Tune In: Expectations swiftly met at Midnight

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From artist of the decade to making history on the top 10 Billboard hits in the US, Taylor Swift has revamped her music and created new unique tunes for the world to hear.

Swift’s new album, “Midnights,” includes 13 tracks with an additional blessing of the 3 a.m edition of the album, consisting of seven more tracks unexpectedly released three hours after the initial 13. This further encapsulated the album’s theme: a fusion of sleepless nights scattered throughout her life. 

This way this album started threw me off at first. With such unique production of music from Swift herself, I was scared that this album would flop and I had mixed feelings about this new style.

Opening the album with “Lavender Haze,” an eerie, mysterious tune with a catchy base, the tune itself depicts distorted voices, paying homage to the typical ‘50s tunes. Almost like her previous album “Reputation,” the savage attitude of this song compliments a system of emotions that has been expressed on some of her prior work. The vocals on this particular track were flat, which felt very lackluster in comparison to her following track, “Maroon.”

“Maroon” struck me as a parallel to her previous songs “Clean” and “Red.” While “Red” was about the stability in her past relationship, the color red itself represented the pain and passion in the song. The song “Maroon” almost in correlation with the song “Red” conveys a hopeless romantic relationship painted through vocals echoing in a distance, to show that the romance was fading. Her vocal abilities continued to improve and impress me throughout the tracklist, especially with the bridge, and it canceled out the disappointment I felt with “Lavender Haze.” 

Her next track, “Anti-Hero,” puts the spotlight on Swift herself—expressing the self-hatred she felt throughout her musical career. The song’s happy-go-lucky tune reminded me of her iconic song, “Shake It Off.” However, the lyrics bring out the irony of the song as she sings about troubles—but this track is perhaps personally one of the best from the album itself with the passion in the lyrics. The irony behind the happy tune while she sings her insecurities captivated my attention as I was listening. Her vulnerability stuck out to me because as a listener, this new insecure perspective of Swift strikes me as different from her past material, contributing to the album’s dark side, showing her doubts and contributing to her restless nights.

The story doesn’t end just yet—her fourth track “Snow on the Beach ” the highly anticipatedLana Del Rey duet was a disappointment to many fans since Del Rey sang just backup vocals. While it is a big blow to have such a distinct artist to only echo in the background of this track, with Del Rey’s music style and production, it reminded me a lot of Swift’s previous alternative indie album, “Folklore.” The warm harmonies add to a cozy and festive song, which improves this track vocally and compliments the song overall to fit the theme of the song and album beautifully. I personally enjoyed this track deeply.

There is no doubt this album has everything to offer from Swift, combining all that she’s done right in her previous albums. From the hurt, pain, and vulnerability embedded within this album, it’s sure to age like fine wine.