By Angelica Niedermeyer, Events and Outreach Coordinator
October tastes like pumpkin spice lattes and feels like red scarfs, but most of all Swifties know autumn sounds like Red (Taylor’s Version). Thankfully this season, Swifties are again anxiously waiting for Taylor Swift to gift her listeners with a new album. Here are 10 things we know about Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album so far.
- On Oct. 21, Taylor Swift will release her 10th original studio album, Midnights. According to Swift’s instagram bio it will be out, “Midnight sharp.” (EST) This is her first return to original music following two re-recordings.
- Midnights, produced by Jack Atonoff, will have 13 tracks, Swift’s favorite number. A 14th bonus track is available exclusively on the Target edition CD.
- On Aug. 28th at the VMAs, Swift announced her new album in her speech after winning the biggest award of the night: Video of the Year.
- On Sept. 1st, Swift posted on Tiktok sharing that “August may have slipped away but September brings 3 new special edition covers! […] #swifttok #TSmidnighTS #MeetMeAtMidnight”
- On Sept. 16, Swift shared that when you put all the special edition covers together, they form a clock which seems to point out the theme of time.
- On Sept. 17, Swift posted a Tiktok showing the making of Midnights with the song, “life you lead” by niceboy ed, in the background. Fans speculated where this song came from, who is singing it and why Swift used it. Some thought it was Swift’s voice lowered, while others thought it was Ed Sheeran.
- On Sept. 21, Swift released the name of track 13, called “Mastermind”. Swift announced this via ping pong balls labeled with track numbers randomly picked from a bingo spinner. It is quite ironic that Swift’s favorite number, 13, was the first pick.
- On Sept. 22, Rumors started on Twitter that Taylor will be performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show because the NFL announced at midnight on Thursday that after ten years of Pepsi sponsoring, Apple Music will replace them. This would make sense as Taylor never did it before because of her partnership with Coca-cola. However, it has been revealed that Rihanna is performing for the halftime show.
- On Oct 7, Swift announced the whole track list after revealing each separately on her TikTok series “Midnights Mayhem With Me”. The track list is as follows:
- “Lavender Haze”
- “Maroon”
- “Anti-Hero”
- “Snow On The Beach” featuring Lana Del Rey which got leaked on twitter on Oct. 19 and then removed
- “You’re On Your Own, Kid”
- “Midnight Rain”
- “Question…?”
- “Vigilante Shit”
- “Labyrinth”
- “Karma”
- “Sweet Nothing”
- “Mastermind”
- All over Tiktok fans are trying to guess the track list for Midnights. Fans are even creating diagrams of the ‘Lover House,’ saying “all the rooms are complete with Midnights,” according to @thethriftyswiftie on Tiktok.
“We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t – right this minute- about to make some fateful life-altering mistake,” Swift said in an Instagram post on Aug. 29, sharing her emotional process behind the new album.
“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terror and sweet dreams,” Swift continues. “The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching- hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve … we’ll meet ourselves. Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.”
Hope you are as excited as HerCampus at Manhattan for the new album release! Get your girls and boxed wine together for a happy listening at Midnight!