#and folklore is a product of that very different set of distressing circumstances

[whiskeyswifty]

People compare rep and lover a lot. To me lover is the superior album. I feel like lover has a lot of ups and downs (maybe even more ups than downs) but rep has only 2 ups (delicate and getaway car) and 13 absolute horrible songs lmao

i'm definitely aligned with this! tbf, i think rep and lover lend themselves to being compared more so than most of her works. the light v. dark, the exploration of falling in love v. after falling in love, the fact that they also are sequential lol. and i think you can draw a lot of parallels between songs across those two and how over time her perspectives and priorities have shifted, due to circumstances but also how aging from your 20s into your 30s really rewires your brain without realizing it (which is lost on a lot of younger fans, but that's fine! don't rush it! you'll get there!). they're fascinating texts to lay out side by side and see how they're in conversation.

and i think they're both equally conceptually messy, sonically messy too, in what you could call her murky middle period as of right now. trying out lots of different sounds and personas, however ill fitting, and helming her albums as the EP for the first time and growing into herself. they're also albums made during periods of severe personal distress unlike anything she'd experienced before; being the kanye induced snake-gate and her mother's cancer diagnosis and subsequent battle. you can see the darkness of those experiences seep through as she's trying to navigate a life she now views as precarious where she maybe once was reckless with it. i think i even said at the time that lover was the first time she ever acknowledged she had to work on herself as person and how she had played an active part in her own unhappiness in the past (see the archer). those incredibly painful growing periods in someone's life sometimes make for great art, but other times can make for artistic work that is as full of confusion and lack of clarity as those real life periods of metamorphosis can be. that's where they both fall for me anyway, but when the bright spots shine, you can see glimpses of Her in there! halfway formed and wobbling on new legs, but ambling shakily towards that more solid and fully formed version of herself.

I also pretty much agree with you on lover being superior, and your reasons are completely aligned with what I feel and often say as well. lover is definitely full of very high highs and very low lows, but the highs are sooooooo much higher than anything on reputation. and getaway car is the runaway favorite peak for sure, insaaanely high ranked in her song sorter for me given that the rest of reputation is notably absent from the top half. and i really love delicate, but i think i'm more amenable to more rep songs than you. however even the ones i like, gorgeous, don't blame me, dress, dwoht, and lwymmd (if only for how it played when you're trashed in the gay clubs at the time and how i love the video lol) i only like, but don't love. and the lows on reputation are so low, there are a few songs i couldn't tell you all the lyrics because i listened to them once. sooooooo adkljfadlkfj. even my most hated lover songs i can tolerate, unwillingly but i'll soldier through it if it comes on shuffle and i'm too lazy to skip.