forum favorites The Beatles have done this. But for some reason, the first example that came to mind when I saw this article was Kanye West, who must be the most extreme example of this phenomenon.

The strangest thing to me was her appearance on the 1989... playing guitar for fellow guest Beck as he performed Dreams. No other guest ever came out just to support another guest, and it's not like she otherwise had anything to do with the song. That said, it was a good performance!

 

Great song and a fabulous video.

 

I agree.

 

Nice to see her play an acoustic guitar again.

 

Thank you. Counting reaction videos, I’ve probably watched it 10 or 12 times now.

That ending!

 

Fantastic video for 'Lover'! Beautiful costumes and set design. It really captures the special unique world two people can make with just each other. I love it.

 

And a welcome return to her Speak Now/Red vibe, and a welcome departure from the feuding with the tabloids vibe of Reputation.

 

Love the song and the video. Kudos to her! Thanks for posting. I hope things continue to go well in her current relationship.

 

Cool! Looking forward to that. I love St. Vincent.

Antonoff had lousy contributions to the 1989 album, but his work on Reputaion was much improved.

 

I know everyone loves "All Too Well." I think it's too plain musically for the words to redeem it, so I've always skipped that one. Taylor has well thought-out lyrics but they've never particularly attracted me to her music.

My Taylor Swift Top 15 (in no particular order)

Begin Again
Superstar
The Best Day
Speak Now
You Belong With Me
I Knew You Were Trouble
22
We Are Never Getting Back Together
Lucky One
Starlight
Blank Space
Shake It Off
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
New Romantics
New Years Day

 

Love how “Lover’s” lyric video connects with the actual video - it’s playing in the attic, with footage from the “finished” one