Lover [Pink & Blue Vinyl]

Taylor Swift sings "If I was a man, I'd be The Man" on a song that arrives just as Lover, her seventh studio album, starts to get underway. It's not bragging if it's true. Perhaps 2017's Reputation didn't dominate the popular consciousness the way her 2014 pop breakthrough 1989 did, but that was partially by design. Hard and steely, Reputation announced the arrival of an adult Taylor -- a conscious maturation that didn't bother disguising its seams. Lover, in contrast, is a bit messier, almost defiantly so. Swift retains Jack Antonoff -- the former fun. captain who has been at her side since 2014's 1989 -- as her chief collaborator, and while the duo remains besotted by the chillier aspects of late '80s synth pop, not everything here plays like a sleek, sexy update on T'Pau. Certainly, "The Archer" basks within the glow of its retro analog synths, dredging up memories of both "Out of the Woods" and "Heart and Soul," yet its iciness isn't the primary color on Lover. Swift does return to