Midnights is the fourth album Taylor Swift has launched prior to now three years (her sixth when you embrace the re-recorded Red and Fearless), nevertheless it’s nonetheless a really huge deal. It took lower than 24 hours for Swift’s tenth studio album to grow to be Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day, with Swift turning into probably the most streamed artist in a single day in Spotify historical past. In simply three days, it turned the primary album in 5 years to shift 1,000,000 bodily copies within the U.S.
Bringing collectively the confident venom of Reputation, the wide-eyed shimmer of 1989 and the expansive great thing about folklore, Midnights is Swift’s return to pop spectacle, with out shedding any of the expansion of the previous few years. It’s by far her darkest work to this point, however there’s nonetheless loads of house for revenge fantasies and inside jokes.
Read extra: 15 of Taylor Swift’s most emo songs ever, ranked
The launch of Midnights (Oct. 19, precisely 12,000 days since Swift was born) got here after a Bingo-style tracklisting reveal in addition to billboards sharing alternative lyrics, however the enjoyable didn’t cease when the album lastly dropped. Promising a “chaotic surprise,” the prolonged 3 a.m. version got here with seven bonus songs written throughout the identical periods because the 13 that made up Midnights, with Swift explaining how “lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3 a.m. and I’m giving them to you now.”
In the times that adopted, the web has grow to be obsessive about Easter eggs, revenge attire and classic memes, as the various secrets and techniques buried inside Midnights come to gentle. Well, as Swift herself defined throughout an look on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon final 12 months, “I think that it is perfectly reasonable for people to be normal music fans and to have a normal relationship to music. But if you want to go down a rabbit hole with us, come along. The water’s great.”
Below are six takeaways from Midnights.
She’s been teasing Midnights since May
Midnights was introduced on the 2022 MTV VMAs in August, however the teasing began a very long time earlier than that. Back in May, Swift was awarded an honorary doctorate earlier than she gave a speech at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Of course, she couldn’t resist quoting her 2014 observe “Welcome To New York” throughout her speech, nevertheless it seems, Swift additionally used strains from Midnights all through the deal with.
“As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe through, breathe deep and breathe out. And I am a doctor now, so I know how breathing works,” she says at one level, utilizing lyrics from Midnights observe “Labyrinth,” during which Swift sings: (*6*)
Elsewhere, she used the road “You’re on your own now,” which is taken from “You’re On Your Own, Kid.”
It’s impressed a Janet Jackson/Taylor Swift love-in
“Snow On The Beach” not solely options vocals from the unbelievable Lana Del Rey, nevertheless it additionally features a shoutout to Janet Jackson. “Now I’m all for you like Janet,” Swift sings, a nod to Jackson’s 2001 album All for You, which has impressed a mutual love-in from the 2 pop titans. Soon after Midnights was launched, Jackson shared a clip of her listening to “Snow On The Beach,” calling it “stunning” and telling Swift she beloved it.
“I really feel like I’m dreaming,” Swift responded. “I have so much love and gratitude for you and all you’ve done to inspire female artists everywhere.”
Not everyone likes a “sexy baby”
There’s always one lyric on a Swift album that’s going to raise some eyebrows, from “Spelling is fun” on the Brendon Urie-featuring “ME!” to “You could’ve been getting down to this sick beat” on “Shake It Off.” Midnights isn’t any exception, with “Anti-Hero” that includes the divisive line “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby and I’m a monster on the hill.”
A continuation of the themes explored in 2019’s “The Archer” and 2020’s “Nothing New,” this bridge sees Swift deal with her fears about getting older in an business that celebrates youth. It additionally references the 30 Rock episode “TGS Hates Women,” which options Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon telling new employees author Abby to “drop the sexy baby act” after she sexualizes herself in quite a few conditions. It’s later revealed that Abby was taking part in a “sexy baby” to disguise herself from her deranged ex-husband.
At one level, Taylor Swift actually did imagine she was the issue
For so long as Swift has been detailing heartbreak and breakups in her songs, there have been misguided calls that possibly she’s the problem, with variations of the meme “Taylor Swift’s next song should be called ‘maybe I’m the problem’” doing the rounds on social media. Now, Swift has taken the blame earlier than, from 2010’s “Back To December” (“Standing in front of you saying, ‘I’m sorry for that night’”) to 2019’s “Afterglow” (“I’m the one who burned us down”), however “Anti-Hero” has her take these criticisms to coronary heart, with the sunny refrain “It’s me, hi/I’m the problem, it’s me” permitting Swift to provide listeners a “guided tour” via the issues she hates about herself.
How on earth will her tour work?
Swift had a lofty world tour deliberate for 2019’s Lover, which included a headline slot on the iconic Glastonbury Festival. “The Lover album is open fields, sunsets, + summer,” Swift wrote on Twitter on the time. “I want to perform it in a way that feels authentic. I want to go to some places I haven’t been to and play festivals. Where we didn’t have festivals, we made some.”
However, COVID-19 ultimately scrapped these plans, and within the years since, Swift has launched 5 extra albums. Following Midnights, Swift has as soon as once more been speaking about touring, saying how she “really misses it” in addition to pretty much confirming a U.Okay. run of exhibits.
The factor is, with such an excellent again catalog to select from, alongside a powerful variety of new hits, it’s unattainable to inform what the vibe goes to be. Lover was all about togetherness, and folklore dealt in escapist fairytales, whereas Midnights… Well, it has a music known as “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” which tells you every thing it’s essential to know concerning the isolating temper there. Will there be album-themed residencies in key cities, some kind of hectic megamix, or will Swift merely must play for 5 hours an evening?
There’s most likely a Speak Now re-record coming subsequent
The music video for “Bejeweled” options, in Swift’s personal phrases, “a psychotic amount” of Easter eggs, with the star needing to maintain observe of them utilizing a devoted PDF file. Taking the traditional story of Cinderella, with Jack Antonoff taking part in Prince Charming and HAIM taking over the roles of the merciless step-sisters, the video options name backs to “New Romantics” and “Wildest Dreams,” in addition to hinting at what’s to return.
The video was launched Oct. 25, the 12-year anniversary of the unique launch of Swift’s Speak Now, whereas some color-coded elevator buttons recommend a re-record is subsequent on her agenda, as a result of reality each the third and thirteenth (no matter she releases subsequent shall be thirteenth) buttons are the identical shade of Speak Now purple. She additionally used her Speak Now guitar within the video for “Anti-Hero.”
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