Guys! It’s finally here! The highly anticipated TS7 era and album, titled “Lover”. So my fellow “Swifties” may be thinking, ok you’re a little late to the party J Frapp because the album’s been out for a week now. And I hear that. The reason I’ve been kind of quiet over here is because I really wanted to give it a good listen before I shared my favorites and opinions. And now that I’ve had the album on repeat for a solid week, I’m so in love and ready to spill my heart out with y’all!
So today’s “Friday’s Frilly Finds” is a little bit of a switch up because its nothing tangible that’s made it to my Favorites list that I had to share with you today. It’s all about what we all want and money can’t buy. LOVE! And with it my favorite new TS love songs! So here are my favorites and interpretations of Taylor Swift’s new songs on the album “Lover”. Can you believe there’s 18 songs?! Let’s get started…
First can I start out by saying isn’t it ironic? Ironic that one of her first major hits (not the first, but one of them), was titled “Love Story”? It’s ironic because that’s exactly what all of Taylor’s albums turned out to be. Her love story. Vulnerably put out to the world to hear, agree with or judge. Even in her darkest moment’s or feelings on her “reputation” album, it’s a tragic love story of betrayal and all the feelings of pain, angst and revenge that go along with a betrayed heart. Much like Hans blindsiding and betraying Ana in the movie Frozen. And yes, I just went there!
That being said “reputation” was her redemption and “Lover” is her happy ending (or new beginning). She’s finally free (hence the colorful snake turning into pretty butterflies at the beginning of the ME! music video) and seems to have found her true love. And with it has come a bunch of feel good melodies and tunes taking me back to when I fell in love with Mark and all the giddy feelings that go along with new love. Better yet, true love. But that’s not all that comes along with new, true love. Feelings of fear of wrecking the relationship or loosing that love that you’ve always wanted can easily creep in, as they have in certain songs on this album like “Afterglow” “Soon you’ll get better” and “Cornelia Street”.
You see but this is part of the big magic of Taylor Swift. She somehow makes her in most cases, unobtainable life, so relatable to her fans. Because at the end of the day she’s human and has remained humble and vulnerable enough to truly connect with her fans to this day. She’s honest through her lyrics of going through lots of the same, difficult, exciting, and scary things that we all go through and feel. Like “Soon you’ll get better” regarding her mom being re-diagnosed with cancer (this song kills me and I so empathize with it since watching my husband Mark battle cancer last year which was the worst thing ever). Or take “Paper Rings” regarding her feelings of liking the finer things but for true love, nothing else (shiny, expensive and all) truly matters. We can all relate. Case made.
But where it really gets good (this is getting good now…”Wildest Dreams” is officially stuck in my head), is Swift’s ability to intertwine all of her different sounding albums and era’s to coexist and make perfect sense since the inception of her first album to the album “Red” to “1989” to “reputation” to now “Lover”. In the last track on “Lover” titled “Daylight”, she so effortlessly pulls in lyrics and sounds from the song “Red”, “1989’s” track “Out of the Woods” (the black and white reference), and the “reputation” album track “Dancing with our hands tied”, in which she sings in Red: “Losing him was blue like I’d never known, Missing him was dark grey all alone, Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met, but loving him was red, loving him was red.” And then in “Dancing with our hands tied” she sings, “My love had been frozen. Deep blue but you painted me golden.”
Ok and to bring that all together full circle for you (like she so effortlessly does), in the last track on “Lover”, “Daylight” she vocally proclaims: “I once believed love would be black and white, but it’s golden, And I can still see it all in my head, back and forth from New York sneakin in your bed, I once believed love would be burnin red, but it’s golden. Like Daylight.” Genius, just pure lyrical and creative genius! And she’s found true, real love along the way! Hooray!
I could go on and on because there are so many good finds and insinuations of her pointing out all of the lessons she’s learned through finding good and bad love over the years, but I’m going to stop here. And the truth is there’s probably even more “Easter eggs” as we like to call them, throughout the album and videos that I still haven’t even fully grasped, despite me having listened to it like 20 times already! Just sayin! So please, share with me what connections and hints you’ve found and made on her new album as I’d love to hear! But for now, here are my favorite songs on “Lover” in order (although for some it was tough to choose which I liked better), so take it how you will, or should I say call it what you want to.
The Taylor Top Ten
Cruel Summer- This is new, giddy, joyous, crazy feelings of love at it’s finest and I’m here for it guys! It’s good and it’s bad all at the same time. Yesss please!!
Lover- It’s pure poetic, magical love in all of it’s inside jokes, madness and deep, intimate feelings you feel for someone you love to it’s core. It’s sacred and it gives me alllll the feels!
London Boy - Ok who doesn’t love the royals? And a London Boy? Ok yes and yes! I’ll take some of what she’s having please and thank you!
I forgot that you existed- So 16 year old me needed to hear this song in all of it’s catchy wittiness and learned lessons. It’s like the letter you wish you could write your younger self with a subject line of “Oh honey, if only you knew”. Because we’ve all learned those hard lessons, and what we all know now, is that same feeling of…oh yeah…I forgot you existed! And darling that feels good.
The Man- I honestly wasn’t sure of this one, until I gave it a real deep and honest listen. Now I love it! After listening a few times, yes I have to say I’ve honestly felt that way before and I think as women we all have. And yes it’s super frustrating. But we’re fearless, amazing women just like Swift so I love that she’s musically bold enough to express this pain point for many of us. I do think that some of what is talked about in this song is brought on though by other women shaming, judging and trying to compete with other women. So let me be clear here. I’m all here for women supporting and empowering women and community over competition. As women let’s build each other up! I’m also here for equality between both man and woman and everyone really. And I’ll be rocking this song all Summer (hater’s don’t hate).
Soon you’ll get better- The only reason this one isn’t higher on my list is because it’s so sad I have to skip it sometimes. Watching someone you love to death fight cancer is the scariest thing and living with the fear that it could come back is beyond brutal. My heart goes out to her, her mom, her family and any one else dealing with cancer in all it’s very real and scary complexities.
Cornelia Street- Love this because it’s musically enchanting and also brings up the real fear of loosing love. And that’s something we can all relate to. Love the lyric “Sacred new beginnings” so much too!
ME!- Because it’s just so happy! The colors in the video are a dream and how can you not smile when listening to this song? Plus more importantly, there’s no shame in being beautifully and authentically you. And I think that’s the overall message Taylor wants to send out through this song! It’s also self love. Do you, be true to who you are and everything else will fall into place. Um, Yes, check, check and check!
Afterglow- I just love the lyrical melody and ethereal sound of this track so much! Plus it’s about owning up to your actions and apologizing to your love when you’re wrong. That’s not always easy to do for everyone. This song is goals! Especially that afterglow feeling. Who’s with me?!
Daylight- The perfect ending to the love story. Or should I say the beginning? I think we can all relate to this strong feeling and message about learning life lessons, and finding and keeping real love. The vibes in this song are just sooo good. Like so good. And all of the pieces of her story that she brings together full circle in this last song on the album is just perfection. The ending words always give me chills. Chills y’all.
So to summarize, I pretty much love the whole album including Paper Rings because it’s catchy, cute and has a great meaning behind it, and I also like False God because of the beat seeming similar to that of a Drake or Khalid song. As a Christian I was a little confused by the title at first though. Google it. It all makes sense now and I lovvve it. Since I’m only doing a top ten countdown, I just had to add my thoughts on those here.
Overall, this album makes me happy because it’s a celebration of Love. And that’s something we all deserve and I’m just so happy and lucky I’ve found that, and I hope you find yours too. I’m glad Taylor’s found hers.
So what are your favorites from this album? I’m dying to hear your thoughts!
Photo by Carolina Montes
Dress by Gal Meets Glam