★★★★
When Taylor Swift announced her 10th album,Midnights,in August,she called it “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams”,written about 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life.
Taylor Swift at the 2022 VMAs,where she announced her new album Midnights.Getty Images
The highly anticipated record marks Swift’s first new music since 2020,though she’s been plenty busy in between,releasing re-recorded Taylor’s Versions of her albumsand in 2021,including unreleased tracks “from the vault”.
Swift has always traded in emotional honesty,but on her last albums,2020’s folky twin releasesfolklore andevermore,she opted for a more abstract storyteller role,narrating from a further distance than usual.
There’s still a bit of that in the new album –You’re On Your Own,Kid is a journey from childhood to the disappointment of adult love – but the very concept ofMidnights is ripe for the most intimate kinds of personal confessions. After all,who hasn’t stayed awake into the early hours overthinking everything?
Those who’ve been missing Swift’s synth-pop era (think1989 and the best tracks onLover) will be pleased to hear it’s back:from the esoteric opening trackLavender Hazewhich is layered with vocals (including Zoë Kravitz),to the slow burnMaroon,the sparklingBejeweledand the pulsingKarma(forgiving the juvenile lyric “karma is my boyfriend”).
Swift is once again working with producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff,with whom she co-wrote the majority of these tracks,and they’re a bona fide pop dream team,creating sweeping and often cinematic soundscapes.
The atmosphericSnow on the Beach,featuring Lana Del Rey,bridges the worlds between electronica and Swift’s more recent folk-driven sound.
The key track here,tapping into the same synth-pop aesthetic,is the infectiousAnti-Hero,which is the frankest Swift has ever been,lyrically,about her insecurities and mental health struggles,explicitly naming depression and describing depersonalisation. There are some odd lyrics (bafflingly,“sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby”),but it’s a plunge into a state of mind we’ve previously not been wholly privy to. The closest she’s gotten before is the hugely underratedAfterglow.
As the song continues,Swift sounds more and more exhausted each time she repeats the chorus’ main line – “it’s me,hi,I’m the problem,it’s me” – and her stark confessions verge on paranoia (“I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money”). That line draws to mindevermore’s cringey murder fantasyNo Body No Crime,but it’s executed much more successfully here as Swift draws upon hallucinations and anxieties that are born from fear.
While the darkness works a treat here,it doesn’t always land as evenly across the record – while musically interesting,Vigilante Shit lyrically tries too hard,harking back to Swift’s best-forgottenReputation era.
But there’s also a hefty (and welcome) dose of attitude and humour throughout,from the relatable “How’d we end up on the floor anyway?”/ “Your roommate’s cheap-ass screw top rosé,that’s how” to singing about “some dickhead guy” or “f---ing politics and gender roles” (Question…?).
Swift challenges misogynistic mores,too. OnLavender Haze she acidly observes,“The only kinda girl they see/is a one night or a wife”.
Ever since dropping her first F-bomb onfolklore,Swift is letting them fly thick and fast,adding a righteous sense of fury and passion.
Taylor Swift delivers her acceptance speech after winning the ARIA Award for Most Popular International Artist.
There’s a real sense of pushback that can only really come with the wisdom of age and experience.
A great strength of this record is the way in which it shows different sides of Swift’s songwriting and her willingness to continue to try new things over a decade into her storied career. A particular highlight isSweet Nothing,which Swift co-wrote with her romantic partner Joe Alwyn (credited as William Bowery).
It’s a change of tack for Swift,tapping more into a bedroom pop aesthetic as she speak-sings over a simple Moog synthesiser,a gentle saxophone line intermittently cutting through.
OnMidnight Rain, she pitches her own voice down and autotunes it to create another,unrecognisable layer,dancing with herself;the dreamyLabyrinth, which comes from the same school asfolklore highlightMirrorball, sees her leap up in the other direction,showing off the purity of her higher register.
Swift promised thatMidnights was “for all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe,when the clock strikes 12 ... we’ll meet ourselves”. There’s a self-discovery within this record that feels incredibly satisfying to bear witness to,and it doesn’t hurt that the songs,clever and eclectic,get more addictive with each listen.
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