Taylor Swift released her tenth studio album on October 21st and ever since it seems I can’t escape the references, analysis, theories, and opinions of this album. Seriously—they were playing Taylor Swift at Target (exclusively Taylor Swift the whole time I was there, which was about an hour and a half), the NMSU dive team was playing Taylor Swift at practice, the frats that have tables outside Corbett were playing Taylor Swift, and then of course my social media is full of Taylor Swift.
I didn’t have clear expectations for this album. From the track titles announced on Swift’s late night TikTok special, “Midnight Mayhems with Me,” I was expecting something that sounded a little more experimental than her regular pop genre sound. What we got however was very similar sounding elements from a lot of her previous albums and some elements that were taken from Lorde’s ‘Melodrama’ made possible by producer Jack Antonoff. This is nothing new from Antonoff. Though his projects are always very different from one another the artists he works with are all inspired by each other, and he can bring in elements of those albums into new projects.
Lyrically, I was expecting a lot more serious themes as her announcement on Instagram made it seem like the subject matter was going to be extremely existential and self-reflective. I was expecting to cry honestly and that wasn’t something that happened.
“We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until the speck back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t – right at this minute – about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.
This collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.
Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.”
Taylor Swift, Instagram
I had a couple friends listen to the album the night it came out and I asked them their overall opinion of the album and they both disliked it. I kept that in mind as I went into the album, but I also wanted to keep an open mind. I listened with the lyrics pulled up and watched the two music videos for ‘Anti-Hero’ and ‘Bejeweled.’ I did not listen to the 3am version because I was honestly ready for the album to be over.
My first impressions of the first few songs were very worried and a bit underwhelmed. I liked the opening track, ‘Lavender Haze,’ and wondered why I felt like I already knew the words. Turns out the melody of the chorus is exactly like ‘I Think He Knows‘ on 2019’s ‘Lover.’ And leading into the first chorus there was a drum melody that sounds like ‘Hard Feelings/Loveless‘ on Lorde’s ‘Melodrama.’ This song has the same good feeling that Lover encapsulates and for that reason alone I loved this song.
‘Maroon’ and ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’ on the other hand were not for me. I felt that the lyrics were extremely choppy like they were shoved onto a random melody and were forced to make it work. I will not be circling back to try to like these songs. ‘Snow on the Beach’ was disappointing, and I think we all know why: there was almost no Lana on this Lana Del Rey feature. She could have been incorporated more so easily but alas she is only a whisper.
‘Question…?’ I have very indifferent feelings for. It’s kind of just there. ‘Midnight Rain’ and ‘Labrinth’ I feel like I could grow to like more. I like the production on ‘Midnight Rain’ and the theme of ‘Labrinth,’ so I feel like maybe I’ll come back to listen to these eventually.
At the bottom half of the album is where I started to find the songs I liked. ‘Sweet Nothing’ was as sweet as its title and it reminded me of the sounds of ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, ‘Mastermind’ was cute with its lyrics, ‘Karma’ was a good time that had a similar sounding intro to ‘make up’ on Ariana Grande’s ‘thank u, next,’ and was very catchy, ‘Vigilante S—‘ was alike ‘Cowboy Like Me’ in theme, ‘Reputation’ in feel, and again Lorde inspired. I loved ‘Bejeweled’ and I thought the music video was really fun. ‘Anti-Hero’ was the only one I had heard before listening to the album and the one I’ve heard the most. It was already familiar, and I do like it but this is the song that will be overplayed.
my ranking: 1. Lavender Haze 2. Bejeweled 3. Karma 4. Vigilante Sh-- 5. Mastermind 6. Sweet Nothing 7. Anti-Hero 8. Labyrinth 9. Midnight Rain 10.Question...? 11.Snow On The Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey) 12.You're On Your Own, Kid 13.Maroon
I’m giving this album a 5/10. If this wasn’t a Taylor Swift album and with it all the Pop culture references and such, I don’t think I would recommend this album. It’s nothing we haven’t already heard from her and I don’t really think her discography needed it. It is a Taylor Swift pop album through and through. If that’s your thing maybe you’ll connect with it more than I have.