Swift series: It’s brighter now
Image via WikiMedia Commons
In November of 2018, Taylor Swift announced via Instagram that she had signed a new record deal with Republic Records. Prior to this, Swift had been signed to Big Machine Records since she was 15 years old. This contract allowed her to own all of her masters moving forward, something Big Machine had not given her.
Then, in the summer of 2019, Swift announced her eighth studio album, Lover. The first album she would release on her new label, Lover would become the first album Swift would own. After weeks of cryptic pastel and glittery posts on social media, Swift announced the album’s title, and the lead single, “You Need to Calm Down,” on an Instagram livestream in August. A stark departure from reputation’s dark, edgy aesthetic, Lover was bright and sparkly. Fans were excited by the prospect of a new and different era, one in which Swift seemed genuinely content.
Lover’s track list is full of songs about, not so shockingly, love. A highlight of the album is “Cornelia Street,” on which Swift tells the story of a relationship that she hesitated to dive into wholeheartedly until she realized how high the stakes truly were for her. “I hope I never lose you / I’d never walk Cornelia Street again,” Swift sings. The song’s simple production and resonant lyrics make it a standout track on the record. Her live, acoustic performance of the song in Paris, available on streaming platforms as well as the original, is a personal favorite of mine. The stripped-back version really emphasizes the beauty of her lyrics.
An underrated track on the album is the soft and gut-wrenching “Soon You’ll Get Better,” which Swift penned about her mother’s experience with cancer. Swift’s relationship to her mother is a close one, and it’s obvious in the song how much of a toll watching her mother suffer through these treacherous health challenges has taken on her. “You make the best of a bad deal / I just pretend it isn’t real,” Swift sings. “I know I’ll never get it / there’s not a day that I won’t try.”
These vulnerable moments on the album make the highs all the more serotonin-inducing. “Cruel Summer” is one of my favorites in all of her discography, with its synthy, melodic Jack Antonoff production and addictive melodies. The song was made for rolling the windows down on a summer night with a perfect pastel sunset and screaming it with your best friends. The song tells the story of a secret summer fling over an addictive beat. “I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you,” Swift sings.
Lover was released right before the beginning of my sophomore year here at Geneseo, and its meaningful songs about finding genuine happiness resonated with me as I was growing into myself and finding a lot of joy in my environment and the relationships I was building. It was the perfect album that came at the perfect time. Listening to Lover will always take me back in time to my Lover era, full of laughter and warm weather and purple-pink skies.
The album’s closer, “Daylight,” is a poignant note to end on, and acknowledges reputation directly. “Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it’s morning now / it’s brighter now,” Swift sings, referencing moving out of the dark imagery and aesthetic of the previous era and onto the lighter, softer energy of Lover. “It’s brighter now.” What a perfect note to end on.