Before the first date of The Eras Tour, there was a lot of speculation about which song Taylor Swift would start the concert with. That’s how little was known about the show, which go on to be the most successful tour of all-time. Would the setlist stay in order of her discography, beginning with her self-titled debut album and close with Midnights (that came half true!), or did she have something else in mind? I was there in Glendale, Arizona, for opening night, and as the digital clock ticked down to zero and the dancers took the stage attached to flowing, morning sky-colored clamshells, all us Swifties in attendance were somewhere between screaming from excitement and holding our breath in anticipation for the unknown.
And then: “It’s been a long time coming…”
It had been a long time coming since Swift’s last tour before Eras. The Reputation Stadium Tour concluded in November 2018. Less than a year later, in August 2019 (five years ago today!), Swift released her seventh studio album Lover, a colorful return to open-hearted love songs.
Swift was going to support the album at international festivals in 2020, followed by two shows each at SoFi Stadium in California and Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, dubbed as Lover Fest West and Lover Fest East, respectively. Those dates were to feature “Taylor Swift and Friends” and a heart-shaped stage. But then the pandemic happened, and the tour, scheduled from June to August, was canceled. Save for a few scattered appearances, the live debut of Lover wouldn’t come until the opening era of The Eras Tour in 2023.
Lover has an interesting standing in Swift’s discography. The top-selling album of 2019 has some of her best songs, including “Cruel Summer” (still waiting on that music video), “Cornelia Street,” and “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” in particular the monumental bridge. But there are blemishes: it’s at least four tracks too long, and because “Me!” and “You Need To Calm Down” flopped as singles, it’s arguably the album of hers with the least cultural impact. But the main issue with the Lover era, as it were, is that it feels incomplete.
The typical album rollout for Swift, at least in the pre-pandemic days, went like this: first single with a music video; months of building hype through interviews, TV show appearances, and magazine covers; second single; release the album; and tour. Lover had all of that — except the tour. There wasn’t a chance for a community to build around the album, and when the opportunity finally presented itself on the The Eras Tour, it was sharing space with her other albums. Especially the ones that came before and after it.
I remember a feeling in the air when Lover came out that maybe Swift’s popularity had peaked, which is funny to think about now, when she’s as popular as she’s ever been. Maybe as popular as any artist has ever been. Folklore is a big reason why. It’s the album that made some-indie-record-that’s-much-cooler-than-mine people take her seriously as a lyricist. Folklore was a bright spot during a dark time (I love you, too, Evermore). Meanwhile, the consensus opinion around Taylor’s actually dark album, Reputation, has consistently improved since it came out: once misunderstood, it’s now considered an angsty, messy, and thrilling highlight in her discography. Lover sits between the extremes of Reputation and Folklore, somewhat uneasily.
But — to borrow (steal) a premise from Marvel — what if Lover Fest hadn’t been canceled? Would that have made the era feel fully realized? It’s one of many “what if” questions I have about Lover, including:
What if… the poorly received “Me!” wasn’t the first single?
What if… “hey kids, spelling is fun” was left off “Me!” in the first place?
What if… album MVP “Cruel Summer” had been released as the first single, or the second single (instead of “You Need To Calm Down”), or the third single (instead of “Lover”), or the fourth single (instead of “The Man”)?
What if… she returned to working with Max Martin?
What if… the tracklist was re-arranged to have a stronger opener?
What if… Lover had a more consistent sound — would that made it better or worse?
We’ll never know the answers to these hypothetical “what if…” scenarios, and if I think about this alternate timeline for too long, I’ll spiral out from imagining a world without Folklore, Evermore, “Hits Different,” “The Black Dog,” Traylor, and maybe even The Eras Tour (and, y’know, no pandemic).
Looking back at Lover five years after it was released, I’m intrigued by what could have been with Lover Fest but thankful for what we have. It’s not her best album, but it’s also not her worst. Lover is a friend instead of a loved one. And you know what they say: it’s nice to have a friend.