After months of waiting and counting down, Taylor Swift‘s Lover is here. TS7 comes nearly 13 full years after her debut album was released. It is more grown-up as she approaches her 30th birthday. It is fun, with songs you can dance to anywhere at any time. And it gets deeply personal, the way Taylor Swift is known to do.

Swift’s career has gone through directional changes, revamps, and growth since she released her self-titled country album in October 2006. The constant though has been the continued evolution in expressing herself and telling her stories through her songs. Lover continues that path with bangers and maybe the saddest/deepest/hardest hitting song of her career all on one album together.

In her words…

For all of the behind-the-scenes business information that has been in the headlines lately, we’re much more interested and invested in the art Taylor has to share. Yes, we want her to have the control and autonomy she has earned, but Lover is the reason her name is on our lips. Songs like Cruel Summer and The Man have fans tapping their toes and learning the words. Paper Rings has already become a dance party favourite in our condo. And we haven’t even mentioned ME!, You Need To Calm Down, The Archer, or Lover which all came out before the official release of the 18-track album.

Related: Taylor Swift Kicks Off New Era With ME!

Before we get back into songs, we should give love to the fact that we got 18 songs. We understand the upside and the reasons artists choose to release digital singles and four or five-song EPs. But, when an artist has the ability to give us an hour-long listening experience, we’re happy.

Lover is a full 61-minute spin. Whether you’re sitting down to just take it in and listen or if you’ve got in playing as you dance around the kitchen while you bake Taylor’s chai sugar cookies, it has enough in it to keep going with you. And if you do want to listen to it again and get to two hours, nobody is going to blame you.

In my words…

In case you were wondering, I am indeed all in on the new @taylorswift13 album. Cruel Summer and The Man on repeat already. #Lover

— Joshua Murray (@phjoshua) August 23, 2019

Also (pt 2), me and the toddler have had great dances to Paper Rings. Great dances! #Lover

— Joshua Murray (@phjoshua) August 23, 2019

When I was mentioning songs earlier and listed nearly half the album in one paragraph, I left one song out on purpose. Soon You’ll Get Better is Taylor Swift pouring it all out. It’s the song that connects us to the Taylor we met when she was a teenager singing about high school crushes, but with higher stakes. It’s a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes if you’ve ever loved someone who has been sick and you’ve been scared. It’s heavy and hard. It’s the reality in the middle of a pastel dream. And we are very glad it made this album. We are glad the Dixie Chicks were able to work on the song with Taylor Swift to make it more personal and impactful for her and us as listeners. And more than anything we hope for the health of Taylor’s mom as she continues her battle with cancer.

It’s true that Soon You’ll Get Better is a song you’re going to want to skip over if you’re in the middle of a dance party. That’s okay.

It’s also okay to look at this as an album that offers a new batch of songs for Taylor Swift dance parties. There is a lot of joy and fun on Lover and we expected that. After ME! and You Need To Calm Down, we knew those kinds of songs were on the album. And after 1989 and Reputation, we know Taylor Swift makes pop albums that know how to be poppy in all the right ways.

There’s balance on the album from song-to-song. We’ll get huge bangers that you hear everywhere on pop radio. There will be love and pushback. There will be huge sales numbers. There will be lineups online to get tickets and at the gates to get in when Taylor Swift goes on tour to sing the new songs from Lover.

And soon enough there will be anticipation for what comes next. For now, though, we’re here for this album and the 18 new songs that Taylor Swift has created and released to the world. We’re here for this new era in the evolution of her career and life.

Turn it on. Turn up the volume. Learn the words and sing along. Music is meant to be enjoyed and lived. And that’s what we’re doing with Lover.

Taylor Swift, Lover Tracklist

1. I Forgot That You Existed
2. Cruel Summer
3. Lover
4. The Man
5. The Archer
6. I Think He Knows
7. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
8. Paper Rings
9. Cornelia Street
10. Death By a Thousand Cuts
11. London Boy
12. Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. Dixie Chicks)
13. False God
14. You Need to Calm Down
15. Afterglow
16. ME! (feat. Brendon Urie)
17. It’s Nice to Have a Friend
18. Daylight

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Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.