"Lover" and the art of the album roll-out

If there is one lesson that can be taken away from pop music in 2019, it is that creating a proper album roll-out matters. The singles that an artist releases for an album matters, the reception of these singles matter, the timing of these singles matters, and without these factors lining up well, an artist is not going to just coast by. While 2019 had more than its fair share of messy, illogical album roll-outs, Lover by Taylor Swift is perhaps the most baffling of them all.

Taylor Swift is perhaps the biggest pop superstar on the planet. While her sixth album reputation did not make quite the impact singles-wise as usual for her, a successful final single in "Delicate", improving goodwill around the album, and a transition to a more pop-oriented label in Republic Records set her up beautifully for a solid comeback in her following era.

However, then she dropped the lead single, "ME!" featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco. Non-fan reactions were vitriolic, fans were divided (even spawning a theory that the song was not actually a lead single, rather a soundtrack song for The Secret Life of Pets 2), and the song fell off the charts even faster than the divisive "Look What You Made Me Do". Follow-up single "You Need to Calm Down" fared a bit better and had alright longevity, but a controversial approach to its subject topic and under-baked chorus left many underwhelmed. Promo single "The Archer" and third proper single "Lover" were much better received, but their slower tempos and lack of pop elements made them commercial non-starts. "ME!" should have been left on the cutting room floor, "You Need to Calm Down" needed a bit more work and perhaps not to be a single, and "Lover" needed to be pushed at least 3 months later for the holiday season, a la Ed Sheeran's "Perfect".

Expectations for Lover among non-stans ended up being pretty much in the toilet, but then the album itself dropped, and to the surprise of many, it was actually rather good. Empowering feminist anthem "The Man", fan favorite banger "Cruel Summer", beautiful "Cornelia Street", and others were extremely well received by fans and non-fans alike, and Lover now sits as her highest rated album on review aggregating service Metacritic.

Clearly, there is no shortage of commercially viable songs on Lover. "Cruel Summer" hearkens back to her 1989 days and would have been a perfect summer smash. "The Man" takes on a similar progressive lyrical angle to "You Need to Calm Down", but with a much catchier hook and stronger devotion to its lyrical content. "Cornelia Street" is reminiscent of "Delicate", which literally just worked. "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" may be a bit of a mouthful, but its one of the most on-trend songs on the album and extremely catchy and well-written. "Paper Rings" and "I Think He Knows" would have been slightly bigger risks, but they are both strong songs with strong hooks. Even "Lover" was a perfectly fine single choice, just not for August.

It feels almost like Taylor Swift is trying to sabotage her own career. reputation had similar issues, with 3 of its worst songs ("Look What You Made Me Do", "...Ready For It?", and "End Game") being the first three singles. It seems as though she forgot the most essential part of creating a hit song: the hook. She clearly still knows how to write hooks based on her deep cuts, but she completely disregarded crafting quality, entertaining, non-annoying hooks for the majority of her recent singles, and if she does not course correct this soon, she is going to struggle singles-wise in the next decade.