A Month of Midnights

How Taylor Swift’s re-visits the past on her new album Midnights

JAIDYN MCCRAE

On August 29th, Taylor Swift shocked fans with the announcement of her tenth studio album Midnights. Released a short two months later, the album broke both Spotify and Billboard records while earning Swift 10 number one songs.

On first hearing Midnights, I must admit I was a little disappointed. After back to back folk albums (Folklore and Evermore, both released in 2020), I was eager to hear her anticipated return to the familiar pop sound that paved Swift’s path to stardom.

I left the album alone for a day or two and then went back to it. Suddenly, it happened again. Songs I had originally dubbed mediocre I now couldn’t get enough of, just as it had happened with her folk albums not long before.

Soon, I could find personal connections to the metaphoric lyrics and romantic imagery of songs like Sweet Nothing and Snow on the Beach feat. Lana Del Rey. I sang along to Anti-Hero and agreed that maybe “I’m the problem” after all.

As a self-proclaimed “swiftie” for the better part of a decade, there’s no denying that her music has helped me navigate many of life’s complicated feelings. Every two years she’d release a new album and I knew that I could listen to the delicate musings of someone who is also trying to figure things out.

Swift’s extensive discography explores what it means to fall in and out of love, to find beauty in the remnants of failure, and perhaps most importantly, how to pick yourself up again. These themes, while important on their own, are made so much more personal when retold through her knack for storytelling.

This is what makes Midnights so compelling. Born out of the idea that overwhelming feelings can keep you up at night, Swift’s new album exists as a mosaic of former flames, forgotten feelings, and a return to past versions of her career. You’re on Your Own Kid, echoes this sentiment by exploring the arch of her career in its entirety. Its powerful premise seems to hint that after the pitfalls of her somewhat tumultuous career, she can stand firm in knowing she has herself and maybe that’s enough.

The 3 am version of the album is where Swift positions her concept of sleepless nights against more bitter themes. Maroon is a moody nod to her album Red, where she scrutinizes a toxic relationship for being darker than she’d realized before. Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve does the same, but insteads speaks to the haunting regrets of a relationship with an imbalanced power dynamic during her Speak Now album.

Swift is a master of reinvention. She has shown the world time and time again that she is both a versatile and resilient force in the music industry. However, this album is not about reinvention but rather understanding that each version of yourself comes with its own lessons, heartaches, and triumphs.

Taylor Swift is proving she's a master of re-invention with her latest release, Midnights. CREDIT: TAYLOR PIPE

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