Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her new album “Lover” on Aug. 23. Leading up to the album, she released one of the tracks titled “ME!” on April 26. “Lover” features many fun songs, but many of them sound the same.

Swift’s previous albums have shown a significant amount of change in terms of music genres, shifting primarily between pop and country, but “Lover” sticks to the pop style of “1989,” one of her previous albums. However, all her albums feature a substantial number of songs talking about her breakups and her possible love interests, and “Lover” is no exception.

The album begins with the song “I Forgot That You Existed” which features catchy lyrics and a fun beat in the background. This song got me excited for the rest of the album, but once I got to the second song, “Cruel Summer,” I was disappointed. The song sounded like it came right out of  “1989,” and the lyrics were not very interesting.

By the time I finished listening to the album, I felt like I had listened to the same song 18 times. None of the songs were particularly new in their meaning and they all sounded pretty similar.

There were two songs in the album that stood out to me: “Lover” and “The Man.” “Lover” features more of the acoustic vibes that can be found in her old country music. She talks about her happiness in her relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. Additionally, the song was the third track on the album just like how “Love Story” was the third track on “Fearless,” one of Swift’s earlier albums.

“The Man” stood out from the other songs on the album because it offered both fresh music and a more political focus than the other songs on the album, as it examines the double standards between women and men. The song talks about Swift’s frustration that she could be further in her career if she was a man. The album spreads a positive message about standing up to sexism.

She also writes about current issues like sexism and homophobia in “You Need To Calm Down.”

The album ends with Swift saying, “I wanna be defined by the things that I love, Not the things I hate, Not the things I’m afraid of, I’m afraid of, Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night, I, I just think that, You are what you love.” While talking about the people she loved may have been the theme of the album, Swift stuck to this theme too much and only talked about her romantic interests at the expense of political issues, friendships and other aspects of her life which were only highlighted briefly.

Overall, the album had some good songs that are worth a listen, but it was repetitive and at times even boring. It followed the same upbeat, pop style of “1989,” and all the songs had the same meaning, making the album indistinguishable from other Swift albums.

This story was featured in Volume 37, Issue 2 print edition of The Lion’s Tale, published on Oct. 4, 2019.