“Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.”
Taylor Swift’s Instagram Caption (29th August 2022)
TikTok has been a flood with everything Taylor Swift and especially her newest upcoming album, “Midnights” (to be released at midnight on 21st October 2022). This album is reportedly inspired by “13 sleepless nights” throughout her life. The album will feature 13 songs, set out in 2 sides (Side A and Side B). She announced this album during her acceptance speech for “Video of the Year” at the 2022 VMAs (which she won for her short film, “All Too Well”). This surprise announcement was met with shock and joy – a new Taylor Swift album is exactly what is needed this autumn. Obviously, as with every Swift release, there is a lot of speculation regarding the content. So, here is a compiled list of what we can possibly expect…
The best place to start is Taylor Swift’s new TikTok series, “Midnights Mayhem With Me”, where she announces track names periodically up until the release of the album. As of 30/09/2022, these are the ones we know so far (in order of announcement):
Track 13 – Mastermind
Track 8 – Vigilante Shit
Track 7 – Question..?
Track 6 – Midnight Rain
Track 2 – Maroon
It is notable to recognise that three out of the five track names revealed do start with the letter ‘M’ (which many Swifties predicted), but track 7 and 8 start with ‘Q’ and ‘V’ which deviates from the predicted continued alliteration of the letter ‘M’. In her announcement post on Instagram, Taylor employs the frequent alliteration of the letter ‘M’ which indicates that the vast majority of the song titles are likely to start with that letter. Perhaps, it is in the middle of the track list that she deviates which possibly suggests these “middle” songs might have a different sound and/or genre.
Some think “Midnights” could be a continuation of her 2019 album, “Lover”, as during press at the time, she said that she almost called that album “Daylight”. That obviously is the antithesis of “Midnights”; making some people theorise about their connection. Thus, they predict that “Midnights” and “Lover” share a similar sound and genre. Personally, I think that Swift’s sound has changed massively since 2019, so it would only make sense for this new album to be different altogether.
A popular theory is that because she mentions “midnight” or “middle of the night” 13 times in her songs from previous albums, and because there are 13 songs on the “Midnights” album, the genre of this new album will be a combination of all of her work to date.
Leading on from this, on the Apple pre-order site, it is listed as a “rock” album. This is very interesting as none of her albums thus far have been rock. The closest she has come to a rock album was “Reputation”, which admittedly definitely does have a more “pop” sound over rock. So, this really might possibly be a brand new Taylor Swift era.
Others have commented on Taylor having a phone in her hand on the promotional material, as well as during her “Midnights Mayhem With Me”, which may have some link to either the lyrics or a possible collaboration on the album. Her announcement post also says “…we’ll meet ourselves”, which could be a reference to collaborations or maybe just her connection with her fans. To go even further, a few have suggested that on her announcement of Track 8, because the phone she picks up is upside down, which is different to her other announcements, it could be a reference to the upside-down album cover of “Harry’s House”. Thus, perhaps the Taylor x Harry feud is over and a collaboration is coming? (Don’t quote me on this, please!).
Another possible collaboration has been rumoured to be with Lana Del Rey. Taylor is pictured with Lana in a brown, red, and white striped top, which is also seen in a separate TikTok posted by Taylor captioned as “the making of Midnights”. I think it might be plausible to say that this is an indication of a Swift x Del Rey collaboration on her new album – here’s hoping that’s true.
Basically, what we can expect is Taylor’s best album yet which will definitely be a great addition to her already massive repertoire. I guess we’ll all find out on the 21st October. See you at Midnight.