‘Midnights’ expands on Swift’s sound, journey

Taylor Swift released her new album “Midnights” on Friday, Oct. 21. The album tells the stories of 13 sleepless nights throughout her life. She previously announced the long awaited album at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.

“Midnights” is a big deal to Swift’s most loyal fans, known as “swifties”, as she has not released new music since her “Evermore” album in 2020. “Midnights” is made up of 13 songs: “Lavender Haze”, “Maroon”, “Anti-Hero”, “Snow On The Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey)”, “You’re On Your Own Kid”, “Midnight Rain”, “Question…?”, “Vigilante Sh*t”, “Bejeweled”, “Labyrinth”, “Karma”, “Sweet Nothing” and “Mastermind”. Currently, according to Apple Music, the most liked songs in the album are “Lavender Haze”, “Maroon”, “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled”.  

Swift’s planning is state of the art. Her hidden “easter eggs” are thought of years in advance, and all are connected in a conspiratorial way. Taylor hides clues in her instagram posts, music videos and tweets for her fans to decode. The “swifties” lost their minds trying to connect the dots in an attempt to crack the code. 

 Taylor Swift gets personal with her fans by talking about her eating disorder and her poor self-image. By releasing vulnerable content, Swift introduces relatability and trust into her relationship with her fans.

Taylor released “Snow On The Beach” featuring Lana Del Rey, which elevated the allure of the album. Lana and Taylor have similar voices that compliment one another very well. There is a lot of conversation around “Snow On The Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey)”. According to Swift’s fans, Lana should have appeared more frequently in the song. 

While “Midnights” has a dark feel to it, the album still sounds delicate and elegant. Swift sings more about the reality of relationships, which differs from her usual glamorous perspective on love. Dropping this new album allows for Swift to expand her fan-base and enables variety in Taylor’s content. Listening to the songs for the first time, I was underwhelmed. Although, after listening to the album multiple times, I was amazed by how confrontational the lyrics are. I really enjoy some of the songs in the album, and I believe Taylor knows exactly how to please her fans.