Taylor Swift's Midnights

by Sam Wolstenholm

Taylor Swift dropped her tenth album, Midnights, on October 21st, 2022, but you already knew that. Everybody knew that. That's why I decided to review it (ya know, gotta collect the clicks right?). I've never been a Taylor Swift fan. I've never hated her either, I guess, but her style of music was never exactly what I was drawn to. I've made fun of her a healthy amount, but I'd like to think I've also given her credit when I enjoyed her content. That being said, I thiiiiiink I did a good job reviewing this without getting caught in the Taylor trap (where people think they have to absolutely love her or hate her). In fact, you'll see when (not if, when) you read this that I found myself surprised a few times. Good or bad? I guess you just need to read to find out. So go ahead and start doing that! Scroll down!

1. "Lavender Haze"

Let's get started. A cool, moody sound is playing in the background. It's bassy too (EDITING NOTE: little did I know how I would end up feeling about this very specific thing). It gives the track a deep feel (sonically). It's layered. We've got some simple pop drums buried in the mix. The sound of the track is overall pretty atmospheric. It's nothing special. There is an "oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" vocal sample that happens a few times too (I think it's a sample). I like that part, it's catchy. It's probably my favorite part of the song, actually. The chorus itself is decently catchy too. The term "lavender haze" is, I guess, from the 1950s and is supposed to mean being in a state of love. If that's the case, then I don't exactly get what she's going for with this track. That's because she also sings about the fact that she's scrutinized and seen as just a wife or a one-night-stand. She doesn't want to be seen as that romantic woman, but she's also wanting to be in love. I can see the internal dilemna here though. Everyone deserves to fall in love (assuming that's a real thing), but she has to do it under different circumstances than most. Not only is she super famous, but there are social pressures that come with being a woman as well. As I mentioned, she has to fight the societal expectation of a woman searching for love. The public perception of Taylor too is that she gets in and out a lot of relationships. Well, who cares? She's searching for love just like the rest of us. It's just a lot harder for her because of her social location. It's a decent start to the album. The atmosphere does give me a late night feel, but Taylor's voice is too poppy to truly get me in that midnight mindset. Yes, she can sing, but she isn't doing anything here vocally that wows me. I won't be adding this to my playlist, but it's fine. It works well as an opener.

2. "Maroon"

I like the vocal performance on this song significantly more than the last. She's using different tones for different parts of the song. The background vocals in the chorus sound great too. The instrumental is actually very interesting to me. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's very spacey, almost too much. When the track first started, I found myself wishing more would happen. There was a vibrating synth bass sound and some spaced out drums (the snare was very dry compared to the rest of the sounds). However, I found myself in a trance of some sort by the time the real meat of the song was happening. I had forgotten about the instrumental at that point. The vocals are supposed to take over, and they do. If only she was singing about something more original. We've heard this before. These are Taylor Swift lyrics through and through, but it literally uses the red thing again. I'm sure there are differences, but come on. I think it's clever but overdone the way she makes a reference to the color red in damn near every line. Yeah, wine made us do it, and it was fun while it lasted, I get it. The song kind of drags along, but I do enjoy it more than the opener.

3. "Anti-Hero"

Is this song supposed to be funny? Because it is, but not even necessarily in a bad way. If you couldn't guess, it's the lyrics that make me laugh. I have to believe she was being purposeful with her bars here. "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I'm a monster on the hill." There's no way she wrote, performed, recorded, and listened back to lyrics and thought, "Hell yea, these are amazing, thoughtful." No way. She is trying with this track to go viral. She wanted silly lyrics to relate to the most amount of people possible. I'm sure this endeavor will be successful, but that doesn't mean the words don't make me cringe. I do really like one line though. "When my depression works the graveyard shift, all of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room." Yea, that's fire. The chorus is what it is. I hope it is a big TikTok trend or something because there are a lot of people that need something like this to force them to self reflect. It's catchy, I guess, but that doesn't mean it has depth. In fact, the song itself isn't very deep. It does have a good message though. Sonically, it's pretty basic. There's another wobbly sound with some buried drums. Here and there, a synth noise will pop in. For the most part though, sounds seem to just get louder and quieter. Not feeling this one. However, the funny lyrics make it the most enjoyable track so far. Don't take it too seriously and you might really like it.

4. "Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey)"

Woah, I love how this starts. The guitars (or something like a guitar...violin maybe?) sound sweet. The bass comes in smoothly too. Sleigh bells add to the snowy vibe. In fact, the overall instrumental captures the feeling described in the song. It isn't overstated. I can literally see myself watching snow fall on a beach. Hopefully, this quality isn't a direct result of Lana Del Rey being on the song. They sound very good together. It was difficult to tell the difference between them, but I'm pretty sure that's just me being an unadjusted ear to the two voices (EDITING NOTE: it's because they sing at the same time for the most part, I see now). Anyway, the track goes through quite a few dynamic changes. It's a journey, more than a simple pop song for sure. The lyric in the chorus, "It's like snow on the beach: Weird but fucking beautiful," is funny too. It's such a surface level metaphor that it is entertaining. It's not a visual you think of every day, but yea I get it. There isn't anything deeper than being weird and beautiful I guess. Oh, and I guess snow falls, and they're falling for each other? Whatever. All I need to know is that this track sounds really good and is easily the best one so far, maybe on the album.

5. "You're on Your Own, Kid"

There are two good parts to this song. One of them is the chorus. "You're on your own kid. You always have been." It packs a lot of emotion in just a few words, and Taylor's delivery of it is also emotional. The other good part is the instrumental breakdown about halfway through the song. Some whistle noises come in. They're pleasantly dissonant. Besides that...I don't think this song is very good. It's a basic performance with some cheesy lyrics. The instrument seems to build up the entire time just to lead to nothing. There really isn't anything special going on musically either.

6. "Midnight Rain"

Interesting. I appreciate the creativity of this one. The chorus sounds great when Taylor pitches down her voice a lot. It doesn't even sound like her, but it sounds dope. The way the instrumental cuts out when it first comes in too. Mwah! The synthy robotic wavy sound in the background adds to a midnight type of feel too. It's slow and dark. Fairly typical T-Swizzle content, but there aren't any corny lyrics. Dark horse right here. I could've done without the singing after the last chorus, but that's alright.

7. "Question...?"

Hey Taylor Swift, did you really think that this was a good song? It's just a question. Seriously though, this one is not it. Nothing happens musically. Eventually (like halfway through the song), some drums do come in, but they don't match the vibe of the song. The vibe wasn't even established well. There's just some atmosphere synths with the most basic snare sound hardly audible. The chorus is too long and it kind of sucks. She is asking a very specific question, and I know that's the point, but still. It's cringy. The weird little beat breakdown was dumb too. It didn't make any sense in that spot of the song. It just came out of nowhere for no reason. Big yikes on this track from me.

8. "Vigilante Shit"

Definitely a change of pace for Taylor here. When I thought of midnight with Taylor Swift, this is what I was wanting. This is dark and evil. She sounds like she's trying to make a James Bond movie theme song or something. It sounds like revenge for real. The instrumental is very simple but effective. Deep bass. Drum focused. Heavy synths. Lower tones in her vocal performance. Some sporadic and electric synth leads. The hi-hats are the MVPs of the song though. They drive the energy, and it's just as noticeable when they drop out. That's about it as far as the music goes. Like I said, it's simple but effective. The content is definitely interesting too. "You did some bad things, but I'm the worst of them," is a great lyric. In fact, there are a few good ones in here. Another one is like is, "He was doing lines and crossing all of mine." Yea, whoever this guy is definitely fucked up. There isn't anything crazy here that'll make you comtemplate your existence or anything, but it's a fun dark story.

9. "Bejeweled"

This is some bubblegum pop Taylor Swift. I don't think I like it very much. She's singing about how she doesn't need her man if he isn't good enough. She'd be fine without him. While I'm not doubting the validity of the message, I just don't like the lyrics. First of all, it sounds weird to hear Taylor Swift say "best believe." I don't know. Something about that just doesn't sit right with me. "And when I meet the band, and they ask, 'Do you have a man?' I can say, 'I don't remember.'" How is that supposed to make anybody feel good? She also just isn't singing the chorus with much passion. It makes the song confusing. I'm not sure what it's going for. If it's supposed to be an uplifting track, then it's only trying to do that in relation to a man and putting him down (not to say he doesn't deserve it). She doesn't seem to care that much. It's kind of flat. There's some shiny synths that match the shimmer theme or whatever, but there isn't anything else that is new or exciting about the instrumental itself. The bass is the same synth bass that's on damn near every track. It's a very synthetic sound, and that applies to Taylor's performance too. It's just kind of a dumb pop song from what I can tell. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up on the radio, but that doesn't mean it's good.

10. "Labyrinth"

The beginning didn't make any sense. It was just like ten seconds of noise leading into part of the song that didn't really amount to much. Anyway, it's pretty bare until three minutes in when drums and whatnot come in with a very different energy. Even then, it's doing the same low pitch voice thing I liked from "Midnight Rain" (which was a much better track, and I just listened to it again to make sure), but I don't like it nearly as much here. It's a basic song about being afraid to fall in love. Sure. However, the lyrics are just not it again. I actually hate the part when she says, "You know how scared I am of elevators. Never trust it if it rises fast. It can't last." This line almost single-handedly ruined the track for me. It's a horrible metaphor (I know I shouldn't rant about a single line, but I'm going to). Are you not scared of slow elevators then? Why wouldn't you trust a fast elevator? Shouldn't that mean it's more likely to be a safe, high-tech one? And no shit it can't last. It's an elevator, it only goes to the top floor. It's a terrible metaphor for falling in love. First of all, you FALL in love. At least make the elevator go down so that it too is FALLING. Secondly, you just dismiss a relationship if it moves quickly even if it's working well? Does love only work if it's slow? And, again, love can last, but an elevator cannot. It goes all the way up and all the way down. Love has ups and downs, but that isn't what she's talking about. It's the act of falling in love, not navigating love that is already there. Okay I'm done (EDITING NOTE: I'm glad I did that). The song itself is fine, I guess. It won't be raisng the score I give to the album, but it's not the worst on here. So congrats Taylor, I guess.

11. "Karma"

I enjoy the idea of this song. The concept is actually not a love song or some version of one. It's unique. She's basically saying that she's cool with karma because it's good for her. It sucks to suck if karma isn't on your side because that'd be your own fault. This is more uplifting than any of the other tracks in my opinion. The praise kind of has to stop there though...She says the word "karma" in almost every single line, definitely overdoing the concept and overshadowing any clever lines. Musically, it could've been the same instrumental as half of the songs on this album and I barely would've noticed. It's fine. Like, it works for what it's trying to do (which, I'm assuming, is appeal to people that just listen to Taylor Swift because she's Taylor Swift). There's shimmering synths and the same bass sound that's on every song. Is that why she thinks the album sounds darker or something? Is that why she called it Midnights? I doubt it, but I can't help but make that connection (I know it's called that because the content of the songs is supposed to be what keeps her up at night, but still). Yea this track is kind of annoying, and that's sad because it's a good idea at its core. (EDITING NOTE: damnit this is stuck in my head...ya know it might be better than I thought)

12. "Sweet Nothing"

Decent, actually. This isn't as poppy, and Taylor puts some real purpose behind her performance. The instrumental is just a nice electric piano playing a catchy little melody. Along with some background vocals and other subtle sounds as complimentary layers, there is a lot of space for her vocals to take center stage. And they do. She switches up her flows a surprising amount. It's refreshing really. Yes, it's a love song (surprise surprise), but it seems more legitimate than most of the others. This one feels genuine. Maybe it's the lack of stupidly simple drums and a synth bass. Maybe it's the fact that there aren't any corny lyrics or dumb metaphors present. I'm adding this to the playlist? What? It's...dare I say it? A great ballad-like end to the album? Wait...there's more.

13. "Mastermind"

The album should've ended after "Sweet Nothing," but this isn't a bad closer either. It's not as good, but I'm trying not to compare. It's not bad at all. The lyrics are decent on here too (I meant that, even though the next sentence is sarcastic). Honestly, I'm not sure how her genius mind came up with the line "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." The chorus is good, but the second half of it (the part where she says the song title and the music kind of stretches out) is pretty stunning really. Musically, it's not bad at all either. The electric piano (or a synth?) arpeggio is subtle but it helps create a dreamy atmosphere. The synth bass that I complained about a lot is also on here, but it's used as an actual instrument with variation this time. In fact, the arrangement on the track is pretty good overall. This song grew on me through this review. I still don't think I'm going to revisit it much, but I see that more as a personal taste thing. The content doesn't exactly speak to me and it's not catchy enough to make up for it. Good song overall though. If the album wasn't going to end with "Sweet Nothing," then I'd say I'm satisfied with this one.

Overall

Wow alright. If I haven't pissed you off already, just hear me out. There are some really high highs on this album. Unfortunately, there are also some pretty low lows. It's all over the place in terms of quality, but the overall sound is pretty consistent. I know I mentioned that synth bass a lot, but it really did get annoying. For individual tracks, I guess it works, but I'm reviewing the whole album, and that shit was too much. The drums were definitely also done with a big time pop mindset. That's fine sometimes (as you might've seen in my Michael Jackson review), but it reflects what seems to be a lack of effort in the production. There just wasn't enough creative ideas present in the instrumentals. Some uniqueness showed up a few times, but not enough. Another way to put it is that I thought it was too safe. There weren't many risks taken. That applies to the content too. I don't feel like I learned much about Taylor Swift as a person through this album. And that's ironic for two reasons. The first is that she seems to want to sing about personal things on here, but it just comes off as surface level or fake somehow. The second reason is what the album's concept as a whole was supposed to be. Wasn't I supposed to get a glimpse of Taylor's late night thoughts? Wasn't that supposed to be the whole point?

I think I'd feel differently if the album didn't try to take itself too seriously. Taylor seems like she wants to make some emotional, dramatic songs. It worked a couple times, but she'll drop a weird line and ruin the credibility. It's sad actually. The only song that is self-aware of its goofiness is "Anti-Hero." I don't love it, but I respect it because it's actually fun. That could also apply to "Vigilante Shit." I know this album has gotten a lot of hype, but I can't help but feel let down by the project as a whole. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the songs that I did like, but they couldn't make up for what the rest of the songs were lacking. Therefore, the score I give Midnights doesn't exactly mirror my enjoyment of the album. It's kind of odd. Critically, I have to be honest. Personally, I'm really happy with what I got out of it.

5.7/10

If you've read my review, I assume you have already heard Midnights, so I want to hear what you think. What'd I miss? Did I tear apart your favorite song? Or give too much credit to one that doesn't deserve it? Any questions or comments? I'd love to respond. Feel free to drop review requests too! I will strongly consider them (this one was a request).

Taylor Swift's Midnights - Album Review