Taylor Swift: New album 'Lover' is already biggest-selling of 2019

Last album to achieve a similar sales week was Swift's sixth album, reputation, in 2017

Taylor Swift’s seventh album Lover has become the biggest-selling album of 2019 in the US, just two days after being released.

According to initial sales figures from Nielsen Music, the album’s sales approached half a million on its second day of release (Saturday 24 August) – surpassing the year-to-date sales of 2019’s previous top-seller, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born soundtrack.

Over just 48 hours, Lover achieved the biggest sales week for any album since Swift’s sixth album, reputation, sold 1.216 million copies in its first week.

Sales are being boosted by the release of four collectible deluxe editions of the album at Target, along with numerous merchandise and album bundles being sold through Swift’s official website.

Lover is expected to appear at the top of the Billboard 200 chart on 7 September with 700,000 equivalent album sales in the week ending 29 August.

Reviews for the record have been almost unanimously positive, with praise for Swift’s songwriting and the album’s pop production.

Reviewing for The Independent, Alexandra Pollard hailed "the sound of an artist excited to be earnest again", noting the brighter tones in contrast to reputation.

"Swift has a habit of putting her worst foot forward," she wrote. "The album’s lead single, 'Me!', is peppy and poppy in all the wrong ways, a rictus grin of a song that rings hollow. Thank goodness that the rest of the album is nothing like that.

"Perky opening track 'I Forgot That You Existed' is a syncopated snigger, on which Swift shrugs off old grudges and breathes a sigh of relief in doing so. 'Something magical happened one night,' she sings. 'I forgot that you existed. And I thought that it would kill me, but it didn’t.'

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"The title track, meanwhile, is poignant and unfussy, a reminder of Swift’s ability to distil infatuation into something specific and universal."

Read our ranking of every one of Swift's 100 album tracks here.