She conceived it as a timeless love song meant for a wedding reception: the lyrics are about an committed romantic relationship, and the bridge draws on the bridal rhyme "Something old".

Swift and Drew Kirsch directed the music video for "Lover", which was released on August 22, 2019; it follows a couple living inside a dollhouse in a snow globe.

[4][5] Its songs explore many aspects of Swift's personality and altogether convey her emotional liberation to embrace future possibilities, renouncing the media gossip and celebrity-inspired themes on her previous album, Reputation (2017).

[16][17][18] The rhythm is punctuated by booming snare drums and a bass line described by Vanity Fair's Erin Vanderhoff as "sonorous, swung".

[18][20][21] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described the track as a tender, 1960s-styled acoustic ballad that shows Swift experimenting with rhythm and meter.

[17] Vincent and NME's Karen Gwee considered the guitar-based melody of "Lover" a throwback to Swift's early country-music albums,[25] with the former commenting that it is a "mature companion" to Fearless (2008) and Speak Now (2010).

[23] Nate Jones of Vulture,[26] Nick Levine of NME,[27] and Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described the song as alternative country.

[28] Billboard's Jason Lipshutz disagreed: " 'Lover' is not a country song, but it certainly nods to the bare songwriting that marked much of Swift's early career.

"[29] In The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber said that the track could have been a country-music song had the production trimmed down the reverb and described it as a "dusky rock ballad".

[30][31] Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times called the song "dream-folk",[32] and The Ringer's Lindsay Zoladz wrote that the single "doesn't sound like anything else currently popular" on either of country or pop radio formats.

[34] In the verses, the narrator describes scenes of their domestic life, such as leaving the Christmas lights on past the holiday season and having their friends sleeping over on the living-room floor.

"[10][37] The marriage-vow-inspired bridge is a declaration of their romance, "Ladies and gentlemen will you please stand/ With every guitar string scar in my hand/ I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover.

"[37] Reviewers commented the narrator on "Lover" finally lives up her happily-ever-after dream that Swift's past songs strived for.

[23] Meanwhile, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone deemed "Lover" a sequel to "Last Kiss", a song off Speak Now (2010), "but with a decade's worth more soul going into it".

Jenkins surmised that after the negative press surrounding Reputation, "Lover" reflected Swift's desire to "want nothing more than a quiet place to retreat to when the rigors of life in public get her down".

[58] The music video for "Lover", directed by Swift and Drew Kirsch, premiered on YouTube on August 22, 2019, hours before the album's release.

[70] Media outlets welcomed the video's romantic and dreamy atmosphere;[64][71] Teen Vogue's Mary Elizabeth Andriotis compared the cinematography to the films of director Wes Anderson.

[74] Many critics commended "Lover" as a testament to Swift's talents as a singer-songwriter,[29][73][75] with Abby Aguirre of Vogue describing the song as a "romantic, haunting [...] singer-songwritery nugget".

[1] Slate critic Carl Wilson found the songwriting "replete with the little twists of phrase and zoomed-in details that make the best Swift songs so Swifty".

Zoladz said that "Lover", which she deemed the best single off the album, did not have commercial potential because it sounded like an outlier on radio, but for a good reason: "It's destined for more sacred spaces, like headphones, lonely car rides home after dropping someone off at an airport, and first dances at weddings.

[24][23] NPR's Katie Alice Greer and The Boston Globe's Nora Princiotti lauded the bridge, with the former adding that the snare drums were her favorite sound on the album.

[95] The Recording Industry Association of America, in October 2020, certified "Lover" double platinum for surpassing two million units based on sales and streaming.

[9] It lost to "Bad Guy", written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell;[113] according to the Los Angeles Times, the Grammy loss prompted speculation on whether it was affected by Swift's ongoing dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, over the acquisition of the master recordings to her past albums.

[117] In 2021, Broadcast Music, Inc. during the BMI Pop Awards honored "Lover" as one of the 50 most-performed songs throughout the year, based on airplay and streaming performance.

She first reprised it as part of a medley with "You Need to Calm Down" at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, on August 26; she played the song a pink guitar and was surrounded with blue lights and a hovering moon.

[130] At the 2019 American Music Awards on November 24, where Swift was honored as Artist of the Decade, she performed a medley of select singles, which included "Lover" with an orchestral arrangement.

During the song, Swift played and sang on a piano, donning a pink cape with gold detailing, as Misty Copeland and Craig Hall performed a ballet.

[131][132] Variety's Chris Willman selected Swift's medley as the night's most memorable highlight, opining that the lush, string-laden orchestral atmosphere and the ballet performance elevated the show to a high point.

[138] He had showed gratitude for "Lover", which he described as "so exquisitely written [...] gorgeously crafted" that made him appreciate the "art of making music", on social media, and after the performance said he wish he had composed the song himself.