Midnights: A Track-by-Track Unpack

Midnight on October 21 became a heavily anticipated date and time for any Taylor Swift fan. Poignantly announcing the drop of her first body of new work since Folklore and Evermore during her 2022 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech, Taylor Swift completely reframed what it means to wait for midnight. On this album, she explores “13 sleepless nights”, each distinctive in their own way, yet interconnected within the album and across her other works.

This masterpiece 13-track album is reminiscent both musically and lyrically of her fifth studio album 1989. Similarly to 1989, Midnights has 13 tracks, and engages in a reflection of self growth, love lost and love found. While crafting intricate musical connections, it forges its own unique path. 

Let’s begin to unpack each track of the alluring labyrinth that is this album!

Lavender Haze – The opening track of Swift’s album invites fans to “meet [her] at midnight.” This song impactfully departs from the overall sound profile of her previous work, providing a more smoky and elusive musicscape. 

Lyrically, she describes being trapped and tossed under scrutiny as a public figure and having expectations of being the paragon of ladylikeness imposed upon her: “that 1950s sh*t they want from me.” Swift fights against this entrapment to protect herself, perhaps finding solace in a Lavender Haze.

Notable moment: “All they keep asking me is if I’m gonna be your bride / the only kinda girl they see is a one night or a wife.”

It has been speculated that Swift is referring to her partner Joe Alwyn, and some listeners felt that this could be a hint at an engagement. I felt the lyrics spoke volumes here; Swift subversively criticizes the dichotomous view that she can only be seen in relation to her partner, as either a “one night or a wife,” which mirrors the whore-virgin dichotomy.

Maroon – This track leans into Swift’s overarching theme across albums of painting love as different colours. Red, of course, was the colour Swift highlighted in her previous album Red: “loving him was red.” She repainted this love as golden in Lover, specifically the track “Daylight”: “I once believed love would be (Burning red) / But it’s golden / Like daylight.”

In “Maroon,” Swift lyrically describes a love lost, while reminiscing on small moments that made the love what it was: “carnations you had thought were roses, that’s us.”

I felt this maroon hue painted by Swift engages in a deepening of that burning red love she introduced back in 2012. This deepening is more nostalgic, perhaps the darker stain left by a love as opposed to the love itself.

Anti-Hero – This track has proclaimed itself as a highlight of Midnights, being the only track on the album with a music video at this point in time. This late-night battle of the self, a “tale as old as time” is crafted skillfully by Swift. She candidly and vulnerably describes the struggle of being one’s own worst enemy, and fighting against self criticism: “it’s me, hi / I’m the problem, it’s me.” The candidness with which Swift writes about her insecurities in this song has been criticized by album reviewers, but I felt this vulnerability is what gives the song its intended oomph.

Echoes of “Mad Woman” from Folklore are present in this track, as each song conveys a story of someone who, in one way or another, is battling herself. 

Check out this article for all the Anti-Hero music video easter eggs: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/natashajokic1/taylor-swift-anti-hero-video-easter-eggs

Snow on The Beach – This track includes a Lana Del Rey feature, which is a collaboration many fans have been waiting for. However, Lana doesn’t have her own verse on the track, nor sings solo for more than a few words aside from “are we falling like,” which left many listeners disappointed. 

The lyrics of this track lay out a “weird but f**king beautiful” scene of snow on the beach, which is depicted as one of those visual moments where life doesn’t quite feel real. Holistically, the song’s lyrics don’t denote a precise message, but it seems that Swift is putting forward what it feels like the moment you fall in love, something that you can’t quite believe is real, but is magical nonetheless in its surrealness.

The pizzicato of string instruments at the beginning of the track lend to this dreamy, emotionally laden atmosphere, providing a music box feel. This music-box feel was also interwoven throughout Folklore, on tracks such as “August,” although the two vary greatly in both their musical and literal climates.

You’re on Your Own Kid – This track is a favourite among my friends. It feels like a letter to a younger-self, writing with a retrospective lens characterized by growth and strength. Swift lyrically recounts difficult moments in this song, regarding her fame and protecting herself in a personal way. While the song itself has a retrospective tone, there is also a very present-oriented dynamic of working through tangled threads of past memories and how they connect to current emotions: “I picked the petals, he loves me not / Something different bloomed, writing in my room”. This song feels like a form of inner-child healing.

Notable Moment: My friends Ava and Julia both highlighted the brilliance of the bridge in this piece, and the way in which the ending nods to Swift taking the hardships she’s endured to create a more fulfilling future. The last verse includes “you’re on your own kid / Yeah, you can face this.” Swift flips the meaning of the “you’re on your own” motif, now presenting it as something reassuring and self-sufficient. She’s on her own, but that’s okay.

Midnight Rain – The intro and chorus of this track might be my favourites of the album. In “Midnight Rain,” Swift describes the prevalent contrasts between herself and a partner: “he was sunshine, I was midnight rain”. These contrasts are what lead to the end of their relationship, and why she breaks his heart: “cause he was nice.” This song portrays the difficulty inherent in being in a relationship where each person is in a different place in their life, on different trajectories that may not align: “he wanted a bride, I was making my own name.”

My friend Ava noted the striking musical similarities this track has to “Call it What You Want” from Reputation. In “Call it What You Want”, Swift describes that same kindness present in her partner: “he built a fire just to keep me warm”, and the “all the drama queens taking swings / all the jokers dressin’ up as kings” is very evocative of the small town she describes in “Midnight Rain”, one filled with “pageant queens and big pretenders.”

Question…? – In the vein of intros, my friend Julia was impressively quick to point out the sample present in the intro of “Question…?” Swift samples the phrase “I remember” from 1989’s “Out of the Woods,” which many fans speculated was about Swift’s relationship to Harry Styles. Could this song be a continuation of telling that story? It’s just a question!

The track itself is very similar musically to “Out of The Woods,” and they share lyrical parallels. In “Out of The Woods,” Swift describes a love being “in screaming colour,” and in “Question..?” she speaks to “a colour [she’s] searched for since.” In this track she also describes being lost in situations, circumstances, and miscommunications, perhaps similar to the thick woods she waited to be in the clear from in 1989. 

Vigilante Shit & Bejeweled – I am unpacking these two tracks in a pair because although they are very different musically, they serve to convey a connected message of a reclamation of agency, a theme very present in Swift’s 2017 studio album Reputation. When Reputation was released, the entire album felt like a powerful project to reclaim agency against harsh scrutiny. The overall sentiment of “Vigilante Shit” emulates that Reputation mission statement, and is all about revenge: “don’t get sad, get even.” Swift even describes teaming up with an ex-wife of an enemy to serve up this platter of revenge. This could potentially refer to Kim Kardashian or Yael Cohen, read more here: https://hollywoodlife.com/2022/10/21/taylor-swift-vigilante-shit-ex-wife-lyric/

“Vigilante Shit” seems to exist in the same realm as  “I Did Something Bad” from Reputation, where she unabashedly serves up revenge and doesn’t “regret it one bit ‘cause he had it coming.”

So, why does the more upbeat track “Bejeweled” make such a great pairing for “Vigilante Shit”? On “Bejeweled,” Swift denotes her struggles of when she “did all the extra credit but got graded on a curve.” This extra work she did that reaped little reward could be a nod to the period of time shortly before the Reputation era, before it was time for her to, as she puts it in “Bejeweled,” “teach some lessons”. After enacting her revenge, Swift takes power back for herself through a project of self-love portrayed by “Bejeweled.” I imagine Swift enacting her “Vigilante Shit” revenge, and then “polish[ing] up real nice” to walk in a room and “make the whole place shimmer.”

Labyrinth – This track weaves the story of taking time for closure before falling in love again: “break up, break free, break through, break down.” On this track, Swift lyrically recognizes her hesitancy to trust, which may stem from previous relationships, and the track is propelled by her want to trust again. She understands that she can’t “bounce back just like that” after suffering a broken heart, and allows herself the time and space to fully feel through all of her emotions. All of these emotions seem to form the “labyrinth of [her] mind.” It’s when she begins to fall in love again that she looks to walk all the way through and effectively navigate the labyrinth of her mind. 

Notable Moment: “Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out:” this lyrical phrase in “Labyrinth” was also a part of Taylor’s NYU Graduation speech; she secretly teased Midnights back in May!

Karma – This track perfectly encapsulates and ameliorates Swift’s relationship to karma that has been present across multiple of her studio albums. To once again zero in on Reputation, I took Midnight’s “Karma” to be a softer approach on the sentiment of “Look What You Made Me Do,” a Reputation track on which Swift sings: “maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours.” Instead of karma being a scathing, prophetic weapon, it has become a “relaxing thought,” a “cat purring on [her] lap,” her “boyfriend,” and “sweet like honey” on Midnights. 

Sweet Nothing – This track was written both by Swift and her partner Joe Alwyn. Fittingly, it is very similar to “Invisible String,” which has been speculated to be about Swift’s relationship to Alwyn.

This song breaks down love and its facets into beautifully crafted “sweet nothings.” Here, there are no material expectations to love. It’s a soft place to land with the one you love, where Swift feels she can be completely honest and admit that she is “just too soft for all of it,” amid a world that asks of so much. The pebble Swift describes at the beginning of the song sets the stage for the rest of the song: it is a perfect image of a sweet nothing, a small memento that holds memories. Overall, this track is indicative of a peace in letting go of what is perceived of as the perfect love, and finding warmth and a sort of perfect imperfection in those nothings that are, in reality, the opposite of nothing.

Mastermind – My friend Ava drew a connection of this track to “Supercut” by Lorde. Both tracks have that movie-like feel that transports you in a seemingly cathartic, intergalactic way. This intergalactic atmosphere is lent to by the synth sounds in “Mastermind.” In this track, Swift seems to lyrically and fully own up to a plan to end up with her love interest, presumably Joe Alwyn. 

This is a plan she has had in motion since her 2019 studio album Lover. On Lover’s 11th  track “London Boy,” (an epithet bestowed on Alwyn) Swift divulges that after meeting Alwyn, she becomes “an architect [who’s] drawing up the plans” for them to be together. Swift graduates from architect to mastermind on this track, where she explains that “nothing was gonna stop [her]” from capturing his heart. She lays out exactly how strategic she was, similar to a game of chess, in the steps of their love story; nothing was an accident. To me, these lyrics definitely came across as intense on the first listen. However, Swift divulges that her love interest “knew the entire time / [he] knew [she] was a mastermind” and upon understanding her elaborate plan, “all [he] did was smile.” 
And then, just when we began to wrap our heads around these 13 tracks, Swift dropped seven more emotionally brimming tracks for Midnights (3am Edition)!

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