"Midnights" by Taylor Swift
After a two-month-long mysterious promo campaign, one of the most anticipated albums of the year is here: Midnights by Taylor Swift. Midnights is Swift’s 10th studio album and comes following two re-recordings of the albums Fearless and Red. Consisting of 13 songs in the standard edition and 20 songs in the 3am Edition, the album has been described as a “concept album” of 13 sleepless nights. The album is produced by Taylor’s long-lasting collaborator, Jack Antonoff, as well as Keanu Beats, Sounwave, and Jahaan Sweet. A folklore and evermore collaborator, veteran musician and producer Aaron Dessner also worked on the 3am edition. I have been a fan of Taylor’s for almost a decade now, thoroughly enjoying her musical evolution over the years.
My favorite songs are “Lavender Haze,” “Bejeweled,” “Labyrinth,” “Mastermind,” “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.” The only song I can’t get into is “Vigilante Shit,” as it doesn’t seem to go anywhere sonically. It calls on reputation to form the backdrop, but the rest of the album showcases growth that this song doesn’t provide.
Midnights opens with the track “Lavender Haze,” a song led by Taylor’s trademark crooning as she sings over a dark, groovy beat. It’s my favorite song of the album as it marks a return to the sultry vibes of reputation. As with many Taylor Swift songs, the chorus quickly got stuck in my head in the best possible way. In “Anti-Hero,” the lead single off this album, Taylor shares her insecurities to the beat of a bouncy 1989-style instrumentation. “You’re on Your Own, Kid” holds the infamous track five position on the album and builds sonically as Taylor expresses her increasing emotion about growing up in the public eye. It’s notably less heart-wrenching than previous track fives like “All Too Well” and “my tears ricochet,” but the path towards maturity the young subject goes through resonates with many. Swift’s songwriting stood out in this song with lyrics, like “cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / Everything you lose is a step you take,” which puts the human experience of growing up into terms we can all understand and relate to.
“Bejeweled,” the ninth track on the album, seems to contrast in style with folklore’s “Mirrorball.” Bouncy, fun, and confident, the track lets us return to the lighthearted side of Taylor we haven’t seen since Lover. “Labyrinth” is a slower song, but one that packs a lot of vulnerability. Taylor sings about the realization that she is falling in love again. The production on this track and “Midnight Rain” includes Taylor’s voice pitched down to a lower octave, which makes for an interesting effect. The final sixty seconds of “Labyrinth” paint a very serene soundscape. “Mastermind,” the 13th and final track on the standard album, recalls the early stages of her relationship with Joe Alwyn. It echoes the misdirection of “Getaway Car” with its multiple plot twists in the lyrics.
“Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” sounds as if it could be a Speak Now vault track, earnestly describing the lasting pains from Swift’s relationship with John Mayer at age 19. Aaron Dessner’s emotive instrumentation evokes the same feelings that are conjured up from folklore’s “mad woman”, a track that so perfectly captured the tumultuous emotions of a mourning Swift through its sonic textures/sound. The lyricism in the song is top-notch as well. One example: “And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts.” One motif to note is the repetition of the lyrics “would’ve could’ve should’ve” in “Bigger than the Whole Sky” a choice she made to draw attention to listeners to ponder a future that never happened.
On this new record, Taylor takes on the challenge of following the critically-acclaimed folklore and evermore, albums characterized by their impressive lyricism and experimentation. I don’t think Midnights is a regression, nor is it a course correction. People seem to criticize it for not living up to those albums, but Swift’s style is always going to evolve and grow in different directions which some won’t like. Midnights isn’t her strongest work lyrically, but as an album, it makes for a cohesive listening experience. Lyrical standouts include “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Snow On The Beach.” Unfortunately, there are some lyrical duds like the “sexy baby” line of “Anti-Hero.” I really enjoyed Lover for all its craziness and ups and downs. Midnights is easily a more cohesive album as the listener can imagine themselves in that liminal hour of midnight.
Where this album succeeds is the callbacks to previous albums. For instance, the song “Question…?” opens with a sample of Taylor’s 2015 hit “Out of the Woods,” while “Karma” and “Vigilante Shit” draw on the stylistic choices represented on reputation. Swift’s newest work touches on all her albums in some sense, most directly taking inspiration from reputation, 1989, Lover, and folklore.
I can see how people don’t like the album for this reason, but that’s exactly what makes the album so magical. The album is called Midnights, a concept so well-known in Swiftian lore. It’s not going to reinvent Taylor by any means, but the album marks a special place in Swift’s discography. Similar to concept albums of hers in the past, Swift touches on multiple different facets of her emotional view of midnight, even when grappling with insecurity: yearning, reminiscing, and wonder associated with a late night.
— Griffin Meyer