By Zahira Vasquez
Taylor Swift “Lover” Album Cover
Taylor Swift has written the love song. A song for weddings, for the fantasizers and the hopeless romantics. Taylor has been able to captivate the feeling of being in love with her song “Lover” and its dreamy essence. But Taylor’s latest album presents the song “Lover” in a different light, portraying it as a song of illusions rather than romance.
Prior to Taylor’s recent release of her new album “The Tortured Poets Department”, many listeners wondered if it would serve as a spill-all of her relationship with Joe Alwyn of 6 years. Before its release, Taylor created a playlist of her old songs on Apple Music titled, “The 5 Stages of Heartbreak” to set the tone for her new album. The song “Lover” was included in the denial playlist contradicting the romance and wholesome lyrics. This article is intended to decode some lyrics of “Lover”, a song usually understood to be romantic, but under the surface is a song about denial.
While Taylor may not have intended for the song to be interpreted as a song of delusion at the time it was written, we can look back and see how red flags might have gone unnoticed due to her infatuation. A prominent illustration of this is in the lyric “Can I go where you go?” which points to a need to ask for reassurance of the relationship status. This question she poses in the lyric implies that both Taylor and her partner aren’t on the same page. The same sense of pleading can also be conveyed with the words, “Can we always be this close forever and ever” demonstrating insecurity and doubt. Every lyric is a question rather than an assertion, as opposed to being written as a statement.
Even the title “Lover” does not establish a sense of permanence of the relationship but rather something temporary with a beginning and end. The song emphasizes the temporary status of the relationship by using multiple references to marriage such as “Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand?” without directly using the word “marriage” and instead sticking to the word “lover”. Her use of the word “haze” to characterize her lover’s persona is another illustration of this short-term state of the relationship. It suggests that this romantic aspect of the relationship will fade as haze does. On another note, Taylor claims she is being “overdramatic” which invalidates her entire feelings about the relationship
Other songs from the same album as “Lover” convey this uncertainty such as “Cornelia Street” where she writes “I hope I never lose you” implying that she thought of it ending eventually. Taylor was never certain the relationship was long-lasting and leading towards marriage.
“Lover” serves to foreshadow the end of her relationship because of their inability to take the next step of marriage. The song “You’re Losing Me” contains a line that states “I wouldn’t marry me either” which indicates that “Lover” was only a fantasy of marriage.
Analysis credited to; https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/rtr9jk/why_lover_is_a_heartbreaking_song/
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