The inimitable Taylor Swift released her twelfth album and we all lost a little sleep over it. In anticipation of a third re-recording, she graced us with a concept album. An album that reverberates into the darkness. She’s grown up and now she’s dreaming, dancing, drinking the night away. If Karma was purportedly the secret album between 1989 and Reputation, then maybe Midnights found her in dreams / nightmares in all her sleeps since.


midnights: a review

life can be dark, starry, cloudy, terrifying, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic or lonely. just like midnights.

midnights paces back and forth on the wooden floorboards. taylor doesn’t reflect as much as she stews; hears the quiet of her memory claw itself to the surface like white noise. like the scratches the needle has to persist before music lifts from the vinyl. like that thumping bass from another room, relentless and tenebrous. like it wants something from you, and it couldn’t get enough in the daylight hours.

previously, i’d written about the things that keep me up at night (before night falls ). i chased some, but not all of my shadows into the recessed corners they had emerged from. taunting, merciless, perhaps starving. they wanted attention. this album promises taylor’s past, and i did not get much of it. i got a cut-up record of songs that allude to memories and moments in time, but they’re dissembled as if we woke up from the dream too soon and can’t fill in the blanks anymore. it’s an incredible concept, but i don’t get any of the torturous restlessness i was promised. she sings “i wake up screaming from dreaming” and i wanted just that. she broods, but the music is too bombastic to cling to the severity of its implications.

the sonic sameness creates sensory deprivation. cohesive, yes; redundant, also yes. this album excerpts from my least favorite taylor tracks—the ones i listen to once in a blue moon, but never seek out—and insists this is the soundtrack of her sleeplessness. it’s “dress” and “long story short” and “look what you made me do” and “closure” all at once. too much bleachers production room floor synth-pop and a wasted lana del rey cameo. understated maximalism. i don’t think any of these songs will keep me up at night, nothing so overwhelming that i stay up to the late hours listening to it, nothing so affecting that i cannot find sleep.



  • in the middle of the night (first favorites): maroon, karma, question…?, the great war, snow on the beach, would’ve could’ve should’ve, paris, bigger than the whole sky
  • approaching the twilight glow (getting warmer): mastermind, midnight rain, you’re on your own kid, high infidelity, lavender haze, labyrinth, anti-hero
  • tomorrow is a new day (need more listens): sweet nothing, bejeweled, dear reader, hits different, glitch, vigilante shit



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on the first listen

  1. lavender haze — this is very different from her other opening tricks; definitely dancier. it’s very 2008 inspired, like the solo cut of a clubby girl group single. rhymes lavender haze and surreal. meet me and midnight indeed
  2. maroon — the production so far is the cross-over between lover and reputation. it’s harder to discern the lyrics in between the production, but her lyricism is more poems scrawled in a journal set to jack antonoff’s sampled tracks
  3. anti-hero — “midnights become my afternoons” if this is her first single, it’s definitely the slowest. the jack antonoff 1980s riff sounds like it’s off a bleachers album. the chorus grows on you. 
  4. snow on the beach (ft. lana del rey) — it’s THE 2012 sad girl collab. lana’s voice works really well in the backing vocals (it’s very lana). this song would’ve been a fast favorite if it leaned more into lana’s strength and shared space with the lana-style rather than using her to layer. 
  5. you’re on your own, kid — the most upbeat, but sobering track 5 yet? so far, this album is more of a sister album to 1989. the chorus feels influenced by 2014 indie folk pop, something like “home” meets “young folks”. the last half of the song picks up a lot compared to the first. 
  6. midnight rain — this is no idris elba voicenote at the beginning of “london boy”. the beginning of this is a warped and distorted male voice? my first theory is that this is taylor’s voice passed through a male-filter to genderbend. 
  7. question …? — lyrically, i think this is one of my favorite songs so far. she narrativizes a conversation(s), and it works to great effect in the chorus. three-quarters of the way through it veers very off track, but the composition feels most classically swift of past albums.
  8. vigilante shit — this is the most reputation-esque song of them all, some cousin of “end game” in production and “no body, no crime” in lyrical story. taylor’s still listening to too many true crime podcasts and switching off with the gone girl audiobook. 
  9. bejeweled — sonically, it sounds like three different songs in one. a rockier take on the all too well lyric “a never needy ever loving jewel, whose shine reflects on you”. a good dance around in your bedroom as a teenager, getting glammed up in the full-length mirror  
  10. labyrinth — the intro takes a while to dial in, but her falsetto really rises. it just seems like a hard song to sing, but maybe the chorus could be a good meditation snippet. 
  11. karma — the esteemed, elusive karma. you can hear the smile in her voice as she singles the beginning. she had a lot of fun writing these lyrics, maybe a little too much fun?
  12. sweet nothing — she’s never done a whisper-sing-song vocals, lullaby song. “on my way home ; i wrote a poem.” the brassy additions near the end are nice. 
  13. mastermind —  she added a vocoder to her lyrics, and really sent it to harmonize with. it’s (a lesser) girlboss mirrorball with the heart-racing urgency of sweeter than fiction. she pulls out the childhood trauma card. 
  14. the great war — [ the chaotic surprise of 7 tracks! ] taylor really likes blood in her wordplay, but she always teases the violence without fully leaning into it. “diesel is desire ; you were playing with fire” return of the great taylor lyricism. it’s nice to return to some aaron dessner with extra synth. memory gardens. 
  15. bigger than the whole sky — this is the slowest song on the extended album. “everything i touch becomes sick with sadness.” my favorite part of the concept album is the reflection and reminiscence: “could’ve / would’ve / should’ve” ‘been you’ that gets referenced in a later track. 
  16. paris — another paris song to enter the parisian pantheon. this choral refrain reminds me a lot of the chainsmoker’s rendition of it. this is the most “lover” bombastic pop song. 
  17. high infidelity — zoe kravitz, credited on many songs, starred in the hulu adaptation of high fidelity. april 29?? the aaron dessner drums are strong with this one. 
  18. glitch — the instrumentation sounds vaguely like video game music. it’s about an anomaly, compatible relationship. i wish this song went into more of a soft rock direction.
  19. would’ve, could’ve, should’ve — the ratcheting up of urgency works really well in the beat. “i miss who i used to be ; i fight with you in my sleep; i regret you all the time”. NINETEEN. 
  20. dear reader — as a closing track, this has the calm quiet of “new year’s day.” it has the pacing in the middle of the night vibe. return of the distorted male voice. the end of this glimmers and then fades out. 
  21. hits different — sounds like it’s been intercut in a middle school young adult film. i was really excited for this one as a aaron x jack crossover, because the lyrics were promising “argumentative antithetical dream girl”. i don’t always love it when taylor takes colloquialisms and then immortalizes them in song.