Album reviews

POP

Taylor Swift: Lover (Republic)

First, the bad news: Taylor Swift’s seventh album is overlong, with too many songs that should have been identified as fillers and discarded, or bundled as ‘bonus tracks’. The good news is that without them, Lover is a cracker, with some of Swift’s most confident, strident tunes to date. Shimmering pop nuggets, such as the superb Cruel Summer, co-written with St Vincent, sit alongside edgier tracks, such ...