FEATURE:
After Midnights
PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant
Following One of This Year’s Best Albums…What Next for Taylor Swift?
__________
I am going to split this into two…
PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant
because I wanted to cover the reaction and reception of Taylor Swift’s latest album, Midnights. Already one of this year’s best albums, it was released on Friday (21st October). There was a lot of hype and speculation ahead of the album release, as Swift posted snippets and teasers. Now that it is out, Midnights has received glowing reviews across the board. I want to bring a couple of reviews in, plus some press from Swift about the album. I will move on to what might come next from Swift. As someone who has got more into her music over the past couple of years – 2020’s tremendous folklore was a turning point for me in that sense -, I think she has produced her best work over this period. Maybe 2019’s Lover was when she stepped up a level and was producing some of her best work. To be fair, the thirty-two-year-old has not realty dropped a step through her career! Midnights might be one of her best albums to date. Unlike folklore and evermore (also released in 2020), Midnights is more a return to Pop. Even so, it is more conceptual and complex that straight-ahead commercial Pop. I will come to that. I predict that she will release incredible music for decades more. There has been a lot of excitement surrounding Midnights the past few days.
In the absence of any new interviews with Swift – I cannot see any from the past few days -, there is an interesting article from Vulture that transcribes a conversation from the podcast, So Into It. “So Into It host Sam Sanders pondered the true meaning of Swift with Ann Powers, a critic and correspondent for NPR Music who has been thinking about Taylor Swift for as long as there has been Taylor Swift music on the radio. Read their conversation below and listen to the whole episode of Into It wherever you get your podcasts”. I will drop in the podcast too. There are some interesting exchanges and observations:
“As the new Taylor Swift album comes to us, I think a lot about pop stars and what they mean — what their philosophy of self is. And I wanna talk about the meaning of Taylor Swift as a pop star some 15-plus years into her career. She’s harder to nail down than it might seem.
Well, one thing that always is important to remember about Taylor is where she started within country music and that sort of consummate craftsperson that she was even when she was a teenager.
There’s this idea that she’s performing damsel in distress and white vestal virgin. Well, not at all anymore, right? This idea that she writes songs just for teenage girls — not anymore. This idea that she represents women’s empowerment yet she’s been in some petty feuds with other women. I just feel conflicted and confused by her public persona more than I do with other pop stars.
If disclosure is one of her métiers, one of her main ways of operating in the world, just remember that she comes from a place where disclosure is always crafted so minutely that you can read it as a universal no matter how personal it gets. That’s what country music is. Country music is people writing songs that are deeply personal in rooms with other people, like in an office. You go into an office, and you’re gonna write a song about your brother’s alcoholism or your husband’s bad experience in Iraq or something, but you’re doing it in an office as a professional effort.
Because she knows this is a clear lineage that she wants to establish. I feel like she worries about legacy a lot more than someone like Beyoncé or Adele does, which is interesting to me.
Well, I think Beyoncé thinks about legacy in terms of her family, literally and business-wise. She’s built an empire. We call it an empire, but we can also call it a family: What am I passing on to the next generation? Culturally and politically as well, Taylor’s goals are much more individualistic, you know? I want to be remembered as a great capital-A artist. We could have a whole other conversation about if it’s even possible to inhabit the role of the great artist in our moment of virality, when everything is so fragmented. I’m not sure, but she’s gone pretty far in making the case for herself.
I find a lot of the conventional wisdom of Taylor not true or at least confusing. What is a piece of well-accepted conventional wisdom about Taylor Swift that you think isn’t really true at all?
That she’s petty. I don’t think she’s petty. I think she is embedding kinda serious messages in these very individualistic, seemingly confessional tales. I have been biting my tongue here, wanting to talk about the scarf — the immortal, famous Jake Gyllenhaal scarf — and the theory that “All Too Well” is about her losing her virginity.
I just always go back to high school with Taylor. Even as she’s become an adult, she still writes about high-school love and all of that — it’s very fertile ground for her. And when I think of what Taylor wants to accomplish as an artist, she wants to be a pop star who is the homecoming queen and also valedictorian. But I wonder if, with Midnights, she is turning into the former prom queen, the former valedictorian, coming back for the ten- or 15-year reunion with her shoulders down a bit and ready to tell you some stories. That’s the version of Taylor I most want to hang out with, the grown woman smoking cigarettes in the back and talking shit.
I am a little worried that her Midnights confessions might be a little mild. Who knows? We know she’s lived a little, that she’s had some wild nights. Give us a wild night. I’ll give you a cigarette.
I’ll light it up for you. Put me in a lyric. I’ll take it. I can’t help but think about her and everybody making music this year and compare them to what Beyoncé is doing. And I feel like Beyoncé has gotten to a level of fame and power where she just does exactly what she wants to do. And she made a brilliant dance album full of musical ideas and musical throwbacks just for fun and said, Take it or leave it. No videos. Here it is. What is the musical equivalent of that for someone like Taylor? Will she ever give herself up to the music enough to make her own Renaissance?
That is a good question. On Renaissance, of course Beyoncé is still present, but she gave the spotlight to others. She gave the center to others, to her historical reference points, to the queer community, to her collaborators. She even samples Big Freedia again. It’s not that I think Taylor is afraid of giving away the spotlight, exactly, but I don’t think she experiences the spotlight in that same way.
Again, her making of a self has been her artistic project. So how do you become selfless, which is what Beyoncé did on that record, when the self is really everything for you? And I don’t mean that in an insulting way. We could think of her as a self-portrait artist, the painter who paints himself over and over again. And who is in the frame if it’s not Taylor?”.
Before looking ahead and thinking what might be next for Swift following the release of her tenth studio album, it is time to get some critical feedback for Midnights. There was so much love on social media. Articles have been written about the album - and it is definitely one of the best of the year. I think, when polls are done in a couple of months, Midnights is going to be top for so many sites and magazines. In their detailed review, this is what Rolling Stone said about Midnights:
“COULD YOU HAVE ever guessed what Taylor Swift’s Midnights would sound like? Since announcing the album in late August, Swift tried out a new rollout strategy: no single, no surprise drop 12 hours later. Instead, it’s been two months of Lynchian TikTok videos unveiling song names and lyric billboards to tide over her increasingly spiraling, clue-hungry fanbase.
Midnights could have been anything. After the bubblegum dream-pop of Lover, Swift veered into the woods for the indie-folk-leaning pair Folklore and Evermore, both released in 2020. Then, she returned to her archives for her Fearless and Red re-records, expanding upon her second and fourth albums with a host of previously unreleased bonus tracks written during each respective era.
So what exactly is Midnights? In some respects, it’s a little bit of all of the above. It most notably picks up where the pure pop triptych of 1989, Reputation, and Lover left off, a dazzling bath of synths complementing lyrics caught between a love story and a revenge plot.
For her tenth release, Swift returned to the studio with her most prolific partner, Jack Antonoff, to talk about her favorite time of night (the middle of it). As she teased in the album announcement, Midnights covers “13 sleepless nights” from her life. In those midnight moments, Swift lets her intrusive thoughts win: her relationship, public image, nemeses, and inner child take over at different points to either ruin or redeem her. But Midnights is more sweet dreams than nightmares, her words acting like a protective shield around her life and most intimate relationships.
Opening track “Lavender Haze,” crafted with some of Kendrick Lamar’s collaborators as well as Swift’s friend Zoë Kravitz, is the most explicit song here about her forcefield of protection. When she announced the song title on TikTok during her “Midnights Mayhem” series, Swift made a pointed comment at “weird rumors” and all the scrutiny she and her boyfriend of six years Joe Alwyn have faced online and from tabloids. She cribbed the song title from Mad Men, describing an “all-encompassing love glow.” Lyrically, the song is reminiscent of “Call It What You Want” and “Cruel Summer,” a tale of the love glow breaking through all the negativity, criticism, and expectations. This time, she’s a little less overwhelmed by the comments, dismissing “the 1950s shit they want from me,” like the constant marriage speculation or the virgin-whore dichotomy she’s been fighting her whole career (“The only kinda girl they see/Is a one night or a wife”). “Lavender Haze,” like the rest of Midnights, shies away from the bombastic pop sound that often made singles like “Look What You Made Me Do” or “Me!” feel like such sonic misdirections from the more subtle and shimmering sound of the rest of the albums they teed off. This time, Swift shows some restraint though she doesn’t lose the playfulness that makes her forays into pop so fun.
PHOTO CREDIT: Republic Records
“Anti-Hero” is a prime example of just how fun Swift’s pop can be. It’s an album standout and due to be the official lead single. This time, her enemy is her own damn self as she wallows in the same type of “past her prime” anxiety she sings about on the Red (Taylor’s Version) vault track “Nothing New” and underrated Lover cut “The Archer.” It features some of Swift’s most shocking lyrics on the album, like the sure-to-be divisive line “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby/And I’m a monster on the hill.” But it’s the next part that is a deeply revelatory, “Blank Space”-level burn of both herself and her critics: “Too big to hang out/Slowly lurching toward your favorite city/Pierced through the heart but never killed.” And the moment in the song where she imagines her non-existent daughter-in-law murdering her for the money in the future? Deliciously diabolical and weird in ways Swift rarely lets out.
Like Swift’s other Track Fives, the muted “You’re on Your Own, Kid” delivers a few particularly incisive, deep gut-punches while Swift does some light inner child therapy work. (In Swiftie lore, the fifth track on every Swift album is the most emotionally devastating). The song is a nostalgic slow-burn that begins a one-two punch of past relationship memories creeping backing into her night’s mind. It’s almost like a behind-the-scenes look of her as a teenager writing a song like “Teardrops on My Guitar,” a heartbreak origin story that gets her out of small town life and into the spotlight. “I see the great escape/So long, Daisy May,” she opines before posting up in her room to write the songs she’d sing in parking lots before taking the money and running away altogether. Following track “Midnight Rain” is an older and more jaded moment of lost love; here, she’s the titular midnight rain, a girl too distracted by her career chase to settle down. This time she’s the one to break a small-town boy’s heart.
“Vigilante Shit” and “Karma” are the only truly scorched-earth moments on the album. They’re way less melodramatic than a “My Tears Ricochet” or “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”; in these fantasies, she’s watching her enemies destroy themselves. The dark-pop “Vigilante Shit,” reminiscent of her friend Lorde’s moody debut Pure Heroine, offers some salacious claims that could be about any of the three men she’s been publicly feuding with for the last six years. In the verses, she’s befriended at least one of their ex-wives and makes the only cocaine reference in her entire discography (“While he was doing lines/And crossing all of mine/Someone told his white collar crimes to the FBI”).
“Karma” is a bubbly counterpoint, as Swift celebrates how much she loves seeing her nemeses get what they deserve. It’s a love song to pettiness: “Karma is my boyfriend/Karma is a god/Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekends/Karma’s a relaxing thought/Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?”
The majority of the album, however, is laser-focused on the anxiety and speed bumps two lovers face as their relationship develops. “Maroon” and “Labyrinth” are straightforward reckonings with love potentially lost. “Question…?” is a bubbly “Delicate”-style pop quiz for her paramour who maybe put up more of a fight before they ended up with two people they probably shouldn’t be with. By absolute knockout “Bejeweled,” she’s got him in the palm of her hands, presenting herself as the ultimate prize.
The only true disappointment on the album is the tease of Lana Del Rey’s feature on “Snow on the Beach” that’s more of a simple harmony than a true duet; the song itself is a hazy, wintery dream-pop cut in the vein of “Mirrorball” with a killer Janet Jackson reference. Hopefully this isn’t the last time these two talents cross musical paths.
Midnights caps off with “Mastermind,” where Swift lays out a long-planned initiative to get her crush to fall in love with her (it doubles as a cheeky nod to her own “cryptic and Machiavellian” clue-leaving ways). Funny enough, it follows the tender love song “Sweet Nothing” she penned with said strategically-secured boyfriend, so job well done to Ms. Swift.
As Swift has re-recorded her previous albums, it’s clear slipping back into her past self has unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting. Midnights may come as a surprise to the most newly turned fans of her music, those who only learned to like her songwriting when it came in the traditionally respectable Folklore/Evermore package. But like many of her purely “pop” releases in the past, Midnights leaves more and more to be uncovered beneath the purple-blue synth fog on the surface. And maybe that’s part of her scheme to begin with”.
Prior to the second part of this feature, there is another review I want to bring in. American Songwriter were impressed by one of Taylor Swift’s strongest and most astonishing albums. Before getting to the review, in terms of overview, Wikipedia provide some details:
“Swift described Midnights as a "journey through terrors and sweet dreams", inspired by "13 sleepless nights" of her life. She adopted a glamorous visual aesthetic for the album, drawing from 1970s fashion and art. Eschewing the alternative folk sound of Folklore and Evermore, Swift experimented with electronica, synth-pop, and chill-out music styles in Midnights, achieved by subtle grooves, atmospheric synthesizers, drum machine and hip hop rhythms. Its subject matter features confessional yet cryptic lyrics, discussing self-criticism, self-assurance, insecurity, anxiety and insomnia. Upon release, Midnights was met with critical acclaim from music critics, who praised its restrained production, candid songwriting and vocal cadences.
Following negligible promotion of her previous studio albums, Swift returned to her traditional album roll-out with Midnights. She unveiled the tracklist through a TikTok series called Midnights Mayhem with Me from September 21 to October 7, 2022, revealing a Lana Del Rey feature on the fourth track, "Snow on the Beach". A trailer teasing several visuals for the album was released on October 20, followed by a surprise release of seven bonus tracks and a music video for the lead single, "Anti-Hero", on October 21. The album broke streaming records on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, achieved the largest vinyl sales week of the 21st-century, became the fastest-selling album since her own Reputation (2017), and finished its first day as the best-selling album of 2022”.
Let us get to the review from American Songwriter. In terms of positivity and love they show Midnights, that is mirrored by many other critics. It is an album that will convert a lot of people who, until now, have not been big fans of Swift’s music:
“When you’re Taylor Swift, the world waits at your doorstep with bated breath and keen ears to listen to whatever you’re going to put out next. Inevitably, a sense of pressure must flare up as you try to one-up yourself time and time again—especially after more than a decade in the music industry. But, luckily— you’re Taylor Swift—so the above goal seems to never be out of your reach.
Midnights is the first album full of completely new material from Swift since 2020 when she gave us two monumental records from seemingly out of the blue—folklore and evermore. Arguably, her most stunning bouts of songwriting ever, whatever material was to follow those up would need to bolster that streak of excellence for fear of getting stuck in their shadow.
Swift used a string of sleepless nights as an untapped source of inspiration for Midnights. Each of the 13 tracks stemmed from her wandering mind, with her eventually finding clarity long enough to land on a few key subjects—Self-hatred. Revenge. Love. Given how the album was made, it seems only fitting that it should be consumed in the same space—into all hours of the night with a sense of introspection—and that’s exactly what we did. The result was a rich listening experience, as Swift flew past the mark she set for herself with ease, daring to look further inward than ever before.
Even sonically, the album sees Swift take a self-reflective turn. In many ways, Midnights feels like 1989‘s grungier sister who lets the expletives fly freely and imbues a sense of maturity that leaves the prior work in the dust. The same glittering, pop flavors found in her 2014 blockbuster album are well accounted for here, but instead of retro glamour and diamonté two-pieces, she’s making use of last night’s make-up and throwing perfection out the window.
Her own faults are a major theme of the album. In track 3, “Anti-Hero” (which she previously credited as one of her favorite songs she’s ever written), Swift paints herself as the unwitting villain of her own story. I’m the problem, she declares in the chorus, allowing for a moment of self-loathing.
Elsewhere in “Vigilante Shit,” she once again scurries into the darker corners of her mind and gives into her desire for revenge. You say looks can kill and I might try, she reveals. Swift has never been one to sugarcoat her thoughts, but that honesty is all the more impressive when it’s shining a light on her rough edges.
Elsewhere she mulls over past relationships and their accompanying mistakes. She ponders missed connections in “You’re On You’re Own, Kid” and things left unsaid in “Questions.” All-too-familiar faces in our late-night thoughts.
It’s not all clouds and rain though. She does leave room for some romantic notions in “Maroon” and “Snow On The Beach” alongside Lana Del Rey. “Sweet Nothings” is a simple gem on the album and sees Swift at her most loved up. While most of the album feels like Swift is looking at the world through a wary eye, “Sweet Nothings” feels buoyantly carefree and delightfully naive.
Swift’s songwriting was forever changed by the folklore/evermore combo. She rarely takes the simple route these days and instead opts for something far more prosaic. It’s oh-so-enticing to see her apply those tendencies to something heavily steeped in the pop world.
Midnights is a golden thread tying where Swift has been and where she’s going—referencing her old material while still making leaps and bounds forward. Because it’s Swift, we have to assume that all of that was by design. As she remarks in the album’s closer, “Mastermind,” none of it was accidental”.
I am going to round up by looking ahead. In terms of finishing off 2022, maybe there will be another single or two released from Midnights. Anti-Hero came out on Friday - there is likely to be more from that album. I also think there will be new interviews where people ask Swift about Midnights and the reaction to it. There is going to be a lot of speculation as to where she heads next. Having released three original studio albums in the past three years, she also put out Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021. It has been a frantic and tireless time for her! In addition to tour dates and appearances in films, there has not been a moment’s breath for Swift. I hope that she gets some time to chill next year and is not instantly heading back into the studio. When it comes to music and touring, I guess there are going to be dates to support a Midnights tour. It is the way of things that, when an album comes out, big artists usually do extensive tours to promote it. Bringing these new songs to the fans. Having received enormous acclaim for Midnights, I can understand the temptation to go into the studio and bring out a new album in 2023. Perhaps Swift will do that but, in terms of future projects, maybe film could dominate 2023. Swift’s filmography is pretty impressive! She recently had a small part in David O. Russell’s Amsterdam. Her Taylor Swift Productions company is one that will work with other filmmakers. I have said how Swift seems like a very compelling screen presence and natural actor. Many modern artists have stepped into film (including Harry Styles). I think she could fit into genres like romantic comedy, horror, psychological thrillers…and pretty much anything else!
Through her video and short films, you get different sides to Taylor Swift. She is a naturally incredible actor who can project charm, humour, huge emotional sophistication and incredible depth. Although she has had some smaller parts, she has not just been in a big leading role or had her own film produced (she did write and direct the music video for Anti-Hero). I feel all of these are possibilities for next year. Providing inspiration for new music perhaps, it would be interesting seeing Taylor Swift write or direct a film. Whether it uses her music or is fictional, I do think she has this moment to explore projects. I recently published a feature mooting the idea of a Blondie biopic. Maybe one that focuses on Debbie Harry solely, the band itself, or adapts Harry’s memoir, Face It. Swift seems someone who could play Debbie Harry. An artist influenced by Debbie Harry, that would be a definitely possibility. This is something that might not see the light of day. It would be a shame if s Blondie biopic never came about. Swift would be a perfect fit for Debbie Harry. In a wider sense, I am sure there are scripts and ideas that Swift would want to explore.
Like contemporaries Halsey and Lady Gaga, Swift could get more into films and showcase a very natural talent. Throw into the mix Brandy. There are incredible and hugely popular artists who are amazing actors. One feels that Swift would make a remarkable and visionary director and screenwriter, Able to tackle everything from biopics to historical dramas, maybe something as simple as a romantic comedy might fit more into her music and albums like Midnights - but she could also take on some challenging projects. Perhaps a short film based around a selection of songs from her latest albums? If she was in a romantic comedy, it could be one that is a little edgier or smarter than many out there. Fans would want her to bring another album to the table but, once she is done touring and has taken Midnights around the world, is going back into the studio the best next move?! Swift did actually write and direct All Too Well: The Short Film, and that was hugely acclaimed. That came out in November 2021. I wonder whether there will be anything feature-length from her soon? I hope so. It will be fascinating to see…
WHERE she goes next.