“Dear Reader,” Taylor Swift released her tenth album “Midnights” and it might change contemporary pop music. In her most sonically and lyrically experimental album yet, Taylor Swift delves into themes of “self-loathing,” “fantasizing about revenge,” “wondering what might’ve been,” “falling in love,” and “falling apart,” as she revealed on Spotify’s pre-save page in the days leading up to the release.
Released October 21, Swift’s tenth album has broken record after record. In just a few days, “Midnights” became the most streamed album of the year. Fans purchased 1.05 million physical copies of the album in its first four days placing “Midnights” second to Swift’s own “reputation” which sold 1.21 million physical copies. After a week, all 20 tracks from the deluxe version, “Midnights (3am Edition),” fell on the Billboard Hot 100, ten of which occupied the top ten spots.
In her album “1989,” Swift took a massive risk transitioning from country to pop. Eight years later, she does the same here, taking her sound in another new direction. “Midnights” is a darker and more modern approach to the current pop music scene.
“Midnights” feels reminiscent of albums like Lorde’s “Pure Heroin” and “Melodrama,” the 1975’s “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” and Swift’s own “reputation” and “Lover.” Swift crafts a new daring sound by combining electro-pop and gritty synth elements from these albums and more,
Jack Antonoff’s influence on “Midnights” is undeniable. He produced 17 out of 20 tracks on the album and brought this electric pop sound to life. He has played a major role in the shift of pop music by collaborating with big names like Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, and Swift herself.
The record-breaking album’s opener, “Lavender Haze,” is a successful introduction to the new sound and style of the album. The electric-sounding opening track features lots of background production with a sultry meets pop tone in Swift’s voice.
“Midnight Rain,” produced by Swift and Antonoff, takes the cake for the most experimental track on the album. The robotic voice strung throughout, paired with multiple synths, gives the third track a unique sound that she has not used on any previous album. The synths linger throughout the track and spiral through listeners’ ears. The beat and synths hit sharper and more fully than fans are used to with Swift.
Swift described “Anti-Hero” as a song detailing her self-loathing. “I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before,” Swift said in her Midnights Mayhem with Me series on TikTok which unveiled each of the track titles through a cryptic game of bingo.
Raw lyrics from the song like, “I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser,” “I’m the problem, it’s me,” and “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror” make this one of the most honest songs in her discography.
What makes the song exponentially more candid is the lyric, “Sometimes, I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m a monster on the hill.” On first listen, this line is jarring. But it might be one of my favorite lyrics on the album.
Fans have speculated that the line refers to an episode of “30 Rock” that critiques the expectation that women should act younger than their age to be considered attractive. It also may be referring to her experience with disordered eating, which she opens up about further on tracks like “You’re On Your Own Kid” with the line, “I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss.”
But a lot of people seem to forget what Swift herself said after the release of the Anti-Hero music video. “Watch my nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real-time,” Swift said in an Instagram post.
Later in Anti-Hero, she sings, “I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money.” She gives no reasoning as to why she thinks this because it is simply another intrusive thought. Until now, Swift kept her honesty at bay, never diving so far into her intrusive thoughts. These lyrics in “Anti-Hero” may appear random and confusing, but they might be some of her most well-thought-out lyrics.
She does this in other songs as well. In “Paris,” a 3am Edition track, she said, “I wanna brainwash you into loving me forever.” None of these lyrics are literal, but reveal the deepest inner workings of Swift’s mind.
At these vulnerable points, you can hear the inflection in her voice change. Her breath becomes more obvious, and her voice almost cracks.
The beginning of each verse in “Anti-Hero” starts with a breathy tone of voice but by the end turns much stronger and louder. At the end of the bridge, she sings “She’s laughing up at us from hell.” Here, she overlaps the strong and vulnerable tones which creates a mess of emotions through sound.
In addition to letting listeners deeper into her mind, Swift also brings them into her relationship. In one of her most tender love songs to date, “Sweet Nothing,” she describes the simplicity of being in love.
“Outside they’re push and shoving, you’re in the kitchen hummin’. All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing,” Swift sings, detailing the effortless comfort that comes with a healthy relationship.
Later in “Sweet Nothing,” she sings “On the way home, I wrote a poem. You say, ‘What a mind.’ This happens all the time.”
This refers back to a lyric from her song “You Are In Love,” from “1989” which says, “You can feel it on the way home.” When she wrote “You Are In Love,” she pined after the feeling of true love. This lyric from “Sweet Nothing” reveals she found it. After years of searching, Swift found someone who values her artistry and her as a person.
Not only does he value that, but he also understands how she works. The entirety of the song “Mastermind” details Swift’s tendency to plan so much, it turns to scheming. By the end of the track, she realizes that he knew this about her the whole time and loves her for it.
One of her most beautifully ethereal tracks “Labyrinth” explores her fear of love. Her songwriting experience shows in this song. In the first verse, she sings “Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out” which shifts to “Break up, break free, break through, break down” in the second verse. This distinct change in pace gives the song much more depth and emotion than if she simply repeated that line.
Similarly, she begins the chorus with “uh-oh, I’m fallin’ in love” then “oh no, I’m fallin’ in love again” then “oh, I’m fallin’ in love.” Now that she has conquered her fear of falling in love, she realizes that she still has the same insecurities about love. The difference now is that she falls deeper in love when her insecurities are validated in her relationship.
In opposition to her “falling in love” and “falling apart” tracks, Swift has definitely “[drawn her] cat eye sharp enough to kill a man” as she says in “Vigilante Shit.” For a self-written track, the contents are surprisingly bleak for a pop star but the darkness does not end there.
Her desire for revenge is somehow less dark than the introspection she offers in many other tracks. Lines like “No one wanted to play with me as a little kid. So I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since” from “Mastermind” cut much deeper than her vengeful tracks like “Vigilante Shit” and “Karma”.
In “Bigger Than The Whole Sky,” from the 3am edition, Swift dives into a recurring theme on the album: wondering what “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” been. “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” encapsulates the theme through a chilling reflection on grief.
“Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. You were bigger than the whole sky. You were more than just a short time,” she sings. Throughout the track, she asks herself what might have happened if this person was still in her life. She asks herself what she might have done to make them pass. “Did some force take you bеcause I didn’t pray,” Swift asks.
Swift closes the 3am Edition of the album with an interesting choice. “Dear Reader” almost invalidates every word she sang on “Midnights.” In this song, she gives listeners advice but also establishes herself as an unreliable narrator by saying, “Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart” and “You wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking.”
Throughout the album, she tries to make sense of the web of emotions keeping her awake at night. But she recognizes that she does not have it all figured out, even though people expect her to.
This compilation of sleepless nights feels overwhelmingly tragic and melancholic, with tiny glimmers of hope. The production livens up the sadness in the lyrics making this album the epitome of sad pop.
If you are looking to enter a dream world filled with “stars by the pocketful,” deep intrusive thoughts, and synths galore, “Midnights” is the album for you. It is undoubtedly “weird but fucking beautiful.”