Lover (Taylor Swift song)
"Lover" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the title track of her seventh studio album (2019). Swift conceived it as a timeless love song that could be played at a wedding reception; the lyrics are about an intimate and committed relationship, and the bridge draws on the bridal rhyme "Something old". Produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, "Lover" combines country and indie folk over a waltz tempo. It has an acoustic-guitar-driven balladic production consisting of snare drums, piano, pizzicato strings, and dense reverb. Republic Records released "Lover" for download and streaming on August 16, 2019, and to US radio the next month.
"Lover"
Swift and Drew Kirsch directed the music video, which was released on August 22, 2019; it follows a couple living inside a dollhouse in a snow globe. Republic Records released three alternate versions of "Lover": a duet remix featuring the Canadian singer Shawn Mendes, an orchestral "First Dance Remix" based on Swift's performance at the 2019 American Music Awards, and a live version recorded at her 2019 City of Lover concert. During promotion of Lover in 2019, Swift performed the song on televised events such as the MTV Video Music Awards and Saturday Night Live. She included it in the set list of her sixth concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Music critics lauded Swift's songwriting on "Lover" and commented that it showcased emotionally engaging lyrics and a romantic production. Some appreciated the acoustic production that was reminiscent of Swift's early-career albums. Publications including Billboard, Complex, and Pitchfork featured the song on their 2019 year-end lists. It was Swift's first solo-written track nominated for Song of the Year at the 2020 Grammy Awards, and its video received two MTV Video Music Award nominations. The single peaked within the top 10 on charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
Composition[edit]
Music[edit]
"Lover" is built upon a slow waltz tempo and a retro-styled musical motif.[13][14] Swift said while recording, she imagined the production to sound like "just the last two people on a dance floor at 3 a.m. swaying".[9] The track is driven by acoustic instruments, primarily guitars and percussion.[15][16] The production incorporates piano, reverbed drums and vocals, and Mellotron-simulated, pizzicato strings.[16][17][18] The rhythm is punctuated by booming snare drums and a bass line described by Vanity Fair's Erin Vanderhoff as "sonorous, swung".[7][19] Many critics compared the production to the music of alternative rock band Mazzy Star, specifically their 1993 single "Fade into You".[18][20][21]
Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described the track as a tender, 1960s-styled acoustic ballad that shows Swift experimenting with rhythm and meter.[22] Many music critics, including Alice Vincent of The Daily Telegraph,[23] Louise Bruton of The Irish Times,[24] and Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club, characterized "Lover" as a country song, with Zaleski describing it as a country torch song and an indie folk production.[17] Vincent and NME's Karen Gwee considered the guitar-based melody of "Lover" a throwback to Swift's early country-music albums,[25] with the former commenting that it is a "mature companion" to Fearless (2008) and Speak Now (2010).[23] Nate Jones of Vulture,[26] Nick Levine of NME,[27] and Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described the song as alternative country.[28]
Billboard's Jason Lipshutz disagreed: " 'Lover' is not a country song, but it certainly nods to the bare songwriting that marked much of Swift's early career."[29] In The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber said that the track could have been a country-music song had the production trimmed down the reverb and described it as a "dusky rock ballad".[30][31] Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times called the song "dream-folk",[32] and The Ringer's Lindsay Zoladz wrote that the single "doesn't sound like anything else currently popular" on either of country or pop radio formats.[33]
Lyrics and interpretation[edit]
The lyrics to "Lover" are about a couple's committed and intimate relationship.[34] In the verses, the narrator describes scenes of their domestic life, such as leaving the Christmas lights on past the holiday season and having their friends sleeping over on the living-room floor.[23] Swift initially wrote the opening line as, "We could leave the Christmas lights up 'til April," but changed it to "up 'til January" on the final version.[35] She explained that the change was meant to portray simple and universal experiences of couples who live together, "It's not about that being a crazy thing. It's about how mundane it is."[35] At one point, the narrator asks if she has known her love "20 seconds or 20 years".[36] She asks to commit to her partner in the refrain, "Can I go where you go?/ Can we always be this close?"[10][37]
The marriage-vow-inspired bridge is a declaration of their romance, "Ladies and gentlemen will you please stand/ With every guitar string scar in my hand/ I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover."[37][38] Swift said the cited lyrics were special to her, because it made her reflect on her past songwriting about failed relationships and heartbreak.[39] The narrator promises to stay with her lover, "You'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me/ And at every table, I'll save you a seat."[40] Some media publications noticed the lyric, "My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue," drawing on the bridal rhyme "Something old", which describes the bridal costume on her wedding day, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue."[41][42]
Critics related the song's theme to Swift's past songs, with many drawing similarities between the narratives of "Lover" and "New Year's Day", a song taken from Reputation (2017).[24][34][43] Jane Song from Paste noted the intertwined storylines between the two songs, dubbing "Lover" a sequel: "They're cleaning up bottles as they laugh at their friends passed out in the living room."[37] Reviewers commented the narrator on "Lover" finally lives up her happily-ever-after dream that Swift's past songs strived for.[44][45] Vincent opined that the "guitar string scars" imagery is an allusion to Swift's albums Red (2012) and 1989 (2014), on which she moved from country to pop.[23] Meanwhile, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone deemed "Lover" a sequel to "Last Kiss", a song off Speak Now (2010), "but with a decade's worth more soul going into it".[46] In Vulture, Craig Jenkins noticed its intimate and introspective sentiments after the two preceding singles for the album—"Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down"—which have lyrics concerning the outer world and empowering oneself. Jenkins surmised that after the negative press surrounding Reputation, "Lover" reflected Swift's desire to "want nothing more than a quiet place to retreat to when the rigors of life in public get her down".[20]
Music video[edit]
The music video for "Lover", directed by Swift and Drew Kirsch, premiered on YouTube on August 22, 2019, hours before the album's release.[59][60] Christian Owens, a dancer on Swift's 1989 and Reputation tours, stars as the male lead.[61] The video was filmed in a set in Hollywood.[62] According to Swift, its concept was inspired by the lyric "You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round" from the song "You Are in Love", a song about two best friends in love, taken from Swift's album 1989.[63]
The video begins with a child receiving a snow globe as a gift on Christmas day, before focusing on the dollhouse inside the snow globe.[64] Swift and Owens portray a couple who live in the house, which has seven distinctly-colored rooms.[65] Each features scenes of the couple's domestic life through the ups and downs of their love.[66] For instance, the green room shows Swift's character playing drums, the yellow room features the couple playing board games, the blue room has a giant fishbowl in which the couple swim, and an attic is where they reminisce by watching home videos.[66][67][68] At the end, the child who receives the snow globe is revealed to be the couple's daughter.[69] The video includes easter eggs to many of Swift's other songs and albums, including each room in the dollhouse represents one previous Taylor Swift's album (her later albums, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights, were referenced into the dollhouse and its related landscape by Taylor after their release).[70] Media outlets welcomed the video's romantic and dreamy atmosphere;[64][71] Teen Vogue's Mary Elizabeth Andriotis compared the cinematography to the films of director Wes Anderson.[69]
Commercial performance[edit]
In the United States, "Lover" debuted atop the Hot Digital Songs chart with 35,000 digital copies sold first-week, giving Swift her 18th chart topper and extending her record as the artist with the most Hot Digital Songs number-one songs. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated August 31, 2019, it debuted at number 19.[90] After its music video was released, the song rose to number 10 on the next charting week, becoming Lover's third top-10 single and Swift's 25th top-10 chart entry.[91] It spent a total of 22 weeks on the Hot 100.[92] On Billboard's airplay charts, the single peaked at numbers six on Adult Top 40,[93] 10 on Adult Contemporary,[94] and 16 on Mainstream Top 40.[95] The Recording Industry Association of America, in October 2020, certified "Lover" double platinum for surpassing two million units based on sales and streaming.[96]
"Lover" peaked within the top 20 on singles charts of other English-speaking countries, reaching number three in both Australia and New Zealand,[97] number seven in Canada,[98] number nine in Ireland,[99] number 12 in Scotland,[100] and number 14 in the United Kingdom.[101] The single was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry,[102] six-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association,[103] and triple platinum by Music Canada.[104] In other countries, "Lover" reached number 14 on Poland's airplay chart and was certified platinum by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry;[105][106] it also reached the top five in Lebanon and Singapore,[107][108] and top 20 in Lithuania,[109] Latvia,[110] and Estonia,[111] and was certified platinum by the Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa in Portugal.[112]
Awards and nominations[edit]
At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020, "Lover" was nominated for Song of the Year, becoming Swift's fourth nomination in the category after "You Belong with Me" (2010), "Shake It Off" (2015), and "Blank Space" (2016), and her first solo-written nomination.[9] It lost to "Bad Guy", written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell;[113] according to the Los Angeles Times, the Grammy loss prompted speculation on whether it was affected by Swift's ongoing dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, over the acquisition of the master recordings to her past albums.[114] At the 2020 Nashville Songwriter Awards, organized by the Nashville Songwriters Association International, "Lover" was listed among "10 Songs I Wish I'd Written".[115]
The single was one of the "10 International Gold Songs" awarded at Hong Kong's RTHK International Pop Poll Awards,[116] and the Shawn Mendes remix was nominated for Best Remix at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.[117] In 2021, Broadcast Music, Inc. during the BMI Pop Awards honored "Lover" as one of the 50 most-performed songs throughout the year, based on airplay and streaming performance.[118] The music video won Best Production Design in a Video at the MVPA Awards,[119] and received nominations for Favorite International Video at the Philippines' Myx Music Awards[120] and Best Music Video and Best Cinematography at Poland's Camerimage film festival.[121] At the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, "Lover" was nominated for Best Pop Video and Best Art Direction.[122] Kurt Gefke, the video's production designer, received a nomination in the "Short Format" category at the ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards.[123]