The *Official* Ranking of Taylor Swift's "Lover"
This dizzying masterpiece of an album has officially been out for a month now. It's an iridiscsent, glowing pink album dripping in pure romance. There's a real love intertwined throughout the entire album that Swift has never, ever explored before. With Jack Antonoff's 80's synth influence and a minimalistic edge, the lyrics in this album have room to penetrate you to the bone. Perhaps the most remarkable part about this album is the way Swift blends childlike youthfulness, daisy coated lullabies and laughter, with a RAW exploration of what it means to be an adult deeply in love.
I've had a whole month to let this mystifying album soak into my bones, and because of that, I've officially compiled a ranking of the whirlwind of an album.
According to my scientific calculations as a 10-year devout swifitie, this is the ranking of Lover:
18. "ME!"
Living in winter, I am your summer.
Swift is known for her poetic, brilliant songwriting. But this song does not showcase her lyrical ability whatsoever. It was a questionable choice for a lead single, and had a very childish pop aura.
17. "You Need To Calm Down"
Shade never made anybody less gay!
YNTCD is a bright, upbeat feel-good anthem that mirrors the likes of Shake It Off. It's perky and has a few sly lyrical moments, but overall does not showcase her full starpower. (The music video is undeniably historic though.)
16. "I Forgot That You Existed"
It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference.
This joyous bop explores that euphoric feeling when you're finally FINALLY over that ex. It's witty, empowering, and spiked with enough sass to last you a lifetime.
15. Paper Rings
"I want to drive away with you
I want your complications too
I want your dreary Mondays"
This giddy song screams Grease and drive in movies and bubblegum pink, and acts as a near time capsule to the 50s. Taylor explores her upmost adoration for her lover, and perfectly encapsulates the feeling of wanting someone more than absolutely anything in this world.
14. "Soon You'll Get Better"
Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too.
This gorgeous, lullaby-like tribute to Taylor's mom is absolutely bone-melting. Taylor vulnerably explores the sheer heartbreak of waiting in a vacant hospital room with a shattered soul. It's a painfully beautiful song.
13. Afterglow
"This ultraviolet morning light below tells us this love is worth the fight."
Afterglow is an earnest, desperate apology letter to a loved one. Every line is punctuated with burning emotion. Taylor sincerely tries to mend a fight with her boy, taking full responsibility for her part in the fight. It penetrates your heartstrings in a way that only Taylor Swift can.
12. It's Nice To Have A Friend
"Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand...it's nice to have a friend."
This song is quite possibly the most pure story Taylor has ever told. She paints a vivid, dreamy picture of two friends accidentally & recklessly falling for each other. It's truly a poetic masterpiece, stitched together with vivacious details and schoolgirl fantasies.
11. London Boy
"They say home is where the heart is
but that's not where mine lives."
This song is "aww" inducing. It's flooded with British references and dialect, and is so clever that it almost hurts.
10. False God
"we might just get away with it...religion's in your lips"
False God is a sultry, innovative and golden song full of sly innuendos and a deep exploration of religion and love. The entire song is a brilliant metaphor, and paints love with hazy and undeniably sensual brushstrokes. Ms. Swift is in deep.
9. I Think He Knows
"lyrical smile
indigo eyes
hand on my thigh
we can follow the sparks, I'll drive"
I feel an addictive, euphoric midnight surge when I listen to this song. It's a hurricane of pulsating beats and lyrics that make me feel like I'm 16 and stupid in love all over again.
8. The Man
"I'd be a fearless leader
I'd be an alpha type
When everyone believes you- what's that like?"
Ms. Swift singlehandedly shatters the patriarchy with this bold, powerful song about double standards. Taylor has spent over a decade dealing with poisonous headlines filled with her being called America's Sweetheart, a dramatic girl, a slut, and countless other demoralizing insults. All of them stem from her simply being a woman. She explores what her career would be perceived as if she was a man.
7. Cornelia Street
"I hope I never lose you, I hope it never ends
That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend."
Taylor casts a ghostly spell with this heartwrenching song. She perfectly articulates that phenomenon of being so deathly afraid of losing someone; the heartbreak would swallow you entirely. It's unthinkable, insurmountable.
6. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
"so sad we paint the town blue; voted most likely to run away with you"
Press play and you're seventeen and stupid and drunkedly in love with a boy who makes your heart explode. It's so detailed that you can hear locker doors slamming closed and feel the heat of a Friday night in the stands. The song captures the euphoric chaos of young love, and amid all of the prom dress and crush talk, she soberly states "boys will be boys then / where are the wise me? darling, I'm scared." It's a giggly rollercoaster of a song, with hazy instrumentation that's best suited to be blasted in a car at midnight with a loved one.
5. The Archer
"I've been the archer; I've been the prey.
Who could ever leave me darlin?
But who could stay?"
This song absolutely annihilated me. It's startlingly vulnerable, the kind of vulnerable that knocks the wind out of you. The Archer is bursting with emotion, as if extracted directly from Swift's diary, and my heart couldn't help but break right along with hers as she talked about everything from hating your reflection, lost love, putting up walls, and the never-ending fear that you're unloveable.
4. Lover
"My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue
All's well that ends well to end up with you"
This title track is a hugely romantic, sweeping song that screams wedding bells and blushing. It's near-perfect lyrically and makes my heart soar to impossible heights. It's the love story we all hope to find.
3. Death By A Thousand Cuts
"My time, wine, my spirit, my trust
Trying to find a part of me you didn't take up
I gave you too much but it wasn't enough
I'll be alright, it's just a thousand cuts."
This song is a hurricane of raw, unfiltered, and shattering heartbreak; it is densely flooded with the inner dialogue of a relationship bursting at the seams. Swift is perhaps the most well known for her startlingly cathartic depictions of relationships in flames, and this song towers above the rest lyrically. It's so jam packed with brilliant lines that you have to listen to it a few times to soak it in entirely.
2. Cruel Summer
"I scream, for whatever it's worth,
I love you aint that the worst thing you ever heard?"
Cruel Summer is a pulsating, neon, and glistening tribute to the addictive atrocities of summer love. The entire song is just an adrenaline rush. It catapults between yearning and complex flirtation and secrecy so seamlessly. It's an iridescent ode to that July feeling, to the summer you replay constantly in your head.
1. Daylight
"I've been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night; and now I see daylight. I only see daylight."
I've been a devout Taylor Swift fan since age eleven. To see her shatter and scream and have her heart devoured carelessly over the years has been nothing short of devastating. She's used this vulnerability to strengthen her listeners, but now, finally finally she's home. And that's what this song feels like. It feels like "FINALLY." In a line that made me audibly gasp, she reflects on her past songs cleverly stating that "I once believed love would be burning red, but it's golden." The entire song feels like you're melting in this twinkling, warm elixir. It's absolutely magical. She ends with stating the painfully beautiful line that encapsulates the entire album "YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE."
You are what you love.
XOXO, Sky