Lover is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on August 23, 2019, through Republic Records. The album is her first after she departed from Big Machine Records, which caused a public dispute over the ownership of Swift's past albums.

Swift recorded Lover after finishing her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, having recalibrated her personal life and artistic direction following the public controversies that preceded her previous studio album, Reputation (2017). She produced Lover with Jack Antonoff, Joel Little, Louis Bell, and Frank Dukes. Described by Swift as a "love letter to love", the album explores wide-ranging emotions like infatuation, commitment, lust, and heartache; a few songs discuss political issues such as LGBT rights and feminism. The production incorporates a 1980s-inspired synth-pop, dream pop, electropop, and pop rock sound characterized by atmospheric synthesizers, mid-tempo rhythms, and acoustic instruments, with eclectic elements of country, folk, and funk.

Swift extensively promoted Lover through television shows, magazine covers, and press interviews. Lover's visual aesthetic featured bright pastel colors. Four singles were released in 2019–2020: "Me!", "You Need to Calm Down", "Lover", and "The Man"; the first three reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The fifth single, "Cruel Summer", was released in 2023 and topped the Hot 100. In the United States, Lover was Swift's sixth consecutive Billboard 200 number-one album and the best-selling album of 2019, and was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The global best-selling album by a solo artist of 2019, it topped charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

When Lover was first released, music critics praised the emotional maturity and free-spirited sound of Swift's songwriting, but some took issue with the wide-ranging musical styles as incohesive. Many publications included the album in their rankings of the best albums of 2019. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and won the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album.

Swift recalibrated her artistry and image from country music to pop with her 2014 fifth studio album, 1989, which incorporated a 1980s synth-pop sound with dense synthesizers, programmed drum machines, electronic vocal processing, and dance-oriented arrangements. 1989 sold over five million copies in the United States within one year and propelled Swift toward global pop stardom, but her fame was blemished by tabloid gossip that publicized her short-lived romantic relationships with Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston. A mid-2016 dispute with the rapper Kanye West over his single "Famous" led to an internet cancellation movement against Swift.

The controversies influenced Swift's 2017 studio album, Reputation, a hip hop-influenced record with themes of vengeance and drama, representing a vindictive image that outgrew her previous "America's Sweetheart" reputation. Reputation was Swift's last album with Big Machine Records, to which she had signed in 2006. She reflected on the album as a "defense mechanism" that helped her protect her mental health amidst the controversies and her forgone "America's Sweetheart" reputation as liberating, as she no longer had to be self-aware of being "always smiling, always happy".

After finishing the Reputation Stadium Tour in November 2018, Swift signed with Universal Music Group label Republic Records. She publicly voiced her political opinion for the first time upon endorsing two Democrat candidates for the 2018 midterm elections in her home state Tennessee. Swift recalled that on the Reputation Stadium Tour, her fans saw her "as a flesh-and-blood human being" and not just the media image of her, which "[assigned] humanity" to her life. She channeled this realization in writing songs for her seventh studio album: "This time around I feel more comfortable being brave enough to be vulnerable, because my fans are brave enough to be vulnerable with me."

As with her past albums, Lover was a reflection on Swift's personal life; she focused on creating music, deprioritized social media, and took her occupation as an entertainer less seriously. She wrote the album after having adjusted her state of mind and embraced a newfound sense of creativity. This sentiment is reflected in the opening track, "I Forgot That You Existed", in which Swift sings about no longer seeking vengeance against those who wronged her. She described the songwriting as very confessional and autobiographical, yet also playful and whimsical; she avoided disclosing the inspirations behind her lyrics. In the September 2019 issue of Vogue, Swift dubbed the album a "love letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory". The track list consists of 18 songs that depict this theme, inspired by Swift's realization of what she called "love that was very real". In addition to purely romantic songs, Lover includes themes of sorrow and loneliness, which Swift said could be perceived "through a romantic gaze".