After nearly two years, it’s finally here; Taylor Swift’s newest studio album “Midnights” dropped on Oct. 21, and it just might be one of her best albums yet.
Swift loves a cohesive theme within her albums, and “Midnights” surely has one. The album is mystical, dreamy and full of both love and anxiety. While it might take fans some time to get used to this new sound, everything about this album screams “Taylor.” You can feel how personal these lyrics are on the first listen.
Immediate standouts to me included “Midnight Rain,” “Bejeweled” and “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” Swift reflects on past relationships in her life, whether they were romantic, platonic or professional. A common theme in this album is independence – while the people she wrote about throughout the years changed, one thing was always the same: Taylor.
While “Vigilante Shit” didn’t originally stand out to me, after learning that it’s about helping Scooter Braun’s wife get revenge on him, I can’t stop listening. It’s the petty and funny Taylor that we all know and love.
It also took me a while to understand why exactly the album is called Midnights. This title originally seemed forced, but after a few listens I’m starting to understand that it’s a reference to how midnights can be either lonely or full of love.
Fans are sure to have mixed feelings toward this album, but in a way its complexity and intricacy make total sense; while songs like “Anti-Hero” and “You’re On Your Own Kid” scream anxiety over losing people, songs like “Karma” and “Bejeweled” scream independence and confidence. And life isn’t about feeling just one emotion or the other; sometimes we feel everything all at once.
At the end of the day, this isn’t Swift’s worst album, but it’s also not her best. It definitely feels much more mature than anything we’ve ever gotten from her – these are her first personal stories as a woman in her 30s, and as a woman in my 20s, I look at a lot of these lyrics as great advice. It may take time to get used to this surprising sound, which is why I wish she released a lead single, which is usually done to give fans a little taste before the whole album drops.
Needless to say, “Midnights” is for sure a very personal and well-thought out album. This era will be one for the books.