With her fourth new album released in just as many years, Taylor Swift has gifted the world Midnights, an album for the ages.
Taylor Swift has kept her fans happy constantly over the past few years. With one release after another, the journey has taken us to the release of Midnights, a new synth-pop album by one of the best songwriters of her generation. As Taylor said herself, “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” Each of the 13 songs released initially tells a story of a different night laying awake and going through different internal experiences. Let’s take a look at those tracks more closely.
Midnights Track-list Review
Although the album just released, you may notice when going on Spotify or Apple Music that there are many different versions of it already. There’s the initial 13 tracks release that Taylor advertised, there’s an Apple-Music extra 14-track version featuring “Meet me at midnight”, then there’s the “3 a.m.” version that features 7 more songs. You can’t go wrong with whichever version you listen to.
Taylor first released the titles and the featured artist, Lana Del Rey, through individual TikToks that got the whole internet to stop and pay attention. The first song ‘Lavender Haze’ sets the tone for the album perfectly. The synths paired with the usual deep lyrics from Taylor offer up a great opening track. The song is focused on the “love-life” aspect of Taylor’s life and about focusing on passion rather than outside criticism of her relationship.
The second song ‘Maroon’ talks about a love story, not unlike previous Taylor songs, however, this song is much more mature lyrics-wise. ‘Anti-Hero’ starts with the lyrics “I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser”. A song that talks about the correlation between aging and wisdom, Taylor is moving swiftly from song to song while delivering this new-era pop experience. ‘Snow On The Beach’ is perhaps the most anticipated track of the album. Featuring Lana Del Rey, the fans were expecting a solo verse for Lana, but nevertheless what they got is a great moody song. The lyrics talk about falling in love with someone while they’re also falling in love with you at the same time.
‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’ is about what the title suggests. A young person who realizes that they can’t rely on other people. ‘Midnight Rain’ is the sixth track and one that perfectly signifies what the album is all about, with constant synths and a heavy focus on delivering a new pop classic. Another note-worthy song is track nine. It’s about being undervalued in a relationship and growing frustrated with not being properly seen for the goddess you are. After finding love in track ten of the album ‘Labyrinth’ and pondering whether she’s worth the love she’s receiving, track eleven ‘Karma’ goes in a slightly different direction. Confronting an ex-lover, Taylor sees karma as something that both she and her previous lover deserve to be hit by.
Midnights is a wild ride of an album and I couldn’t be happier that my co pilot on this adventure was @jackantonoff. He’s my friend for life (presumptuous I know but I stand by it) and we’ve been making music together for nearly a decade HOWEVER…https://t.co/jjqUNkGSme pic.twitter.com/v7LboJJ9Ik
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 21, 2022
On a slightly quieter note, ‘Sweet Nothing’ brings us closer to the end of Midnights with a calming song that gets carried by the beautiful Taylor vocals. ‘Mastermind’ closes out this version of the album by playing around lyrically with the idea of fate. The seven more tracks that feature on the “3 a.m.” version, are very much worth listening to as well, but the original “Midnights” experience is complete with these 13-tracks.
Do not lose sight of the fact that Taylor has stated that this is a visual album. Meaning that in order to fully grasp the hidden meanings and experience the album fully, you need to pay attention to the music videos released through YouTube and other visual mediums.
The Reaction to Midnights
Most music lovers all over the world were naturally excited beyond belief as soon as the album was announced a few months ago. The album will surely be number one on most, if not all, possible charts globally.
Critics have so far been generally loving “Midnights”. The album holds very high scores on many review sites. All three, ‘The Guardian’, ‘The Independent, and ‘Rolling Stone’ have given it a perfect 100 rating. Fans of Taylor Swift are, of course, loving it as usual. Though there is some doubt about how much will the non-fans or those on the fence actually enjoy it. The album isn’t really breaking any new ground however it’s also not trying to.
You can listen to any version of “Midnights” by the ever-enchanting Taylor Swift on any music streaming platform available at all times.
Photo: bandwagon
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