Here is my take on this music. Firstly, it's well done - nicely recorded, mixed and the voice is clear yet with colour. The video is attractive, though expensive. Words seem good, but that's where my thoughts come in.
These kind of songs, which I see so many young people attracted to, and that includes Taylor Swift's material, come under what we used to call singer-songwriter back in the days of James Taylor. The market moved away from this back then, in the 80s, as people became fed up with 'songs about me'. The market moved from introvert to extrovert. But the thing also about those singer-songwriter songs is that they were simple, with little production effects.
What I'm seeing now is a return to the impulse of those singer-songwriter, with two major differences.
Firstly, although this is a return to introverted, 'songs about me', there is a significant difference - this new wave has a depressive-anxiety context, 'struggle for the light' themes. That wasn't there back in the 70s - people were emotional but with far more optimism and delight at the world's possibilities. There is something dark being reflected in this new wave of material, speaks of some heavy forces at work in the world.
Secondly, this music is no longer simple - it is highly produced, in fact, too often over-produced. That is odd, because although they are introverted, personal songs, they are top-level commercial productions. That causes a strange internal confusion, about what is really happening - whose soul is on parade.
