base talk Was Taylor Swift's Lover rightfully hated or is it underrated?

[Josh]

I know that 1989 and Reputation were huge pop albums and Lover had big shoes to fill but the reviews weren't  favorable reviews or even acclaimed compared to 1989, reputation, folklore & Evermore.

 

Was Taylor's Lover overhated or rightfully hated? or is it underrated? It's in the middle of four albums that are positively reviewed by critics, pop stans and Swifities. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Josh

[Brooklyn Baby]

Here we go...

[Ribs]

I don't know, lets ask GP: 

 

 

 

Thought so.

 

[Folklore89sm]

20 minutes ago, Josh said:

I know that 1989 and Reputation were huge pop albums and Lover had big shoes to fill but the reviews weren't  favorable reviews or even acclaimed compared to 1989, reputation, folklore & Evermore.

 

Was Taylor's Lover overhated or rightfully hated? or is it underrated? It's in the middle of four albums that are positively reviewed by critics, pop stans and Swifities. 

Lover has better critical reviews than 1989 and rep

[greento]

Way overhated, it’s better than Rep mostly and has really high highs. People just focus on the worst parts (i.e. ME!)

[Mr. Duff]

Overhated. I personally prefer it to both Reputation and 1989.

[Trent W]

I think if you delete the 3 horrible singles aside from lover song and turn it into an EP with half of the songs it could be actually decent.

 

Cruel Summer and Lover song should’ve been the only singles and skip to folklore afterwards.

But the project as it is, is rightfully rejected.

 

I really don’t know who streams it.

 

[NausAllien]

It's better than Reputation, but overall not great.

 

Her discography has gone downhill since 1989... 

[Folklore89sm]

Ok so with Lover, there’s a lot to like, a lot to hate, and not much to love. It’s (in my opinion) by far the least Taylor-esque album in that there are multiple songs on it that could have been released by anyone. Even reputation - behind the brash electronic productions - the hooks and word use are very classic Taylor. The corny songs are the kind of corny that Taylor does well. On the other hand, Lover’s lead “ME!” is genuinely one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. It’s cringe but not even in an ironic way like Shake It Off. It’s so serious and desperate in its attempt to be a universally adored self-love radio anthem that it was actually unlistenable. The chorus was terrible. The verses were terrible. The bridge was terrible. The spelling was terrible. The collaboration was terrible. It felt like she genuinely had sold out and it’s the closest I’ve been to unstanning. I was almost angry with her for being so out of touch she was with her audience post-reputation. For me, the entire album and era wasn’t able to outrun the disastrous lead, made even worse by the woeful second single.

 

On the production side of things, it’s not fully there for me. Songs like Cornelia St and DBATC were failed by their instrumentals and came alive when performed with just a voice and a guitar. DBATC should have been a 90s style guitar pop-rock song.

 

Cruel Summer is great. It should have been the lead. ITHK is an excellent pop song too. Lover is proving to be the timeless classic it always sounded like. The Archer was an acceptable promo single and a nice song. DBATC and CS were great. False God was good. SYGB was good. Afterglow, Daylight and Paper Rings were decent. London Boy was ok.

I liked MAATHP back in 2019 but it’s aged badly and now sounds cringe but it at least was a little bit of a tonic among the endless positivity of the rest of the music. The Man is even worse.   PoLiTiCaL! IFTYE is bad. I don’t know what she was going for with INTHAF but it didn’t work either. Not going to get into ME!/YNTCD.

 

Ultimately, Lover was written for the GP to win back some love after the divisive reputation. I guess it sort of worked because it’s longevity is incredible despite it being perhaps the least loved album of hers among Swifties. It was her first real attempt of an album in the streaming era and despite the singles rightfully flopping, the GP found the good in the album and it played a key-role in getting her to the level she is at now in terms of streaming and general popularity.
 

 

 

 

 

[Folklore89sm]

9 minutes ago, Trent W said:

I think if you delete the 3 horrible singles aside from lover song and turn it into an EP with half of the songs it could be actually decent.

 

Cruel Summer and Lover song should’ve been the only singles and skip to folklore afterwards.

But the project as it is, is rightfully rejected.

 

I really don’t know who streams it.

 

The thing is… I don’t think folklore would have happened if ME! hadn’t been pushed and bombed. It scared her into (hopefully) never pushing a terrible song as a lead and it scared her out of the pop genre. It made her realise we had all grown up and it was time for her to stop aiming at a hit with the younger demographic. 

[romas_ld]

47 minutes ago, Josh said:

 reviews weren't  favorable reviews or even acclaimed compared to 1989, reputation, folklore & Evermore.

. 

it was her most acclaimed project before folkmore  

[Josh]

1 minute ago, romas_ld said:

it was her most acclaimed project before folkmore  

Then why is it divisive on ATRL?

[4Real]

51 minutes ago, Josh said:

I know that 1989 and Reputation were huge pop albums and Lover had big shoes to fill but the reviews weren't  favorable reviews or even acclaimed compared to 1989, reputation.

Lol! reputation doesn't come anywhere close to the acclaim and success 1989 had. And Lover was much more well received than the former, despite its tragic single choices.

 

To answer the question: it's underrated.

[4Real]

3 minutes ago, Josh said:

Then why is it divisive on ATRL?

ATRL stans repannedtation, what else can we expect?

[mikeyace16]

49 minutes ago, Ribs said:

I don't know, lets ask GP: 

 

 

 

Thought so.

 

Why is Paper Rings smashing ?! Not that I’m complaining. It’s in her trinity

[Rev8]

No lol

it wasn't even hated, it's just unpopular and nobody cares for it

[Mtjjproducer]

cruel summer, lover, and I think he know (minus Taylors horrible vocals in the chorus) are the only good songs off that album. max Martin is just a far superior producer at pop music than jack is and the other producers on that album. jack  should stick to the try hard indie music cause that is his niche. 

[Aqua]

It's a terrible album

[Trent W]

21 minutes ago, Folklore89sm said:

The thing is… I don’t think folklore would have happened if ME! hadn’t been pushed and bombed. It scared her into (hopefully) never pushing a terrible song as a lead and it scared her out of the pop genre. It made her realise we had all grown up and it was time for her to stop aiming at a hit with the younger demographic. 

That’s a very good point

[byzantium]

Its a great album with some  of the worst singles from any MPG.  I think it received a lot of hate for the singles and that is well placed, but more recently the album has been redeemed as everyone has just been wiping ME and YNTCD from their memories. 

[PieceByPiece_KC]

The album has a perception problem. The album is remember by it's first singles Me! & YNTCD. While there are many, many songs on the album that are better, it is ingrained in everyone's mind that the album's lead single is trash and therefore associate the album as trash-ish. While in reality, I agree the lead single was a big mistake, but it does not represent the album. I mean the album has so many good songs: Cruel Summer, Lover, I Think he Knows, Paper Rings, Cornelia Street, Afterglow, Daylight.

 

Although I do like the album overall, I feel the need to point out how much I dislike The Man.

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by PieceByPiece_KC
grammar

[vuelve88]

It’s bad for her standards. I just didn’t love very many songs and there were several skips for me too. It’s an okay album. 

[Rei]

It’s really good.

 

I only deleted Soon You’ll Get Better, Paper Rings and It’s Nice To Have A Friend.

 

K bye for now, Sunshine. <3

[Archie]

There's a really solid 10 track album in there if you edit it, including all the singles except the title track. 

[Letemtalk]

I found it difficult to finish the album when I first listened, kept checking how much longer I had to go before it was over.

Some good songs worth keeping, maybe 8 or 10 tracks, but as an album it's overrated.