Excuse me, do you have the time? ⌚
It's midnights. ⏰
Midnight? Gosh! I'm late. 🏃
Taylor Swift's 10th album — one, two, three...tenth — is here! Grab your headphones! And that laptop. Soundbox has their First Effect Episode 5, too. It's time, time, to listen! 📻
First and foremost, it's important to pay respects to Taylor Swift. Indeed, ten albums are easy to produce in this age of Pro-tools, Ableton, and digital production. If Young Thug wanted, he would have one hundred albums. For Taylor — and, in multi ways, Young Tung — to have ten successful albums is a considerable feat. To have every one of her albums on the Billboard charts well received and entertaining requires patience, insanity towards perfection, sleepless nights, and a love for her craft, a fire that won't die out. So, respect T. Swift. Big respect.
After Evermore's poetics and folk style, many wondered what remained of Taylor Swift. For fans, Evermore was her best album since 1989. Evermore was the album that brought Taylor to this reviewer's attention. So, what else could she produce? What was next?
October 21, 2022, fans received their answer when Taylor Swift released Midnights. And out of the gate: 1.5 million records sold, top 200 Billboard, hot 100 Billboard, and four Guinness Records. However, there were still mixed reactions regarding the album.
Where does Midnights stand in Taylor's discography?
"You're on your own, kid!"
To answer this question honestly, one has to have followed Taylor since her eponymic album, Taylor Swift (2006.) However, there's nothing wrong with speculation. Just heed Taylor's lyrics on Midnights' opening track, Lavender Haze:
"I find it dizzying (yeah, oh yeah.)
They're bringing up my history (yeah, oh yeah.)
But you aren't even listening (yeah, oh yeah.)"
Midnights begins with high energy, vibrant style, and a lot of POP. She blends bright instrumentation with melancholic lyrics in classic Taylor Swift fashion to make entertaining music. One may want to sway, dance, and snap their fingers; another may want her poems.
Taylor produced Midnights for headphones or large speakers. It opens with a heart-beat-like bass drum that makes one want to fist pump, a fist meant to fight against Taylor's (and yours) anxieties, depressions, and pains.
Although the instrumentation's production is of professional quality, precise and even, and catchy, the energy one feels in their chest in Lavender Haze, Maroon, and Anti-Hero is lost by the end of the album, starting at track eight, Vigilante Shit.
Where Evermore offered something new and exciting for listeners, the folkloric elements that predominate the instruments and lyrics, Midnights misses a few heartbeats.
On a musical level, the tracks on Midnights are similar to 1989, Reputations, and Lovers: the 80s synths (all too popular these days,) the blending of dark and light tones, and the self-reflective lyrics. As ICYMI host Rachelle Hampton said, "We're definitely in the dance album era, but other pop girlies do it better than Taylor. I'm a fan of 1989, and I love songs off Lover, like "Death by a Thousand Cuts."
This reversion to her old style is welcome for Taylor fans, but there's still lingering for that energy she had on those albums and her experimentation in Evermore.
Snow On The Beach features a nearly unfelt Lana Del Rey. A feature that, on paper, appears to be a match made in heaven is a flop at IHOP. To exacerbate matters, Midnight Rain features a male vocalist in the introduction and chorus that Taylor uncredited, but is a more euphonic experience than Snow On The Beach, Labyrinth, and Karma.
What makes Midnights worth a listen, and for this listener, this comment holds up for all of Taylor's albums, are her layerings and poetics.
Taylor doesn't miss an opportunity in her lyrics (her poems) to uncover herself, to look into herself, but what is most impressive is her way of universalizing her poems.
"Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I'm a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
Pierced through the heart but never killed."
One is bound to say, "I've been there." Taylor is human, even after all her success. She has terrible relationships, doubts, anxiety, depression, etc. Listening to her lyrics affirms, like a daily quote, that we are in this together. Never give up.
In a time when how one uses their platform is questioned, it's reassuring to know that Taylor will use it to bring awareness to real issues concerning today, like mental health. Taylor Swift is relatable; this comes from knowing herself and not being ego-centric.
It's a complex world out here, and Taylor has our back. She's the Anti-hero, and so are we.
And when it comes to layering, Taylor's blends of sounds are movie-like. There are raindrops and chimes and skits. Typically, one is on a journey through Taylor's wonderland. Typically, one has no problem staying, entirely enthused to meet the strange creatures and hear the strange stories
Unfortunately, for many listeners, not this time.
Midnights is an album for the die-hard fan that will sit there for a twenty-three track Deluxe edition. For the occasional listener, the one who comes when an album drops (ME!,) this album may not be for you. I may be wrong; you might catch yourself humming Lavender Haze in the shower.
Like this music review on the Pop album "Midnights" by Taylor Swift? Check out something similar with “Stay Frosty" By Dj Dizzy Storms - [Basic! - 3.5 boomboxes].
If you enjoyed "Midnights" by Taylor Swift, I’m sure you know how to find more of her music with her 10 albums and great marketing.
Bolivar T. Caceres is a Bronx-based artist and writer. His poems appear on ShortEdition and Ariel Chart. He is also the author of the chapbook Outside My Garret Window, published in 2020. He currently writes for the quarterly film blog Film Studies 401 and the news blog New York Positivity. Connect with him on social media @BolivarTCaceres and at www.BtcArt.co.
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