On top of multiple re-recordings of her masters, Swift surprises fans with the release of her newest album.
Over the course of the 2000s and 2010s, Taylor Swift has been a force in the music industry. Starting off with her country roots in Debut before transitioning to a pop style in 1989 and finally to a folksy tone in her 9th album, evermore, Swift really has done it all.
With the release of her newest album, Midnights, Swift returns to a pop sound and introduces some rock-based samples while also continuing her trend towards a more well-rounded sound.
When the album first came out at midnight of October 21st, Swift only released the original 13 songs promised when she first introduced the album’s release. The runtime was, in total, 44 minutes and 8 seconds, standing in the middle of Swift’s discography in length.
Right off the bat, “Lavender Haze,” the album’s opener, transports fans into a sound very similar to songs off of her 7th studio album Lover. The intense bass that starts off the track, as well as the short “Meet me at Midnight” ad lib, definitely introduces the album as more fun-loving than her recent folklore and evermore sound.
Next, Swift especially delivers on “Maroon,” with a sound eerily similar to tracks like “Dress” and “Call it What You Want” off of reputation. This song (my personal favorite) hides beautiful lyricism and metaphor in a strong base line and slightly distorted guitar. The continual use of the color red appears over and over in Swift’s discography, only amplified in this track, where her synonymous use of words like scarlet, rust, blood red, ruby, and maroon demonstrate a level of metaphor one could only find in a Taylor Swift song.
The next three songs of the album include “Anti-Hero,” (for which she released a music video) “Snow on the Beach (ft. Lana Del Ray),” and “You’re on Your Own Kid.” The most anticipated of the three–and perhaps of the entire album–was “Snow on the Beach,” mostly because of its featured artist. Overwhelmingly, though, fans were disappointed with Del Ray’s lack of verse, instead only providing backing vocals for Swift. The song, though, is beautiful–melodious and lyrically sound, all while creating wondrous imagery in the mind of the listener.
Inside the middle of the album, Swift writes “Midnight Rain,” “Question..?,” and “Vigilante Shit,” my favorite of which was “Midnight Rain.” The song provides my favorite lyrics of the entire original album, where Swift writes “My boy was a montage/ A slow-motion, love potion/ Jumping off things in the ocean.”
Notably, “Vigilante Shit” was also very well-received by Swift’s fans, because of its vengeful lyrics, almost directly linked to reputation. Personally, the song was the worst off of the album, because of its uncharacteristic lack of complexity.
Finally, Swift ended the original album with “Bejeweled” (for which she also released a music video), “Labyrinth,” “Karma,” “Sweet Nothing,” and “Mastermind,” all diverse and wonderful tracks with Swift’s typical level of intricacy.
Swift also released “Midnights (3 AM Version)” where she provided fans with seven new tracks. On this version of the album, I found my favorite songs of the entire release, “The Great War” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”
In “The Great War,” Swift slips back into folklore style vocabulary, using floral and chronic imagery to describe a relationship doomed to fail, a betrayal from the person closest to you. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” also reads as lyrical genius, illustrating a relationship between a young woman and an older man, the power imbalance between them, and the resulting trauma for the woman.
It is in this song that Swift writes the most heartbreaking lyrics of the album, where she sings “Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts/ Give me back my girlhood/ It was mine first/ And I damn sure never would’e danced with the devil/ At nineteen.” The song is reportedly about her relationship with John Mayer (where Swift was 19 and Mayer, 31), similar to tracks off her 3rd album Speak Now.
Overall, reception to the album has been positive, but Swift did receive some negative feedback closer to the release of the album, especially since the sound of this album was so different from her previous two.
For many at Barstow, Midnights both underwhelmed and overwhelmed expectations, vastly differing based on the level of Taylor Swift fandom the listener has reached.
For example, senior and self-proclaimed “swiftie” Ahna Chang ‘23 “really enjoyed the new album. I really liked the return to her 1989/reputation style of work.” Even more moderate Swift listeners like senior Mary Colombo ‘23 enjoyed her new work.
“I surprised myself by even listening to it, and was even more surprised by how much I liked the album. She is definitely an important part of the music industry,” explains Colombo.
Swift has also received backlash for chaos relating to her Era’s Tour, planned for Summer 2023. Many fans were unable to get tickets because of Ticketmaster’s faulty coding of presale codes for the public. After, because of such high demand, Ticketmaster canceled general sale, completely dashing fans’ hopes of seeing Swift live; Ticketmaster’s parent company, LiveNation, is also being investigated by the Justice Department for monopoly charges, first uncovered during the fiasco surrounding the Era’s Tour.
Midnights has been available on all streaming services since October 21st, and provides some of Swift’s best work yet. Be sure to check it out yourself, and let us know your thoughts!
