‘Midnights’ is Taylor Swift's darkest album telling her best and brightest story: her own
I'm the problem it's me.
Taylor Swift has dropped her highly-anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights — and the 11-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter has written what she knows best: writing her story in her own way.
Before Midnights, Taylor was busy re-recording her old music after a legal dispute with her former recording label. Before that, she spent the pandemic on the folksy twin albums folklore and evermore, which saw Taylor exercise her storytelling skills on other real and fictional people throughout the two albums.
Although folklore and evermore indeed showed Taylor's psyche at the time of writing, it still didn't quite get into the then 30-year-old's life quite like Midnights.
Released on Oct. 21 at 12AM EST (12 PM Philippine time), the 13-track album features Taylor how her fans have always supported her: unashamed, authentic, and sporting some damn good songwriting skills.
Despite the album's promise of being about 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout the artist's life, Swift's prowess and clarity of mind have never been more awake in Midnights.
From the get-go, the retro-synth Lavender Haze addresses the rumors surrounding her long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, as she croons: I been under scrutiny / You handle it beautifully / All this shit is new to me.
And to make it clear that she's not succumbing to the pressure to get married in the "1950s s---" nor dating around like in her tumultous twenties, Swift encapsulates her thoughts in the second verse with: All they keep asking me / Is if I'm gonna be your bride The only kinda girl they see / Is a one night or a wife.
The rest of the album goes hard on Swift's thoughts about love, life, and even Karma.
Other standouts include Snow On The Beach (the only song with a feature starring Lana Del Ray), Bejeweled (a possible sister track to folklore's Mirrorball), and Sweet Nothing (which sounds like it could belong from the Lover album).
Ultimately, Midnights is Taylor at the height of her skill combined with the intensity of her post-twenties life. True enough, Swift calls the album a "collage of intensity" in a post shortly after the release.
"Life can be dark, starry, cloudy, terrifying, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic, or lonely. Just like Midnights," the celebrated singer wrote.