Taylor Swift – Lover

[collegedropout]

Still don't understand why they went with ME!. For someone as smart and calculated as Taylor, I don't know how she can make such an obvious mistake. "Calm Down" isn't great either but at least I there is sound reasoning for that release (wanting to make a statement). ME was so obviously bad and so obviously going to get her dragged.

[collegedropout]

Aug 29, 2019 14:59:04 GMT -5 Ivy Leegue™ said:

So...I just listened to Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, after constantly seeing reviewers bring up the comparison between that song and Lover and...let's just say that artists have been forced to give other artists writing credits for FAR less similar songs. Even the vocal delivery is similar. Still loving Lover though, but the reviewers are spot-on with this one.

After now hearing the album in CD form on my computer speakers (I don't know why I never think to do this because CD quality is definitely better than ripped or streaming. I usually just buy the CD, immediately upload it to iTunes and put it back in the case. I think now I will only play the CD version of this when at home), iTunes-ripped version on my computer speakers, and the album on my headphones multiple times, my ranking is now:

1. The Archer
2. Lover
3. Cruel Summer
4. I Think He Knows
5. Death By A Thousand Cuts
6. Afterglow
7. The Man
8. Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince
9. Soon You'll Get Better
10. Paper Rings
11. Cornelia Street
12. Daylight
13. I Forgot That You Existed
14. Me!
15. You Need To Calm Down
16. London Boy
17. False God
18. It's Nice To Have A Friend

I don't really see this changing at this point.

Your placing of "False God" is incorrect. Please go over it again then edit your post.

[areyoureadytojump]

www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrolli/2019/08/29/why-taylor-swifts-lover-will-outsell-reputation-in-the-end/#3f017f3d5b6a

Why Taylor Swift's 'Lover' Will Outsell 'Reputation' In The End
By Bryan Rolli

Taylor Swift’s Lover has not yet been out a full week, and it’s already earned the biggest U.S. sales week since, you guessed it, Swift’s own Reputation at the end of 2017. The singer’s seventh studio album has already moved an estimated 750,000 units in the U.S., and reaching the coveted 1 million mark no longer seems out of reach. Lover will most likely debut below Reputation’s 1.238 million units (of which 1.216 million were pure sales). But even if Lover undersells Reputation in its first seven days, it’s going to have a much longer shelf life than its predecessor.

When Swift launched her Reputation promotional campaign in late August 2017 with the release of lead single “Look What You Made Me Do,” it followed a relative media hiatus and a full-scale social media blackout. She was still reeling from the fallout over the latest development in her decade-long feud with Kanye West, and she exited 2016 looking like more of a villain than him for probably the first time. “Look What You Made Me Do” was an appropriately reactionary single, a chilly electro-pop number that seemed to indirectly address her feud with West. The drastic stylistic change and opulent, literally diamond-studded music video helped shoot “Look What You Made Me Do” to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the song broke first-day streaming records on Spotify and YouTube. It lingered at the top of the charts for several more weeks and proved Swift was still capable of commanding the world’s attention in this new album era.

But that early success came at a price. “Look What You Made Me Do” polarized fans and critics; for every listener who praised her new musical direction, others disparaged her new “bad girl” persona and wrote the song off as an embarrassing gaffe. Of Reputation’s myriad other singles, only “…Ready for It?” cracked the Top 10, peaking at No. 4. By industry standards, Reputation was a massive success, but for Swift—who is used to launching several No. 1s and Top 10s per album—it was front-loaded and a relative under-performer. Reputation proved that outrage and celebrity grudges can dominate headlines and make for huge first-week sales, but when they’re the primary themes of an album, they can feel exhausting. Make no mistake: Many diehard and casual Swift fans love Reputation. But its surrounding narrative and media blitz also burned out many listeners by the time the album finally hit stores, and musically, it’s the sound of an artist running on empty. This is reflected in Reputation’s 3x platinum RIAA certification, far below the 9x platinum certification of 1989 and the 7x platinum certification of Red.

Lover corrects nearly all of Reputation’s musical and narrative shortcomings. The album rollout got off to a less-than-stellar start with its treacly first single, “ME!,” which missed the top spot on the Hot 100 thanks to Lil Nas X’s seemingly immortal “Old Town Road.” Another No. 2-peaking single, “You Need to Calm Down,” followed a couple months later, once again polarizing listeners, this time for its lyrical content. Some accused Swift of equating the adversity she faces as a celebrity to the oppression the LGBTQ community faces, while others praised the song as a sincere display of allyship. (In her recent Vogue cover story, Swift explained that each verse addresses a different group of people.) While this critic is still not particularly fond of “You Need to Calm Down” from a musical perspective, it’s certainly a better-crafted song than its predecessor, and being an ally suits Swift better than being a cog in the celebrity drama machine.

The rest of Lover is similarly rosy compared to Reputation. True to its name, the album is essentially a love letter to friends, lovers, parents and the very concept of love itself. The hooks are ebullient, the production is engrossing and the lyrics yield great payoffs for studious fans who have been parsing her words for years. The album dropped at the tail end of summer, but it’s not difficult to hear “Cruel Summer,” “I Think He Knows,” “London Boy” or “Paper Rings” blasting at Labor Day cookouts or fall campfires. To put it as simply as possible: Lover is a more musically and narratively positive album than Reputation, which should give it a much longer shelf life than its predecessor.

Lover is also the first Swift album to become available on streaming services on its first day of release. Yet while this tactic may attract more casual listeners in the album’s first week, I suspect it may actually result in a lower overall debut. Swift has simultaneously utilized both scarcity and surplus when marketing her albums; she’s restricted them on streaming services while releasing several different physical versions at once, encouraging fans to buy multiple copies to reap the exclusive benefits. Previously, if you wanted to hear a Swift album—even if you only wanted to hate-listen—you had to buy a physical CD, which counted for one whole album sale, no matter what you did with it after purchasing it. With Lover, fans and haters alike have the luxury of listening to a few songs and then switching to a different song or album on Spotify if they don’t like what they hear. If multiple listeners tune out before finishing an album, their cumulative streams will probably amount to fewer equivalent album units than if they had each purchased one physical copy of Lover.

On the flip side, streaming services encourage casual and passive listening, and I suspect Lover’s streaming totals will maintain if not increase in coming weeks. Positive critical reception and word-of-mouth will encourage skeptical listeners to give the album a shot; if they enjoy it much more than they expected, this could result in a ton of streams, where they would have never bought a physical copy of the album otherwise. Swift is a product of a different era in the music industry than the likes of Billie Eilish, Drake or even Ariana Grande, and her streaming totals will likely never match those of her contemporaries. Luckily for her, streaming only supplements her main diet of physical album sales, where she remains unmatched except for Adele.

Of course, Swift’s physical album sales also benefit greatly from her merchandise/album bundles, several dozen of which are available on her website right now. (This is hardly uncommon for global superstars these days, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a fandom that’s more willing to shell out big bucks for numerous variations of a physical product than Swift’s.) Lover will also inevitably enjoy a huge sales boost in a few weeks or months when Swift announces her ensuing tour. She is all but guaranteed to sell ticket/album bundles, and if she participates in a program similar to TicketMaster’s Verified Fan program again, she could encourage fans to buy multiple copies of Lover to increase their chances of purchasing tickets online.

While it would be a remarkable feat for Lover to sell a million units in its first week like Swift’s last four albums, it’s a bit of an irrelevant milestone. The long game is more important here, and Lover should prove to have better legs than Reputation. The marketing strategies play an important role here, but in the end, it’s quite simple: Lover is a more lyrically uplifting and musically engrossing album than Reputation, and it doesn’t need a dramatic accompanying personal narrative for its songs to have a longer shelf life. Sometimes, fans just want to have something to love.

[Ivy Leegue™]

Aug 29, 2019 20:33:08 GMT -5 collegedropout said:

Your placing of "False God" is incorrect. Please go over it again then edit your post.

It is not and I will not, but thanks for asking nicely!

[Future Captain]

I still can't get over how perfect of an album closer Daylight is.

[NeRD]

False God
Americana
Cruel Summer
Afterglow
The Archer
Daylight
Cornelia Street

Imo these songs are better than anything off Reputation. False God and Americana are so damn good.

Damn Tay. She really brought it.

[Choco]

I wanna apologize to Ms. Swift for doubting her, but to be fair the first two singles didn't really represent the album well.

Still loving this album a lot.

[deepston]

Spotify First-Week WW Streams

Day 1: 54,830,823
Day 2: 39,874,893 (-27%)
Day 3: 32,474,452 (-18.56%)
Day 4: 36,358,501 (+11,8%)
Day 5: 33,388,599 (-8.14%)
Day 6: 31,283,082 (-6.31%)
Day 7: 28,901,189 (-7,61%)

First Week Total: 257,143,674

Third biggest opening ever worldwide, surpassed only by Ariana and Billie.

[BDGeek]

Highlights are “Cruel Summer,” “Lover,” “Paper Rings,” and “Afterglow.” “Cornelia Street” and “London Boy” are great too. The songs don’t stand out as much as the highlights of Fearless or Red. But overall, it’s a much more enjoyable and relatable album than Reputation.

I’ve always been baffled as to how she’s stayed on top for seven albums when most pop stars fade after two or three. Props to her and her team for keeping her relevant for over a decade.

[born]

“Cornelia Street” is my new obsession. It has beautiful melodies. I love these kind of songs from Taylor. Her mid-range is underrated. Her vocals add a lot to the song.

I particularly love the first verse. Simple storytelling & simple melody.

[austin]

Aug 30, 2019 12:34:35 GMT -5 born said:

“Cornelia Street” is my new obsession. It has beautiful melodies. I love these kind of songs from Taylor. Her mid-range is underrated. Her vocals add a lot to the song.

I particularly love the first verse. Simple storytelling & simple melody.

My favorite!

[theflying]

Death By A Thousand Cuts: What came first, it reminding me of Red or it sounding like such a great Autumn song? Red sounds so extremely autumnal and DBATC would be so at home on that album.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

You know what else is very autumnal? Taylor rankdowns! Lover Rankdown is open until Tuesday:

pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/187613/taylor-swift-lover-impression-rankdown

[Deleted]

Aug 29, 2019 13:59:00 GMT -5 KeepDeanWeird said:

Aug 29, 2019 12:59:24 GMT -5 deepston said:

This has always annoyed me. Selling an album is like selling each individual track of the album separately. It not counting makes absolutely no sense.

That's been my argument for years. If someone buys 9 Lover tracks (almost the price equivalent of complete album), all those count to H100, but buying all 18 doesn't. Completely illogical.

It was the same way with digital multi-track remix singles - if someone bought the singlethd with all tracks (4, 6 or 8), it counted as 1, but if someone purchased 1 track, it counted the same for the H100.

The weirdest was when you brought a full album and it would delete your digital download of the album and the hot 100 would count it. (Causing We are never ever getting back together to drop 4-11 and the promo singles to drop out entirely)

[born]

[theflying]

Anyone else find Cornelia Street more of a chill “Delicate” kind of song than an epic “All Too Well”?

(I feel like Cornelia St and Delicate also have the same tempo.)

[NeRD]

Anyone else think Afterglow would be a fantastic single? Not before the obvious ones of course (Lover, Cruel Summer, The Man)

[Mazo]

Jun 18, 2019 4:36:17 GMT -5 adamalterlago said:

Jun 17, 2019 22:43:44 GMT -5 Mazo said:

I hate to bring race into the argument, but it seems like certain publications are trying their hardest to dismantle the white pop star in the “woke” era for clicks and views and twitter retweets. I don’t know if the people writing the articles are black/poc or just some white apologists or if that even matters. But you never see them trashing black musicians in such a way that feels deliberate.

Personally, I feel like music nowadays is so bad that quality is no longer subjective or even objective. It just is. It very much has to do with what is trendy. Rap is trendy right now so the likelihood of a pop song doing well is very small and that doesn’t mean it’s a bad song because it doesn’t chart high. The success of a song nowadays is NOT measured by quality even though chart fanatics want to believe so. Trash seems to “win” every day. I mean, look at Spotify and Apple Music top 50. Garbage rap songs are dominating with little to no effort.

I also find it extremely weird that streaming has made it easy to access music in a way that has never been done before in previous generations yet most of the world, the US anyway, opts to listen to generic, same ol’ same rap music. You’d think music would be more diverse because it’s so easy to access it but shockingly it isn’t. Then again, look at the BO and most of the movies dominating being superhero films. It’s like the world has regressed while being progressive at the same time. I feel like the 90s were more diverse. 

You need to be careful here. I think publications are focusing in on the traditional white pop star because for a long time, the traditional white pop star has "borrowed" from other cultures, races and subgroups, becoming very rich while the ones who created the original sound or style do not. I do notice that publications like Pitchfork have shifted to a strong focus on hip-hop over the last two years and as much as I'm not a huge fan of hip hop in its current state (I'm into 90s hip hop), it's how things change. 
Trash seems to “win” every day. I mean, look at Spotify and Apple Music top 50. Garbage rap songs are dominating with little to no effort.
I'm not a big fan of what is currently "winning" either but what's trash is another person's treasure. Five years ago, people could say Taylor Swift's garbage pop songs are dominating the charts. In fact when "We Are Never Getting Back Together" hit #1, many people I know hated that song (I didn't). Same with "Shake It Off". 
You make some interesting points here and I have to agree with you in comparing streaming to the BO. It's a great way to understand how streaming works in comparing it to Marvel films. And the 90s were so diverse but at the same time, I think artists were made to stay in their lane more. If you were black, you had to do R&B or hip-hop (excluding a few artists like Lenny Kravitz) and if you were a white female on a guitar you were usually labeled as the next addition to Lillith Fair and given a theme song on a WB teen show. Today is much more inclusive. 
Sorry to go off on a tangent. Just wanted to point some things out from reading your post. Hope you're enjoying "Calm Down"! 

I’m sorry, I know this post is months old, but mindless songs about SEX (this topic is 95% of the songs on the charts!)shooting people, selling dope, twerking, stripping, getting money, rich people problems like buying a Lamborghini over a trap beat with the same melody as 10 other songs is matter of factly trash. There’s no way around it. Music is currently at the lowest it has ever been with the exception of, maybe,  Lizzo. You know it’s bad when old songs have to save the day and most of the top 30 has been charting for almost a calendar year. 

[Hefty Hanna]

885K is massive.

DBATC and ‘Cornelia Street’ keep going back and forth as my favourite song on the album.

[deepston]

[born]

You might've noticed that I'd rather be doing anything but studying so I made this. A ranking of every track position in Taylor's albums.

I ranked the songs of every album and then calculated the average scores for each track position. I counted 'Fearless (Platinum)' as an EP cause it fucked up the 'Fearless' album tracklist.

19. Track 19 (Score: 17)
Highest/Lowest: Girl At Home (17/19 on Red)

18. Track 10 (Score: 11.57)
Highest: The Last Time (8/19 on Red) 
Lowest: Death By A Thousand Cuts (*/18 on Lover)

17. Track 8 (Score: 11.28)
Highest: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (5/19 on Red)
Lowest: Never Grow Up (17/17 on Speak Now)

16. Track 17 (Score: 11)
Highest: The Moment I Knew (4/19 on Red)
Lowest: Superman (16/17 on Speak Now)

15. Track 15 (Score: 10.4)
Highest: Afterglow (*/18 on Lover)
Lowest: Starlight (15/19 on Red)

14. Track 1 (Score: 10.37)
Highest: Tim McGraw (1/14 on Taylor Swift)
Lowest: I Forgot That You Existed (*/18 on Lover)

13. Track 12 (Score: 10.14)
Highest: Dress (5/15 on reputation)
Lowest: I Know Places (14/16 on 1989)

12. Track 14 (Score: 9.33)
Highest: Call It What You Want (1/15 on reputation)
Lowest: Wonderland (15/16 on 1989)

11. Track 13 (Score: 9.28)
Highest: False God (*/18 on Lover)
Lowest: The Lucky One (19/19 on Red)

10. Track 6 (Score: 9)
Highest: The Other Side Of The Door (2/6 on Fearless Platinum)
Lowest: I Think He Knows (*/18 on Lover)

9. Track 4 (Score: 8.62)
Highest: Out Of The Woods (4/16 on 1989)
Lowest: Speak Now (15/17 on Speak Now)

8. Track 7 (Score: 8.28)
Highest: Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince (*/18 on Lover)
Lowest: Tied Together With A Smile (13/14 on Taylor Swift)

7. Track 2 (Score: 7.62)
Highest: Cruel Summer (*/18 on Lover)
Lowest: Red (16/19 on Red)

6. Track 11 (Score: 7.28)
Highest: Forever & Always (2/13 on Fearless)
Lowest: London Boy (*/18 on Lover)

5. Track 18 (Score: 5.5)
Highest: Come Back... Be Here (3/19 on Red)
Lowest: Daylight (*/18 on Lover)

4. Track 5 (Score: 5.37)
Highest: All Too Well (2/19 on Red)
Lowest: All You Had To Do Was Stay (11/16 on 1989)

3. Track 16 (Score: 5)
Highest: Begin Again (1/16 on Red)
Lowest: ME! (*/18 on Lover)

2. Track 9 (Score: 4.42)
Highest: Wildest Dreams (1/16 on 1989)
Lowest: Stay Stay Stay (14/19 on Red)

1. Track 3 (Score: 4.37)
Highest: Back To December (1/17 on Speak Now)
Lowest: Lover (*/18 on Lover)


PS: Whenever the highest placed track was a tie, I picked the album with the most songs (Ex. It's different when you finish 5th out of 10 and 5th out of 18). I did the opposite for the Lowest.
PS2: I hid my 'Lover' track rankings because there's an ongoing Rankdown (join here: pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/187613/taylor-swift-lover-impression-rankdown)

[Snowbeast]

False God is something fucking else. Can’t believe I overlooked it.

The vocal. The emotion. That sax? Just blown away

[Choco]

Not to be basic and predictable but title track, Cruel Summer and Miss Americana have been stuck in my head all week. I really think those three are really some of the best tracks she's done.

[aznsinger]

I think this album has some of the strongest songs she’s ever done, and a few of the lowest as well? (ME! And It’s Nice To Have A Friend)

[Ling-Ling]

I don't know if it's my frame of mind or the music itself, but I just cannot get into this album barring a few tracks. Everything is an easy listen thankfully and nothing is bad, but it's just not grabbing me as a body of work. We'll see how I feel about this later down the road.

[Choco]

Didn't happen to me here but with long albums I usually have a hard time connecting because it's so much.

I tend to rediscover gems later on once my interest for the shiny singles and highlights dies down. "All too Well" was once one of my least favorite Red tracks but time thankfully fixed that lol.

[NeRD]

Americana is just everything. The chants in the bridge really work well.

False God is stunning.

Cruel Summer is classic Tay that I love. The Jack x Tay combo is really a match made in Pop heaven.

Still think Afterglow would be a great single.

Daylight is the perfect closer.

It may end up being up there with 1989 minus the low point of the first single and couple of the album tracks. There is nothing on All Too Well's level but I don't expect Tay to reach that level of greatness again, which she doesn't have to.

[Janhova's Witness]

After living with the album for a week, I can confidently say that “Afterglow”, “Daylight” and “False God” are top 3 on the album and some of her best ever. Unlike the singles released, they show real personal and artistic growth. Looking forward to more of this on the next record 🥰

[David]

They are playing "Cruel Summer" on the US Open broadcast on ESPN :)

[deepston]

Sept 1, 2019 12:40:01 GMT -5 Janhova's Witness said:

After living with the album for a week, I can confidently say that “Afterglow”, “Daylight” and “False God” are top 3 on the album and some of her best ever. Unlike the singles released, they show real personal and artistic growth. Looking forward to more of this on the next record 🥰

Couldn't agree more! 
If we removed YNTCD and ME! the second half would be the strongest part of the album.