She\u2019s always done densely referential stuff but this is another fucking level entirely, within four bars she\u2019ll reference five of her own different songs, separately in phrasing, meter, vocal affect, beat, and instrumental sound, and ALL THE CROSS-REFERENCES ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE AND ADD DEPTH, it\u2019s fucking insane, she\u2019ll have reference chains that bounce across 5 albums and a decade as if she was planning it all along, and then while you\u2019re absorbing that you\u2019ll get to another track and learn you were being set up for an entirely different reference chain the whole time
A bit ago I was like \u201cwhy is she riffing off Katy Perry 2012\u201d but that\u2019s a definite decision. On one hand Lover \u201csounds\u201d like 1989 or Reputation in the same way that Red progressed from the country sounds of Fearless or Speak Now, but on the other there is nothing on the album that would be out of place when Red first came out in 2012
Like her duet guests are the Dixie Chicks and the lead of Panic! At the Disco, there are points where she\u2019s referencing Rilo Kiley, CHVRCHES, Annie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She uses one of her \u201cI\u2019ll rip off and caricature a rival singer\u2019s style to count coup on her\u201d slots on Lily fucking Allen
After Reputation added \u201cgetting drunk\u201d to the Tayswift universe, this album\u2019s vice theme seems to be \u201cgambling\u201d.
It is the most political album she\u2019s ever done yes but of course the endorsing Democrats and You Need To Calm Down videos were a headfake, it\u2019s more \u201ccountry\u201d in subject matter and style than anything since Red, it directly references Jesus for I believe the only time apart from the 2007 Christmas album
There\u2019s a lot of color imagery with red, blue, and purple (the album\u2019s color scheme, but pastel so it also kinda looks like the trans flag), she is offering herself as the one capable of reuniting the American tribe. There\u2019s an entirely viable reading of the album, from I Forgot That You Existed (if you take that \u201cone magical night\u201d as Election Day) through to Daylight (as the promise of the coming civic peace) as \u201cwell gosh, we\u2019ve been going overboard into Too Much Politics and it\u2019s been crap, time to put that behind us\u201d. Though along the way, at several points, if you want to, you can read her as speaking directly to red OR blue tribe and validating them.
We just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace and control our urges to scream about all the people we hate. Time to be what we love.
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