On Friday, October 21st, Taylor Swift crashed the internet with her highly anticipated 10th studio album, “Midnights” It quickly broke the Spotify record for “most streamed album in one day” and Taylor was the most streamed artist of the day. This album has already gained so much love from Swifties due to its amazing lyricism, versatility, and production. Here are my 5 favorite songs (in no specific order) from the album!
• Karma
Karma is exactly what it sounds like. Swift is alluding to numerous parts in her career where other people tried to tear her down, but she’s not worried because karma is coming their way. I believe she is specifically calling out Scooter Braun and their feud over her music rights. My favorite line from the track is, “Spider-boy, king of thieves, weave you little webs of opacity, my pennies made your crown.” She throws direct shade at Braun because he is an investor in a company called “100 Thieves” and he is making “pennies” because of Taylor’s re-recordings of her first 6 albums. The production of this track is very catchy, and reminds me of something that would be on her album “Reputation”!
Midnight Rain” immediately drew me in because it starts with a robotic voice that sings the chorus. The production reminded me of the song “Sober” by Lorde, off her album Melodrama. It tells the story of Swift’s relationship with somebody she describes as “sunshine.” It later went south because she was making advancements in her career and craved a relationship that she describes as “pain.” Fans think this song is about her romance with actor Taylor Lautner because of the different things she alludes to throughout the song. For example, her song “Back to December ” off her album “Speak Now” describes a relationship where the guy was everything she could ever dream of in a man, yet she still broke it off and deeply regrets it. In “Midnight Rain” fans think the lyric, “Holiday, peppermint candy” ties back to the song Back to December and that time in her life when she was with Lautner. Fans also believe it could correlate to Lautner because Swift is describing when she was younger and was trying to make a name for herself, and she dated Lautner during that time.
This track is one of the seven “3 am” tracks Swift released on the deluxe 3 am version of the album. This song is personally one of my favorites because it is a melancholy ballad that reminisces on a person who used to be in her life. She starts off the song by explaining her dejection after this person was erased from her life. It continues as she describes how this person “is more than just a short time” and how she wishes they were there for the long run. Through her haunting and deep vocals, she sufficiently portrays the true emotion and heartbreak of how she felt during this era.
• Maroon
I don’t even know where to start because I love this song so much! The song starts off talking about a relationship that was frivolous and made her excited. The song continues and Swift is looking back on the relationship and remembers the hardships she endured through it. She uses the color maroon to symbolize these hardships as reality sinks in that her relationship was exciting and charismatic, but also complex. One of my favorite lines that explains the drift in the relationship and ending point is, “The mark they saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephones, the lips I used to call home, so scarlet, it was maroon” This song is lyrically incredible in my opinion, and showcases the ability Taylor Swift has to make you feel every emotion that she conveys in her music.
This song really resonated with me on the first listen because of the theme of the song. She is describing that pining feeling of being wanted and accepted by her peers and in relationships. My favorite lyric of this track is, “I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this, I hosted parties and starved my body, Like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss.” She is describing a time in her life when she suffered with her body image and believed that this acceptance she had always craved would cure her. She later talks about how acceptance can’t fix every demon she is facing, and how she is on her own to solve her insecurities and grow as a person.
I have been loving this album and am so happy she released it in time for the fall season! Keep searching for easter eggs and streaming “Midnights” Swifties!