Taylor Swift says her new album, "Lover," is "very pure": "It's not responding to any sort of adversity"

Valheria Rocha

Taylor Swift has made albums about falling in love, falling out of love, or dealing with a specific experiences in her life. But she says with her new album Lover, she just wrote songs.

In an interview with the U.K. radio show Heart Breakfast, Taylor explains that despite the album’s title, Lover isn’t a record full of songs about her relationship.

“In every way, I want this album to symbolize kind of growth, and things you learn along the way, and things I find romantic,” she says. “That doesn’t mean it’s just, like, a ‘love’ album and everything is a love song.”

“The album is very pure in the sense that it’s not in response to anything,” she notes. “Like, this album is not responding to any sort of adversity — it’s really just, in my life, it’s like, ‘What would I write if I was just writing?'”

That means Lover is a complete 180 from 2017’s Reputation, which was Taylor’s direct reaction to having been labeled a “snake” and worse on social media.

“Reputation felt in a lot of ways like my only way to respond to certain things,” Taylor told Heart Breakfast. “Like, what do you write when you’re backed into a corner? Well, you write that album.”

When the host described Taylor’s new album as the “spring” to Reputation‘s “winter,” the star wholeheartedly agreed with that description.

Lover comes out August 23.