Calling all Swifties–on October 21, our lord and savior Taylor Swift dropped her long-awaited 10th studio album. It has been almost a full two years since Ms. Swift released a new album, after putting out both Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. As a longtime fan myself, I have loved watching Taylor reclaim her old music and share additional tracks “from the vault,” but I was absolutely thrilled to hear that we would be getting an entirely new album this year.
My fellow Swifties and I speculated much about Midnights before its release, concocting theories about its sound, content, and aesthetic. Taylor stated that the album was a reflection on 13 restless nights throughout her life, a return to her classic autobiographical songwriting after her fictional experimentation in Folklore and Evermore. It was produced by Jack Antonoff, one of Taylor’s longtime collaborators, most notably on 1989. Ms. Swift is known for leaving cryptic easter eggs in every piece of content she creates, and leading up to the release of this album, she posted TikToks and Instagram reels about the various tracks on the album. Three hours after Midnights finally dropped, Taylor decided to give her fans a collective heart attack by releasing seven additional songs, similar to her “from the vault” tracks from the re-recordings. I’m here today to give you my opinion as an almost decade-long Taylor Swift fan, but for the sake of time, I’m going to stick with the original 13 tracks. So turn on your streaming service of choice and feel free to listen along as we take a deeper look into Midnights!
Track One: Lavender Haze
Swift sets the tone for the Midnights album in the opening track with a fun synth beat and, naturally, the words “meet me at midnight.” She launches into a soft, upbeat pop song which she has confirmed to be about her six-year-long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. This song explores Taylor’s desire to keep her relationship and personal life private amidst a world that preys and profits on celebrity drama and romance. She states it best in the bridge: “Talk your talk and go viral / I just need this love spiral / Get it off your chest / Get it off my desk.” The song introduces the electronic production and pitched-down backing vocals that persist throughout the rest of the album. Overall, I think it’s a smart and fun choice for the album opener–it signals Swift’s departure from the minimal production that defined her Folklore and Evermore albums and her return to the synth-pop sound reminiscent of 1989.
Track Two: Maroon
Maroon is a hazy dive into the decline of an intense romance, and comes off as a dark, bitter, and mature retelling of her 2012 hit, “Red.” The spiraling drone and echoing drums behind her vocals emulate the sensation of impending doom that the lyrics reflect. The rambling chorus (especially the last time she sings it, in her lower register) feels like a bombardment of vibrant memories that hits while laying awake late at night: “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.” Essentially, the romance was passionate to a fault, and thus unsustainable. As a diehard Folklore stan, this chorus reassured me that Taylor’s return to pop doesn’t come at the cost of her lyrical genius.
Track three: anti-Hero
Swift’s lead single from Midnights is a reflection of her deepest insecurities, masked by a catchy beat and sarcastically self-aware chorus: “It’s me / Hi! / I’m the problem, it’s me.” Taylor revealed that one of her inspirations for the Midnights album was self-loathing, and this song assuredly encapsulates this feeling. Some of the lyrics may seem strange at first glance (Sexy baby? Her daughter-in-law kills her for the money?) but if you’re willing to look a little closer, they are some of the most vulnerable and poignant that she’s ever written. Swift details how Hollywood and the music industry quickly and constantly discard celebrities as they age, in favor of younger faces (hence, the sexy baby line.) This destructive cycle feeds into Taylor’s self-hatred, fear of abandonment, and regret. The production is catchy and feels almost satirical considering the lyrical context–I enjoy it immensely as is, but I would also love to hear a stripped-down version that highlights her fantastic writing.
Track four: Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey)
“Snow on the Beach” is a dreamy, wistful ode to the delicious feeling of falling for someone at the same time that they’re falling for you (Does this actually happen in real life? Someone confirm, please.) Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: the Lana feature, if you can really call it that. Taylor is notorious for “featuring” artists in her music without giving them a verse, and I was crossing my fingers that this wouldn’t be the case for this song. Alas, Lana simply chimes in with Taylor during the chorus of the song. It’s hard to hear if you’re not listening for it, but once you do, the soft, harmonic blend of their voices is absolutely heavenly. Plus, the lyrics are breathtakingly beautiful as well: “This scene feels like what I saw once on a screen / I searched ‘aurora borealis green’ / I’ve never seen / Someone lit from within / Blurring out my periphery.” The twinkling strings that bracket the song feel like snowfall, completing the “weird but fuckin’ beautiful” image that Swift paints.
Track five: You’re on Your own Kid
Buckle in, folks, because we’ve arrived at my favorite track on the album. Is it my favorite because I’m a freshman in college, living away from home for the first time? Possibly, but all in all I think this song is the culmination of all my favorite things about Taylor Swift. I’m a big believer in track 5s–if you’re new here, they tend to be some of Taylor’s most emotional and heartbreaking songs with spectacular bridges (“White Horse,” “All Too Well,” “The Archer,” “My Tears Ricochet,” to name a few). In recent years, Ms. Swift has begun deliberately choosing her track 5s to keep the tradition going. This song didn’t disappoint–the vivid storytelling of small-town loneliness had tears rolling down my face almost immediately, and the bridge tore me apart then put me back together. It’s wistful nostalgia, old friends, first loves, and new beginnings all in one: “Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / Everything you lose is a step you take / So make the friendship bracelets / Take the moment and taste it / You’ve got no reason to be afraid.” As the synth and bass guitar fades into nothingness, Swift leaves listeners with an aching bittersweetness that hurts so good.
Track six: midnight Rain
I won’t lie, Swift’s electronically low pitched voice in the intro of this song was a bit of a jump scare the first time I heard it. But once the shock wore off, I couldn’t get this song out of my head. “Midnight Rain” is an anthem for career-minded independent women: “He wanted it comfortable / I wanted that pain / He wanted a bride / I was making my own name / Chasing that fame.” Taylor seems mostly at peace with her priorities, claiming, “I never think of him / Except on midnights like this.” Is that a trace of regret, or just the late night talking? Who’s to say? What I can say, though, is that this track has a pulsing beat you can feel in your bones and an absolutely addictive melody. The production is more experimental than Taylor has played with in the past, but the sound is as perfectly haunting as the relationship that she is reminiscing on.
Track seven: Question…?
If texting your ex after the breakup for closure and then accidentally hurting your own feelings was a song, it would be this one. All of Taylor’s irrational and jealous intrusive thoughts are voiced in the chorus, capped by a cheeky deflection: “Did you leave her house in the middle of the night? / Did you wish you put up more of a fight? / When she said it was too much? / Do you wish you could still touch…her? / It’s just a question.” The production is upbeat and fans have noticed that Taylor likely sampled her 1989 hit “Out of the Woods” (listen closely to the first “I remember” and the background vocals of the chorus.) In an ironic twist of fate, this song has raised the most “questions” over who it may or may not be about, but regardless, fans are developing various interpretations of the somewhat ambiguous lyrics. After all, Swifties do love a challenge.
Track Eight: vigilante shit
Sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now–the new Taylor is on her vigilante shit again. This track is clearly a callback to the themes explored in Swift’s 2017 album Reputation. The production is minimal, dark, and intimate, and it reminds me of fellow pop star Billie Eilish’s signature darker sound. While the violent vengefulness isn’t quite as believable as it was five years ago, Vigilante Shit is still the ultimate hype song for all my gals who are DONE putting up with men’s bullshit: “You did some bad things, but I’m the worst of them / Sometimes I wonder which one will be your last lie / They say looks can kill and I might try.” I feel you, Tay.
track nine: Bejeweled
Taylor Swift recently revealed in a speech at the 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards that she organizes her songs in to three categories: quill lyrics, fountain pen lyrics, and glitter gel pen lyrics. “Bejeweled” is by far the crowning jewel of the glitter gel pen category, from the dazzling production to the playful lyrics. The track is a celebration of knowing your worth, and (excuse the cliche) never letting anyone dull your sparkle. Of course, even though “Bejeweled” is filled with glitter gel pen lyrics, it isn’t a Taylor Swift song if it doesn’t contain some sort of elevated metaphor: “Familiarity breeds contempt / Don’t put me in the basement / When I want the penthouse of your heart”. I also like to think of this track as the confident older sister of Swift’s “Mirrorball,” who’s still spinning in her highest heels, but this time for herself. This song is truly impossible not to dance to–if you haven’t seen @mikael.arellano strut to this song on TikTok, you have to go check it out. It’s to die for.
Track ten: Labyrinth
“Labyrinth” marked the second time I cried while listening to this album for the first time. Sandwiched between two of Midnights‘s more upbeat tracks, this song’s synth-filled, wistful echos tell the story of how it feels to fall in love again after devastating heartbreak. It’s breathy, achingly raw, and bittersweet. The lyrics are a simple but powerful internal drone of overthinking, hurting, and healing. Swift vulnerably admits, “You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back / Just like that.” It builds and builds, but is never really resolved, similar to Swift’s “The Archer” from Lover. It ends with more of the low-pitched vocal modification that we heard in “Midnight Rain” and “Lavender Haze.” As the song fades out, Taylor repeats like a mantra: “Uh oh, I’m falling in love / Oh no, I’m falling in love again.” The longer she repeats it, less it feels like fear and more like hope.
Track Eleven: Karma
If you’ve been a Swiftie for a while, you’ve probably encountered the theory of the “lost album” that was supposed to be released two years after 1989, but was abandoned in favor of Reputation after the drama between Taylor, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian. Supposedly this lost album was titled Karma–so naturally, when Ms. Swift announced the title of track eleven, the fans went feral. “Karma” isn’t the scathing roast sesh that the Swifties predicted, but it’s even better. It’s right in Taylor’s sweet spot–a bright and joyful pop anthem with an irresistibly fun chorus full of metaphors: “Karma is my boyfriend / Karma is a god / Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend / Karma’s a relaxing thought / Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” Don’t get me wrong, I loved Folklore and Evermore‘s elaborate lyricism and understated production, but Taylor Swift is first and foremost a pop star, and songs like “Karma” exhibit her never-ending capacity to write hit, after hit, after hit. She says it best herself in the bridge of this very song: “Ask me why so many fade, but I’m still here / (I’m still, I’m still here) / ‘Cause karma is the thunder / Rattling your ground / Karma’s on your scent like a bounty hunter / Karma’s gonna track you down.”
Track twelve: Sweet Nothing
Grab your tissues, folks, because from here on out Ms. Swift is pulling on heartstrings left and right. “Sweet Nothing,” co-written by none other than William Bowery (aka Taylor’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn), is a beautiful, narrative track about unconditional love: “Outside they’re push and shoving / You’re in the kitchen humming / All that you ever wanted from me was / Sweet nothing.” The piano melody does a sort of skips along lightheartedly as Swift masterfully crafts vivid imagery with minimal words. The effect is purity and innocence, love without expectations, and shelter from the damaging pressures of the media. It feels like whispers between lovers, and considering the fact that Taylor and Joe wrote it together, that’s likely pretty close to the truth. In any case, this song raised my standards for love an absolutely unreasonable amount: “On the way home / I wrote a poem / You say, “what a mind” / This happens all the time.” I’m sobbing.
Track thirteen: Mastermind
The closing track of Midnights opens with a bubbly intro that almost sounds like something from outer space. Fittingly, Swift immediately begins talking about how “the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned” to bring her and her lover together. She goes on to detail how, in fact, it wasn’t fate that brought them together, but instead Taylor’s own careful planning. However, this isn’t a boast, but a shameful admission–it seems that Taylor believed that her man never would’ve fallen for her without her manipulation. She forces out shamefully, “No one wanted to play with me as a little kid / So I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since / To make them love me and make it seem effortless.” Ouch, Taylor. She then goes on to confess all of this to her lover, who simply smiles: “He knew the entire time / He knew that I’m a mastermind.” HE. KNEW. THE. ENTIRE. TIME. And he loves her not only in spite of it, but because of it.
After that long-winded break down (pun intended), it feels like it’s time for a some final thoughts. Midnights is Taylor’s experimental, vulnerable, and dazzling love letter to the pop genre, and it feels like everything about this album just slotted into place. It showcases Swift’s strengths, previously explored in separate albums, all coalescing into one album. It has the lyrical genius of Folklore and Evermore, the synth production of 1989, the darkness of Reputation, and the romance of Lover. It is sure to be the soundtrack of many of my late nights (and, realistically also my early mornings. And my mid-afternoons.) All in all, I’m overjoyed that pop Taylor is back, and as eloquent, emotional, and bejeweled as ever.