Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, was released at midnight, ushering in a new musical era.
Swift hinted that the album would share more personal stories, something she avoided with her Folklore and Evermore albums, and described it as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”
Swift wrote, “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.”
“The demons we face and the floors we pace.” For all of us who have tossed and turned, decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching, hoping that when the clock strikes twelve…we’ll find ourselves.”
Following Swift’s last indie folk chapter, Folklore, and Evermore, fans have been left wondering what direction and sounds the new era would bring. Swift’s return to a pop soundscape is marked by Midnights, which features longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff on the album.
Swift called Midnights “a wild ride” on Instagram and expressed her joy at reuniting with Antonoff. “For nearly a decade, we’ve been making music together,” she wrote. “HOWEVER…this is our first album with just the two of us as primary collaborators.”
She went on to say that she and Antonoff had toyed with ideas and written a few things together before shooting Stars at Noon together in Panama with their partners — Swift’s long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, and Antonoff’s girlfriend, Margaret Qualley.
“Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late, and exploring old memories and midnights past,”
Swift continued, addressing their co-workers. “Midnights is an intense collage of highs and lows, ebbs and flows.” Life can be frightening, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic, or lonely. “Exactly like Midnights.”
A teaser trailer for Swift’s “secret projects” was released during Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video ahead of the album’s release.
Swift will also release “Midnights music movies,” for which she will rework the visuals with cinematographer Rina Yang.
“I love storytelling, songwriting, writing videos, and directing them.” “It was also a really fun opportunity to work with the cinematographer Rina Yang again, who was my collaborator on the 10-minute short film ‘All Too Well,'” she said.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves this time around to do different things,” Swift said of the upcoming videos, which will visually explore “the world of this record.”
“I’m very proud of what we created, and I hope you enjoy it.” “We worked with some incredible actors, which you’ll learn more about at the end of the teaser trailer,” she teased further.
Here’s the teaser trailer for the videos I’ve made for Midnights 🌌 Thank you @amazonmusic for premiering this, the first video for Anti-Hero will be out tomorrow at 8am ET. And Midnights will be here SO SOON!!!https://t.co/jjqUNkpPke pic.twitter.com/xzmqXa5Cqy
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 21, 2022
Swift’s videos will feature Antonoff, Laura Dern, Alana Haim, Danielle Haim, Este Haim, Pat McGrath, Laith Ashley, Jon Early, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Dita Von Teese, and Mike Birbiglia.
Swift’s Midnight visual album is her first.
In the days leading up to the album’s Oct. 21 release, the superstar revealed a song title from the tracklist in a Tik Tok series called
“Midnights Mayhem With Me.” Swift described “Snow on the Beach” as being about two people falling in love at the same time, likening it to snow falling on the beach. Zo Kravitz’s “Lavender Haze” uses the phrase to describe being in love.
Swift learned the ’50s love saying from Mad Men. She said if you were in the lavender haze, you were in an all-encompassing love glow.
She’ll release her new album and a music video for “Anti-Hero” on Friday. Swift called the song “one of my favorites.” She said, “I’ve never gone this deep into my insecurities.” I struggle with the idea that my life is unmanageable and with not feeling like a person.
She said the song shows “all the things I hate about myself.” Swift sings about her insecurities and fears, saying it’s “exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero” and calling herself “the problem.”
Other songs on the album reflect on lessons learned (“You’re on Your Own, Kid”), breakups/heartbreaks (“Bejeweled,” “Maroon”), revenge (“Vigilante Shit,” “Karma”), and what could have been (“Midnight Rain”).
Later Thursday, Swift revealed seven bonus tracks, “Midnight 3 AM Edition. “Surprise! Midnights is a concept album, with 13 songs depicting the madness of midnight.
However, Swift tweeted, “We wrote other songs on our way to 13. “The Great War,” “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Dear Reader” are also included.
Other surprises are on the way with the album’s release. The singer-songwriter announced on her social media that a music video for another Midnight song will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 24; however, the song was not revealed.
Swift collaborated with longtime collaborator Antonoff on the Midnights album, with William Bowery credited as a songwriter for the song “Sweet Nothing” — Swift has since revealed that the mysterious songwriter is her boyfriend, actor Alwyn. Mark A. Spears, Keanu Torres, Jahaan Sweet, and Sam Dew are also on the album.
Midnights is Swift’s first new album since Folklore and Evermore, both of which won album of the year at the Grammys in 2021.
Swift is also rerecording her entire early discography, including Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017). Swift recently released Red (Taylor’s Version) and directed the original 10-minute version of her beloved song, “All Too Well.”
