"Midnights" is Taylor Swift's tenth studio album.
It's one of her worst albums, despite a strong start and some highlights.
"Maroon," "Question...?" and "Sweet Nothing" are some of the best songs.
"Midnights" is Taylor Swift's tenth studio album.
This is the first set of new songs that Swift has released in a long time. "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)" are two of her first six albums.
Swift surprised fans when she announced "Midnights" in August. She described the album as a collection of stories of 13 sleepless nights.
She said that the music was written in the middle of the night and was a journey through terror and sweet dreams. We face demons on the floors. We hope that when the clock strikes twelve we will meet ourselves.
Swift released an extended version of the album three hours after it was released. Swift said the original 13-track edition was a complete concept album and the bonus songs were written on her journey.
Senior reporter Callie Ahlgrim and senior editor Courteney Larocca wrote down their initial thoughts after listening to the new album.
Here is what we thought of the songs. The only songs worth listening to and the final score are shown at the end.
The opener is called "Lavender Haze" and it is a red herring.
I felt my eyes light up when they first entered my ear canals.
Since Swift didn't give us any singles or snippets prior to the album's release, I didn't expect a return to the dreamy-pop landscape of "Delicate" and "Dress."
Swift teased "Lavender Haze" by telling fans she cribbed the title from an episode of "Mad Men" to describe being in love.
The song is a critique of the expectation of the 1950's shit they want from me. Swift's artful revolt results in one of the strongest couplets on the album, "All they keep asking me is if I'm gonna be your bride or a wife." The bait and switch were works of art.
"Lavender Haze" is an answer immediately. It's nice. It's light. The vibe is fresh and current. Swift likes to put "damned if I do, damned if I don't" on her desk and then return "I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say."
It's similar to "False God" but at a quicker pace. I think the track is one of the best on "Lover" and I'm happy about this direction.
"Maroon" is reminiscent of the best of "Reputation"
You probably weren't prepared for the shimmery nostalgic rush of "Maroon."
The sexy shades of "Reputation," stripped of the album's annoying maximalism, are reflected in this song.
She wouldn't have been downing a bottle of discount wine prior to her 21st birthday if "Maroon" was a play on Swift's outdated color theory.
"When you splashed your wine into me" is reminiscent of "I'm spilling wine in the bathtub, you kiss my face and we'" in Swift's new song.
There are similarities between "Gold Rush" and "Evermore" I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush.
"Maroon" is an example of Swift's best storyteller, the kind that carries across albums, shading in new colors and perspectives with each new addition.
"Anti-Hero" is going to divide people.
"Anti-Hero" is not the soul-bearing revelation that many fans expected, but Swift has buried some of her trademark wit and nuance.
Swift alludes to the cautionary myth of Icarus and compares herself to a monster in the song.
"When my depression works the graveyard shift, all of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room," is an obvious line from the album.
The second verse is my favorite because it says, "Did you hear my covert narcissism?" Swift pulls it off by skewering the facade of US politics without sounding trite or insincere.
"I'm a monster on the hill, sometimes I feel like everyone is a sexy baby, and I'm a monster on the hill."
I've seen people argue that it's a reference to "30 Rock" or that she's using the metaphor to describe how she feels under modern beauty standards.
To say that Swift couldn't come up with a better phrase than "sexy baby" is an admission that she isn't the genius writer we know her to be. The woman who wrote "Your Midas touch on the Chevy door / November flush and your flannel cure" and "You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath" is the same woman who also wrote "You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an "Anti-Hero" is one of the best songs I've ever written and you can expect more from a prolific lyricist.
There are poignant lines in the track like "When my depression works the graveyard shift" and "I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror."
"Anti-Hero" is too short between serious and un serious. It's difficult to tell if I'm carrying a knot in my chest or not. I don't do either.
A duet with Lana Del Rey is not a good idea.
"Snow on the Beach" is pretty, but it drags when you expect a verse from Lana Del Rey.
There is a risk that the production will sound like a Christmas song, kind of like a watered down version of "'Tis the Damn Season."
The phrase "snow at the beach, weird, but fuck beautiful" turned out to be an earworm for me, but I'm not huge on feeling trapped inside a snowglobe.
"Snow on the Beach" was the first thing that came to my mind. I didn't catch enough of that take to change it.
"You're on Your Own, Kid" is a story about isolation and body image.
"You're On Your Own, Kid" is a descendant of the fifth track on "Lover."
"You're on Your Own, Kid" reflects upon the sacrifice Swift has already made to chase her ambitions, while "TheArcher" explores the slow-burn terror of falling in love. It isn't a journey deeper into her fears so much as a removal of them.
"You're On Your Own, Kid" doesn't have the same pacing and tension as its predecessor, but it does build towards a vivid catharsis. The best bridge on "Midnights" is the one where the broken down, bloodied hero has to save herself.
The clarity of Swift's voice caught my attention. She was floating above the scene until this point. She is right here, guiding us through her early years. She doesn't want to stay in a town she doesn't want, until she finds fame and fortune. Her friends are not sure what to say.
"I searched the party of better bodies, just to learn that you never cared" is a gut-wrenching line from the 10-minute version of Swift's most famous track.
Swift's track fives are known for being the most emotionally exposed moments on her albums, but there is some vulnerability here. I like it, but I'm not sure how well it will hold up with other classics. Swift's fans could come away from this feeling that it wasn't deserved.
It does not deliver on production or lyrics.
"He was sunshine, I was midnight rain" is just so cliché. Swift's song "Midnight Rain" is a combination of words on its own, but I was expecting a double entendre from her. The phrase is presented in a way that makes it sound like it does.
I like the idea of leaving a nice boy behind because he couldn't keep up, like "Dorothea" from Swift's perspective, or a grown up "Fifteen" after she realized those bigger dreams.
I thought the song was uploaded wrong when I first heard it. It turns out the sonic jump scare was a style choice.
Bon Iver's introduction on "Evermore" was unpleasant at first, but now the track is one of my favorites on that album, but I will discard it due to the lack of gripping lyrics and a bridge
I would believe it if you said this was an unfinished demo.
There is a bright nostalgic production with painful lyrics.
Several songs on "Midnights" carry hints of "1989," Swift's celebrated pivot to pop music, but "question...?" is the album's true torchbearer.
The "Style" reference and the "I remember" opening song are indicative of the connection. Swift tells the story of a big city where mistakes were made. Maybe the lights were so bright she couldn't see anything.
The question deals with a big one. Swift is incapable of forgetting her feelings in that crowded room and letting everything else go to waste. We've seen this film before, most notably in "Hoax", where we were told that the hero died, so what's the movie for?
Swift is fond of asking questions she doesn't want to hear the answer to. Love that lasts beyond a relationship isn't right. Swift shines in that haunted limbo where she writes.
I have loudly proclaimed my love for Swift's "The 1 time and again", so I was thrilled when she said that one of the things that inspired "Midnights" was "wondering what could have been."
The song that lays bare what Swift may have been persisting and resisting the temptation to ask on the opening track of "Folklore" is called "question..." If one thing had been different, would everything be the same today? She zeroes in on the one moment she believes changed her and her ex's course.
One of my favorite couplets on the entire album is the first set of Q's, "Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?"
From there, what did you do? Were you at her house in the middle of the night? Do you wish you'd fought more? She said it was too much. Are you still able to touch her?
There is no clear answer. There is a question or seven.
"Vigilante Shit" is dark and arrogant.
This is the sister of "I Did Something Bad" and the best friend of "Mad Woman".
It's an on-brand for Swift. Swift likes a melodramatic revenge fantasy and this one gets even more juicy when she befriends her enemy's ex- wife and flirts with her.
There's a special kind of swagger to the production, reminiscent of "You Should See Me in a Crown," which is what Swift is doing here.
Swift revisits nights throughout the course of her life. She convinced herself that "Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" was a clever thing to put into a song, after digging through a bunch of posts from the previous year.
Swift's song "Vigilante Shit" is redundant at best, and cringeworthy at worst. It doesn't mean that Swift has to embrace it all.
It's bad.
"Bejeweled" is a demo that Swift cut from "Fearless" but never bothered to revisit as a vault track. If the singer were a teenager, "I miss you, but I miss sparkling" would be a cute line. One hopes that Swift has learned from her past mistakes.
Fans of "Bejeweled" will say it's a prime example of Swift's self-proclaimed "glitter-gel-pen" genre, but just because Swift knows the lyrics are frivolous doesn't mean it's a great song. This is the worst moment on the track list. It's the name of the song.
"Bejeweled" is a glitter mess. I can't think of a reason why she felt this was needed. She took one of the best songs on "Folklore" and told a 7-year-old to interpret it in their own words and then recorded it and put it on this tracklist.
If you asked an artificial intelligence generator to give you Taylor Swift lyrics, "Bejeweled" would be the result. I miss you, but I don't. Is that what?
"Labyrinth" is included on the album, despite some finding it boring.
Ahlgrim likes "Labyrinth." I can't keep my eyes from seeing it.
It's not enough to say "Oh no, I'm falling in love again" "You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back, just like that" is the only line that has consistently pierced through the haze and snapped me out of my reverie.
"Epiphany," the only weak spot on "Folklore" is Swift's vocal delivery on "Labyrinth."
Personally, I love a hazy dreamscape, but if you're going to cloud your vocals for four minutes and seven seconds, you'll inevitably run into people who will label the song boring and move on.
I would suggest giving "Labyrinth" a chance to pull you in if you don't sleep immediately. "This Is Me Trying" breaks through the fog with piercing lyrics like "They told me all of my cages were mental/ So I got wasted like all my potential" while "This Love (Taylor's Version)" ebbs and flows between its parts.
"Labyrinth" tells you to breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, and then exhale. This song makes me feel like I'm falling asleep while meditating. There needs to be a moment like that.
"Karma" will make people happy and upset them.
This is the type of writing that I can get behind.
Even if it's not Swift's most insightful writing, "Karma" is still enjoyable. I don't like when she uses too-online slang in her songs, but I will give her a pass when it's masked by a strong desire to dance.
There are many theories about the scrapped album "Karma." Swift doesn't think an album is one of the things karma is. Thanks to God, that happened.
With lines like "Karma is a cat purring in my lap 'cause it loves me" and "Spider boy, king of thieves, Weave your little webs of opacity," this song is almost funny. A meme was written by Swift.
I will not fight you if you argue that it is camp. I don't think I'll be able to get this one again.
The last track should have been "Sweet Nothing".
"Sweet Nothing" is very similar to the kind of music I was expecting from "Midnights."
There is a vintage chime of a Wurlitzer electric piano on the alternate cover for "Jade Green". Frank Ocean's "Blonde" and Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind" both feature an instrument.
"Sweet Nothing" is soft and sentimental, weaving together the tender moments of a long-term relationship: picking up pebbles next to the sea, humming in the kitchen, going home together. The song was cowritten by Swift's partner Joe Alwyn, who said "What a mind."
Swift frets that she's too sensitive for the life she created in the song "The Lakes." "Sweet Nothing" is the only song on "Midnights" that makes me want to cry every time I listen to it.
Swift is known for her ability to take moments from her own life and turn them into truths.
I had lost faith in Swift's ability to use her fountain pen while writing "Midnights" as it was mostly devoid of specificity and emotional catharsis. Possibly a bit late to the party, but welcome anyways, Swift stumbled in with a rock she and Alwyn stole in Ireland and the most sensitive track on the album.
There is a Wurlitzer and some horns, but there is not much else in the way of music. It feels like a song your parent used to make you sleep on. It reminds me of "peace" from "Folklore." Both of the songs evoke the feeling of peace and explore deep anxieties in a relationship through their lyrics. Swift's relationship with Alwyn led to the emergence of both of them. I cried in the middle of the night.
It may be unfair that I wanted more out of "Midnights" when the line that has been turning my eyes into faucets for the past 24 hours is "And the voices that implore, "You should be doing more" Even though I am grateful for the tears I have yet to shed to "Sweet Nothing", one stellar song does not make an album.
After the Folklorification of Swift's discography these past couple of years, give "Sweet Nothing" a couple more spins. There is pain.
It doesn't live up to its potential.
The problem with a bad closing track is that you will stop listening to the album before you get to it.
Women are raised and socialized to be the pawn in every lover's game, so they must become masterminds to get what they truly want, or to organize a fulfulling relationship.
Swift stops just short of excavation and only skims the surface before moving on to basic similes and an overused narrative "No one wanted to play with me as a little kid."
The only thing I've learned from "Mastermind" is "Invisible String". "Mastermind" said, "Actually, just kidding, it was me all along."
If you're going to ruin the integrity of one of your own songs, you need to pull out something even stronger.
Swift is a genius who can plan the smallest details out three years in advance. She owns up to her Machiavellian ways, but the song never digs deep enough to earn its place.
I had a sour taste in my mouth after consuming this.
The final grade was 5.8.
Swift is a genius but not everything she does is.
"Midnights" is similar to "Reputation" in that it is a collection of high and lows. It's easy to sort its tracklist into songs I love, songs I like, and songs I don't like.
The highs on "Midnights" are not as high as "Reputation" and the lows are not as bad. The end of the spectrum is not as intense as the beginning. "Delicate" is my favorite song on the album. "Bejeweled" doesn't make me shiver like "This Is Why we can't have Nice Things."
There is no texture or tension on "Midnights." The architecture of this album is a mostly flat plane according to a voicenote I received from Courteney.
"1989" and "Lover" are both good albums, but where are the passionate bridges that Swift is known for? Have you ever listened to her most interesting and cohesive albums to date, "Folklore" and "Evermore"?
Lackluster production is easy to make up if Swift's legendary writing is on full display. She uses words like "Machiavellian" and "aurora borealis" with ease and references horror classics like "Carrie" in one breath.
Swift undermines those feats with long stretches of repetition and song.
The reality is a set of broad strokes that feel vaguely familiar, like the hazy scenes of a dream, despite the fact that "Midnights" was marketed as an intimate and keen-eyed deep dive into Swift's past. Critics will call these lyrics "cryptic" when they aren't specific. There is no red scarf to be seen.
I can't deny that my immediate reaction when the album ended was disappointment, even though I feel more positive about "Midnights" as a whole.
Maybe my expectations were too high.
A friend asked if I was in Taylor bliss while I was working on the review. I never expected to answer that question in a different way.
I can't say that "Midnights" is an average pop album. It wasn't going to be "Folklore!" You don't like pop music. I'm not upset by a return to pop. Swift can hit any production she wants onto a song. It works because she builds off a strong foundation.
Her most panned pop album is "Reputation" Several people have said they didn't like the song until they heard the acoustic one. Same with King of My Heart. Callie sent me a stripped-down version of "Me!", but I still don't think the lead single from "Lover" is worth listening to.
Swift, like every writer, could use an editor, that's the logical conclusion I would make if I were to dive into a lyric booklit for "Midnights." The man is not up to the job.
It's not Antonoff's fault that the album is halfway done. The man made hits like "Getaway Car" and "August." His best work comes when he is reined in by the people he is working with. Swift and Antonoff were the only two main partners. When Swift wants to write about sexy babies, neither of them can be kept in check.
But that magic only comes in small pieces. "Maroon," "Sweet Nothing," and "Lavender Haze" are the highest points on her other albums. If put alongside their older sisters, these songs would feel second-rate.
Swift doesn't forget how to write. She left a lot of great songs off of what my friends and I call "Midnights Proper". You'll be hard-pressed to find a well-constructed bridge within the city limits of Swift, but if you can find one to "Midnights" Suburbia, you'll be happy to see it. She looks a lot like Faith Hill in the 90s when she was at Target.
Swift misses the mark when she selects a lead single. She chose the weakest set of 13 tracks and demoted her biggest hitters to land outside the boundaries of album reviews and vinyl sales because she didn't have one.
If you're also disappointed in the album, there's a chance another rerecording is on the way. Swift has been releasing music at such a rapid rate that there is always another sample of her writing to come. She would've been devastated had it come after three years of nothing. It will take a long time until Swift comes up again. I'm the one!
It's worth listening to.
"Lavender Haze" is what it's called.
"Maroon" is a song.
You're on your own.
Is it a question?
"I don't know what to say."
Music background.
Lana Del Rey is featured in the song "Snow on the Beach".
"Labyrinth" is a word.
There were split decisions.
There is an anti-hero.
"vigilante Shit"
"Karma" is the name of the woman.
The press should skip this one.
The movie "Midnight Rain" is about rain.
"Bejeweled" is a word.
The word "mastermind" is used.
The final album score is based on the songs in each category.
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