Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights, came out at (you guessed it) midnight last night. Then Taylor decided to pour on the drama with a surprise “3 am” drop of seven songs which did not make it onto the 13-song album, but which are still spiritually part of Midnights. Spotify seemingly crashed for thousands of Swifties at some point. Tay-Tay’s still got it. The reviews are already coming in too, with a lot of music critics calling this one of her better albums. She posted this with the announcement of the 3 am drop:
Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now.
Interestingly enough, Taylor also debuted a “trailer” for her new music videos for Midnights. The trailer first appeared on Thursday Night Football, then she posted it on her social media. One thing I’ll give her – she’s one of the few artists spending real money on her music videos these days, and Taylor has always emphasized that the imagery is almost always as important as the music. She spent a lot on these music videos and she’s been prepping the videos and this release for a while.
Tay also posted a loving message to her producer/collaborator Jack Antonoff and all of her other collaborators on this album.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Taylor Swift’s Instagram.
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- The 2022 MTV VMAs-Arrivals Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 28 Aug 2022 Credit: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
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- MTV Video Music Awards 2022 held at the Prudential Center. Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 29 Aug 2022 Credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- MTV Video Music Awards 2022 held at the Prudential Center. Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 29 Aug 2022 Credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- 2022 MTV Video Music Awards held at the Prudential Center. Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 28 Aug 2022 Credit: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
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- 2022 MTV Video Music Awards held at the Prudential Center. Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 28 Aug 2022 Credit: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
It sounds like the opening song for Stanger things.
I’ve been describing the album as if lover, reputation, and the stranger things score had a baby.
I love Tay Tay. How can a person be so perfect like her, I mean right now she is young, beautiful and TALENTED. She is also a compassionate Democrat and she supports women’s me too movement. She donated $200K for Kei$ha’s legal fund against her abuser Dr. Luke.
I’m so with you! How can one person be such a prolific songwriter, musician, singer, performer and also look like a supermodel and be so cute and funny. Love, love, love her! She just keeps getting better. Folklore was on repeat in our house all pandemic, before that obsessed with Lover, the new music is so. good. Now I’m wondering what her next tour will be like. Was all ready for a rainbow fun Lover style show but COVID kiboshed that. Folklore/evermore is a totally different vibe and now Midnights. Can’t wait to see how she decides to present it all on stage!
I hear all of this—and like her work too. As the parent of an avowed Swiftie, I note with some admiration and a fair amount of pain to my pocketbook that she’s brilliant at marketing. Parts of the rollout of this (the clock!) feel like a cash grab. That said, it’s working!
A lot of pretenders want to ‘break the internet.’ From what I’ve seen only Taylor Swift and Beyonce can give it an occasional crack.
Not an avid follower but I do enjoy a lot of her stuff. I also enjoy her elaborate videos. I’ll give it a listen.
And John Mayer is getting dragged all up and down Twitter, to hell and back, for breaking her heart/ taking/stealing/robbing (what’s the word?) her of her virginity and somehow manipulating and mentally torturing her. Taking her “girlhood.” She was 19 and he was 32.
That age difference. Reminds me of another couple, an older, manipulative black-haired mediocre man gaslighting and manipulating a much younger teenaged virgin into giving up her essence for him and then leaving her in the dust.
Hi, King Charles! You ready?
But wait…I though Jake G had her red scarf?
Wait, but last year with the whole All Too Well 10 min video she basically said it was Jake who took her virginity! Now it’s John?!
I watched that video, it was very much about a younger partner being manipulated and emotionally abused by the experienced partner. I didn’t get the impression it was about virginity. A loss of innocence is not just the physical. The thing that stands out to me here is that there were multiple older men waiting to date a much younger, inexperienced woman…and that’s not good. Taylor was 19…John was 31. Taylor was 20…Jake was 29. And yes ThatsNotOkay called it -> Diana was 19…Charles was 32. Men who date woman who are barely above legal want someone inexperienced whom they can manipulate and push boundaries on. I don’t blame Taylor for that, I blame the men.
I always thought it was Mayer after the Dear John song off Speak Now. I always wondered why people thought it was Jake.
Yeah I was gonna say that Sparks Fly on Speak Now makes it kind of obvious that she was not a virgin which was released two years before Red aka the JG album.
I thought it was confirmed as Jake because Taylor said in an interview that the red scarf is a metaphor and then quickly changed the subject. It feels icky to speculate but she brought it up (in song and in person).
But what do I know? I’m the most casual of TS fans (really loved her indie/folky songs like Willow and Safe and Sound, but can’t bear the ear worms). Will 100% affirm that she is a great wordsmith/songwriter but not always a fan of her voice. Low key looking forward to what this album offers after reading the Variety review.
So are the additional seven songs free for the people that purchased the 13 track album at midnight? Or do you need to shell out more money for those?
I thought I had pre ordered but turns out I didn’t. The 3 am version is the same price as the original. I don’t know if it was just added on – I’m guessing yes.
Thanks for that. Yeah its a visual album so all 13 songs get a video too so I’m trying to figure out if I should buy it now and if I do will the songs be updated automatically with the videos as they’re released? Or is it better to hold off and buy the album when all the videos are out? Like I think Renaissance was released with all the videos iirc?
just listened to the entire album first thing in the morning. loved it. she really is a great songwriter.
I am not a superfan, but people will sh*t on Taylor’s work and claim she isn’t writing the songs, this is someone else’s work, etc. However, she has been putting out successful albums for almost two decades now. People may hate her, but let’s at least admit she is a savvy business woman and a helluva musician.
(It bugs when gifted women create and their work is denied as being authentically their own, as if they weren’t capable of crafting the work. Folks for years tried to claim that Mary Shelley’s husband, Percy Shelley, was the true author of Frankenstein. This theory was debunked years ago but persisted because of sexism/patriarchy.)
Lavender Haze is officially my new jam. It is absolutely fantastic!
LOL, I haven’t even listened to the album yet, but I am seeing different music mediums pop up with their reviews. Rolling Stone has rated the album 5 stars, deeming it “an instant classic.” NPR also gave it really favorable reviews.
I’m loving Snow on the Beach and The Great War so far.
My pop culture references are misfiring because I initially thought I was seeing Taylor pushing the Don’t Worry Darling version of Harry Styles off the bed in that video. But I’m still waking up. I realize Harry was several albums ago.
I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet; working through it now. I’m a fan of hers for sure (not on the crazy level though) and this feels like an evolution of reputation / lover but as always, she’s committed to a new sound and aesthetic.
I can’t wait to watch the videos. She always does the most, and they’re so enjoyable!
I’ve been a fan for years but I’m a major folklore/evermore girl. This is a return to her 1989/Rep sounds, but it’s moodier and more raw. Really love it!
Agreed. I like more evermore/folklore and I think that’s where she really thrives. But then I like country Tay also… I also foresee kaylor and swiftgron pandering due to some songs on this album (questions, lavender haze, etc.) which is exhausting at this point::: in 3, 2, 1:::
Unashamedly a Taylor Swift fan who is too old to be up at midnight but likely to be up at 3 am lol.
I think she goes all out in her music videos in part to scratch that acting itch.
Midnights will be on all day today. Great start to the weekend.
You and me both (unashamedly a Taylor Swift fan who is too old to be up at midnight). Add my husband to the mix who called me when he bought “Red” and was telling me how good it was. He was 35 and had it on repeat in the house.
She is my regular go to for music when I can’t decide what I want to listen to. Very excited for the new album even though I’m certain my boys are not. They do not share our love of Taylor Swift.
The music video is super cute and Antihero is definitely catchy. Looking forward to listening to the album on the weekend, although kind of disappointed the 70s retro marketing seems to be for nought, sonically.
No doubt Taylor is talented and that she takes her artistry seriously. My issue is with how she weilds her power. Her fans are very “protective” of her and sometimes her criticisms can hurt people. When she criticized Netflix for the Ginny & Georgia line about her personal life it brought down a shower of horrible harassment onto the black actor Antonia Gentry. Gentry handled it beautifully by putting focus on the abduction crisis of the over 300 plus girls in Nigeria.
Taylor should have come out and told her fans to chill and to reiterate her issue with Netflix. She just really makes it difficult sometimes for me to root for her.
I remember that, and I thought it brings up a weird part of the social media age. I legitimately thought the line from that TV show was pretty gross, and I’m not even a huge Taylor person but I thought it was nuts how some people were acting like she was overreacting.
Is she not allowed to call sh*t out though anymore due to having (some) psychotic fans? That’s the problem with social media in general….people should be allowed to express their opinion without being held responsible for a small but very vocal subsection of their fanbase. And yes, she could put them in check more, but I’d argue the BTS fan base is 100 times worse and journalists never call them out-though they’ll call out Taylor Swift/Beyonce/Gaga/etc. fans…and I can’t help but think there’s some misogyny (plus the fact that they know BTS fans will give them clicks).
There is a lot of racism (and sexism towards their mostly female fanbase) in making people say BTS fans are the worst, while other fandoms get away with all sorts of disgusting stuff. I’m by no means saying the BTS fandom is innocent and some of their fans have said terrible things too, but they’re not nearly as unique as you try to pretend they are.
If you now want to say: “But BTS fans once said”…whatever you’re going to say, something just as bad is being said about them every day, not just ‘once upon a time’ and that is not a new thing that you can claim is just a response. It’s a shame that people from Western countries ignore the hate they have endured from racists, sexists and homophobics, even Trump fans, while always pointing at their fanbase as if they’re the only one doing bad things.
There are also people who love to say terrible things about those seven Asian guys to get a response, but then act as if their fandom is the worst when their fans call them losers in response.
In addition, Twitter is one big cesspool of hating fans of all kinds of people or just trolls wanting people to fight. It’s quite common now to have accounts pretending to be fan of someone, say bad things about other people and then have their favorite singer get hated in return or their fandom being called awful. That doesn’t just happen to BTS, but to Taylor, Gaga etc as well.
So, to summarize; no fandom is innocent, but saying BTS fandom is a 100 times worse than other fandoms is just ridiculous with all the hate on that app.
I want to say one other thing: BTS fandom has organized literally hundreds of charity projects all over the world. I am not just talking about Americans or Europeans doing that like some people then imagine. There are many by BTS fans from India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Equador, the Philippines, Kenya, of course Korea and many more countries starting their own charity projects and using the fanbase to organize them.
‘coincidentally’ you seldom hear about that.
Perhaps because it doesn’t fit the image some people would like to have of a boyband’s fans.
Or because people from Asia, Africa and South America organizing charity projects without Western help makes some Western people feel quite uncomfortable.
If people always want to talk about the worst, then talk about the good for once too.
My big questions now is there a US tour planned for 2024 to promote this album? Because I am THERE.
I meant to type 2023!
Not my personal favorite of hers, but it’s (objectively) still a good album and I can see why the critics are loving it. Anti Hero, You’re on Your Own, Kid, and Karma are probably my favorites. Sometimes I forget she’s an incredible songwriter-stuff like Shake it Off was written to be simple and silly on purpose (and it is catchy, tbf), and she is capable of writing songs with far more complex lyrics.
I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but I like a lot of her music and think she’s a far better songwriter than people give her credit for. I’ve always thought it was dumb that she gets so much flack for writing about her love life when all songwriters do that. I don’t know that I’ll she’ll out for this album, but I’m looking forward to hearing some of the songs.
Yes, a lot of us “casual” listeners out here. I think she’s super talented and DO end up liking a lot of her stuff, but usually discover that I liked them more before I knew it was a TS song (like blind listening on a generated playlist). For us elder millennials, her name comes with so much baggage as I distinctly remember a time when it was deeply uncool to be a Swiftie. Am actually happy to see that we all evolve and her undeniable talent is making her an artist who withstands the test of time.
Wanted to add that my begrudging admiration of her came because she is truly such an ARTIST. You can tell she puts out music because it’s something she HAS to do—channeling her emotions into a creative outlet. The fact that the albums are critically acclaimed is almost a byproduct of her real work. I get the feeling that she will be writing music even if no one is listening, and that, to me, is admirable.
Whereas someone like Rhianna, whom I openly love, does not seem to be tied to or driven by music (to our collective chagrin). She has many interests and creative outlets, and it’s become very evident that music is just one facet of her busy life, which she can absolutely put on the back burner.
Yes, the best example I can give is the sexism of different media worlds, like the literary world. Men can write about love and heartache in novels, and they are deemed sensitive and deep and win awards. Women write about love and heartache, and their novels are deemed superficial and low brow. Award-winning author Ruth Ozeki’s first book was not marketed well or advertised widely due to sexism, which is unfortunate because it’s a great novel about media and food consumption.
Why was Jack Antonoff with Lena Dunham. He seems like a cool dude.
Isn’t he engaged to the way younger Margaret Qualley now? Not that cool in my book.
I looked it up, she’s 28 and he’s 38, I don’t see that as a huge difference, nor is 28 super young where there’s a power imbalance.
I’m a fan of Taylor but ehhh it’s another slow album. I loved the Janet Jackson shoutout in Snow on the Beach. All For You was one of my favorite albums in high school.
I used to be a fan but then I got bored. She cares sooo much what people think of her. That and every drama/scandal she finds herself in she’s always the victim, yawn. I don’t wish her any ill will or anything, but she’s overrated imo.
I got the 3 a.m. version and was fully immersed during my commute today. Can’t wait for work to be over to carry on listening.
I’m a woman in her mid-40’s and bigh fan of Taylor’s music, mostly 1989 forward. The stuff previous was pretty young. I recently listened to Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and thought it really young. I’ve yet to listen to any of the other “Taylor’s Versions” for this reason.
I just watched the vid for Anti-hero. I loved her last albums. She captures a vibe like a set director. She is a master of pop music. I have zero shame for absolutely loving this.