Photo Courtesy of Celebmix
It all started with an unforgettable surprise. On Aug. 28, musical juggernaut Taylor Swift was awarded “Best Music Video” at the 2022 VMA awards on MTV for her short film based on her No. 1 hit “All Too Well: 10 Minute Version.”
All seemed calm and well as the singer-songwriter accepted her 14th VMA award; soon after, however, she made an announcement that would take the world by storm.
“I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21,” Swift said proudly to the VMAs crowd.
That album was Swift’s 10th studio record, titled “Midnights” – and that’s pretty much all fans knew until the album’s release this past week.
Swift did briefly give fans some information about the album before its release, starting in September with the “Midnights Mayhem with Me” series on TikTok, in which Swift used a retro-style bingo machine to release balls that would reveal track names for the project.
By Friday, Oct. 7, all the song titles had been revealed, and Swift left her fans, and the general public, in great anticipation about the album that was to come. Now, “Midnights” is here, and it is one of Swift’s most honest, valiant efforts in her 16-year career.
“Midnights” is a collection of sleepless nights told through synthpop songs and experimental sounds. Unlike Swift’s recent alternative efforts “folklore” and “evermore,” the popstar from Reading, Pennsylvania dips back into the vast world of pop music, taking huge inspiration from a ‘70s and ‘80s synthpop sound to create a collection of catchy, relaxing music that fits with its nighttime theme incredibly well.
The album begins with the colorful track “Lavender Haze,” a song that’s about being so enveloped in the feeling of love that it’s hard to see what’s going on around you. The song is a bit of a departure from what Swift has done with her pop music in the past and it is produced by “The Batman” star Zoë Kravitz, someone whom Swift is close with in real life. The team behind “Lavender Haze” also includes RnB and rap producers Jahaan Akil Sweet and Mark Anthony Spears, both of whom have worked with artists such as Drake and Kendrick Lamar, respectively.
“Lavender Haze” doesn’t exactly have that classic Swift sound, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an incredibly great start to an even more impressive album; the difference in sound makes a huge impact on the tone for the record and allows for Swift to establish herself as a force in an area of music she has never delved into before.
The album continues with smooth, ambient songs like “Maroon” and “Midnight Rain,” where Swift pushes boundaries and yet again succeeds with making sounds that are both fresh and exciting with her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.
The album’s third track, “Anti-Hero” is where Swift sounds most like her old self, yet simultaneously it resembles nothing like her past work at all. In a video posted to Instagram, Swift describes the song as diving into her insecurities like she never has before. She sings, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me” and “I’ll stare directly in the sun, but never in the mirror” to describe her issues with self-esteem and depression, topics Swift hasn’t touched in her previous work. The song is a lovely addition to the album’s 13 tales of sleepless nights, both because of Swift’s vulnerability she shows throughout the lyrics and its addictive, bouncy production that makes for an all-time great earworm in Swift’s discography.
The standard edition of the album also includes an exciting collaboration with artist Lana Del Rey, titled “Snow on the Beach.” The song’s instrumentation makes it sound like the start of a deep, entrancing dream, including soft piano keys and distant bells that could lull the world to sleep. The long-awaited collaboration is a great showcase of Swift’s mastery in lyricism, including lines like “But it might just have been you / Passing by unbeknownst to me / Life is emotionally abusive /And time can’t stop me quite like you did.” Swift and Del Rey, who co-wrote the track together, are at their best when they are vulnerable and sincere, which is incredibly apparently on the track.
Among its emotional ballads, the album also has quite a few fun songs to lift you up from its sentimental lows. “Vigilante Shit” and “Karma” delve into the world of dark pop that Swift briefly explored on her 2017 album “reputation.” Swift snidely sings, “Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge” over a trap-influenced musical backing, transporting fans back to her darker days during the era of snakes and black clothing she once belonged to.
Songs like “Bejeweled” give a treat to the bubblegum pop fans in the world of Taylor Swift, using sparkly and energetic production that makes for memorable music to blast in the car, late at night.
But wait – there’s more. Before the album’s launch, Swift teased the record’s release week events on her Instagram, with one of the events being a “special, chaotic surprise.” This surprise, which was released Friday, Oct. 21, at 3 a.m., was a “3am Edition” of “Midnights” with seven new tracks, including collaborations with “folklore” and “evermore” producer Aaron Dessner.
If you were a fan of the alternative-pop sister albums, then these tracks are perfect for the revival of a “folklore” fantasy while maintaining the sound of “Midnights.” The lyricism in these tracks is unmatched to the standard album, and Swift once again proves herself to be delving deeply into her insecurities and problems.
On the track, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Swift details her incredibly heart-shattering experience with singer John Mayer, just as she did on her 2010 album “Speak Now” on the track “Dear John.”
It’s safe to say that Swift has done it again with her 10th studio album. Not only is there a huge shift in the kind of sound Swift is leaning into, but her lyrics still cut just as deep as they have in the past. An album focused on sleepless nights is the perfect vessel to discuss these detailed, gut-wrenching insecurities
Swift has held back from her music for so long, and here, she uses the theming perfectly. “Midnights” is a bombastic, terrifying and honest dive into the brain’s nighttime hyperactivity, and it has cemented itself as a force in Swift’s massive collection of work, with many classic tunes to come.
