For some people, midnight was made for sleeping. For others, midnight was made for overthinking, reliving the past and releasing a 10th studio album. Taylor Swift is part of the latter.
On Oct. 21, Swift released “Midnights” and transported Swifties to “13 sleepless nights” throughout her life. Catchy choruses, heart-wrenching lyrics and dreamlike vocals come together to unveil insomniac nights.
Less than 24 hours after the release, it became the most streamed album on Spotify. Fans, and pass-by listeners alike, fell into the quicksand of Swift’s lyrical poems. A week later, Swift has continuously broken records with her latest musical collection. Fans across the board have been captivated with the songs and are ready to see her live as she announced she will be hitting the road next year. The tour kicks off in Glendale, Arizona on March 18.
“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams,” Swift shared in an Instagram post. “The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… We’ll meet ourselves.”
The album, which she will introduce on a tour starting in March (tickets go on sale Nov. 18), comes after almost two years after her last release. The tracks on “Midnights” show Swift returning to pop and away from the sound of her pandemic releases, “Folklore” and “Evermore”, which fell within the genres of Indie/Alternative.
“I definitely feel like this album is a mix,” Skyler Abruscati, a fan since 2010, said. “My first impression was, and I feel like a lot of people said this online, definitely a mix of ‘Lover’, ‘Reputation’ and ‘1989’. It’s like the perfect combination of the three. Then you have the little bit of Folklorian and ‘Evermore’ things in there like when she gets really poetic and the way she sings certain lyrics it kind of reminds me of that too. I have seen little bits and pieces from a lot of her recent work in this one. But it still feels different.”
On the same night, fans waited for the “Chaotic Surprise” that was the announcement and release of “Midnights (3am Edition)” which includes seven bonus tracks. Swifties quickly took to different platforms, such as Twitter and Tik-Tok, to express their excitement, theories and careful dissection of lyrics.
“She really knows what the fans want and what we wanna see,” Abruscati said. “It’s really cool that she’s catering to that and bringing us into the process of the songs. It makes it really exciting. It makes it a whole event when the album comes out.”
A track that lyrically stands out in the album is “Anti-Hero”. With its vulnerable words, listeners take a look as Swift places a magnifying glass over her insecurities as a pop star, woman, but above all, as a human. The chorus confesses with the lyrics “It’s me/ Hi! I’m the problem, it’s me” and as the song progresses she begins to sing these words in a tiresome way as if waving a white flag in surrender.
“Snow On The Beach” with Lana Del Rey is the only feature included in the album. The track begins with a dream-like sound as it reveals the surreal feeling of coming across something rare and fascinating. The two artists meld their voices together and capture the delicacy of falling in love with someone and realizing they feel the same.
Swift also seemed to salute her past eras as she included Reputation-esque tracks: “Karma” and “Vigilante S—”. Swift’s history with Scooter Braun and Kanye West have led fans to speculate the vengeful lyrics could be directed towards them.
In 2019, Swift found herself in a public feud with Scooter Braun as he bought her masters from her previous record label, Big Machine Records. She decided to re-record her first six albums and released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021.
“As an artist myself, I really respect and value how vulnerable she is throughout her albums,” said Yamilet Trinidad, a fan and photo-based artist. “She is constantly experimenting with different genres from country to pop to folk. Taylor is always advocating for the rights of artists to own their own work. All artists should own their work.”
Swift reportedly turned down this season’s Super Bowl Halftime Show in order to focus on her re-recordings.
“If she were to perform the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, it would definitely limit her song selection,” Trinidad said. “We saw an example of this for her 2019 American Music Awards (AMA) performance when her former music label originally did not want her to perform early music. As a result, she wants to wait until she re-records her first six albums so she can play any song from any of the albums that she owns.”
Swift, 32, has been releasing albums since age 16. From seeing the world through rose-colored glasses to heart-shattering lyrics about her mother’s battle with cancer, her creative outlet has allowed listeners to confide in the space between her words and melodies. Expressing universal feelings through her music and displaying them bare for the world to judge or make their own has been a constant since the beginning of her career.
“As someone who has the tendency to get stuck in the past, growing up has been about learning how to let go of the past,” Annabel Quesada, a fan since 2014, said. “Accepting how you felt at that moment and recognizing your own faults but being able to move on and make peace with the memories while still taking all that you’ve learned with you into the future and that’s what her recent albums have meant to me.”
As Swift continues to break records, Florida fans anticipate her two concert dates in the state, both taking place in Tampa, on April 14 and April 15. The announcement comes after five years since her last tour for her “Reputation” album. Since then, she has released four new and two re-recorded albums. The tour includes 35 dates with tickets going on
sale Nov. 18 at 10 a.m.
Taylor Swift North American “The Eras Tour” :
March 18 – Glendale, AZ – State Farm Stadium
March 25 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium
April 1 – Arlington, TX – AT&T Stadium
April 2 – Arlington, TX – AT&T Stadium
April 14 – Tampa, FL – Raymond James Stadium
April 15 – Tampa, FL – Raymond James Stadium
April 22 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium
April 28 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
April 29 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
May 5 – Nashville, TN – Nissan Stadium
May 6 – Nashville, TN – Nissan Stadium
May 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field
May 13 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field
May 14 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field
May 19 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
May 20 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
May 21 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
May 26 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 27 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 28 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
June 2 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
June 3 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
June 10 – Detroit, MI – Ford Field
June 17 – Pittsburgh, PA – Acrisure Stadium
June 24 – Minneapolis, MN – U.S. Bank Stadium
July 1 – Cincinnati, OH – Paycor Stadium
July 8 – Kansas City, MO – GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium
July 15 – Denver, CO – Empower Field at Mile High
July 22 – Seattle, WA – Lumen Field
July 23 – Seattle, WA – Lumen Field
July 28 – Santa Clara, CA – Levi’s® Stadium
July 29 – Santa Clara, CA – Levi’s® Stadium
Aug. 3 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
Aug. 4 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
Aug. 5 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
