On October 21, 2022, Taylor Swift released her brand new album, “Midnights”, making it her tenth studio album. Though Taylor re-recorded her albums “Fearless” in April, 2021 and “Red” in November, 2021 in order to gain full rights to her own music, this is her first completely new work of music to be released since the release of “Evermore” in December, 2020.
The new album consists of 13 songs, or, as Taylor described in her announcement of the album on Instagram, “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life.” The number of songs came as no surprise to the fans, as it is known for being Taylor’s lucky number.
Swift announced the album’s release on August 28, 2022, at the annual MTV Music Awards after winning the award for video of the year for her short film “All Too Well (10 minute version) (Taylor’s version).” About a month after the announcement, Taylor started a series on TikTok called “Midnights Mayhem with Me”, where on random nights at midnight she would use a bingo ball cage full of balls labeled 1-13 to announce one of the track titles off the album, saying the track title through a bright red landline phone. On September 21, 2022, she revealed her first track title, and of course she got the thirteenth track, titled “Mastermind.”
In some of these episodes, Swift was seen holding the phone upside down, and in one episode there was writing on it, making fans speculate that this was another one of her “easter eggs.” Swift’s “easter eggs” usually hint at any surprises or announcements that may come with her newest piece of work.
As Swift continued releasing track titles on random midnights, on October 7, she announced the last five track titles to be released on the same night. These last few tracks were titled “Lavender Haze,” “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” “Labyrinth,” “Sweet Nothing,” and finally, “Snow On The Beach,” which features Lana Del Ray.
One track title that sparked attention was the eleventh track, which is entitled “Karma.” Circling back to 2017, when Swift released her sixth studio album, “Reputation”, it was blatantly obvious that this album was seen as a type of revenge on rapper Kanye West in reference to their feud in 2016, (this of course started with West’s lyric in his song “Famous,” stating he is the main reason for Taylor’s fame).
On the sixth track of reputation, “Look What You Made Me Do,” a popular lyric is, “The world moves on, another day another drama, drama, But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma.” Fans are speculating that Taylor’s new track will connect to this drama, due to it’s cryptic name. As all Swift fans know, every little detail always means something when it comes to Taylor, especially the fact that she laughed after announcing this track title in her eighth episode of “Midnights Mayhem with Me.”
Swift posted videos of her on instagram going into detail about three of her tracks off the “Midnights” album. Swift first posted her elaboration of the third track, “Anti-Hero,” on October 3rd, saying it was one of her favorite songs that she’s ever written and described that she has never gone into detail this deeply in any piece of her music before over her insecurities. “This song really is a real guided tour throughout all the, you know, things [she] tend[s] to hate about myself.”
On October 7th, Swift posted a video describing her first track on the album, “Lavender Haze.” Swift explains how she first heard the phrase “Lavender Haze” while watching the popular television series Madmen. “If you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all encompassing love glow.”
The last track title description we have received is when Taylor went into detail about her fourth track, “Snow On The Beach,” on October 11th. Taylor explains how this track describes a “cataclysmic, faded, moment where you realize someone feels exactly the same way that you feel.” Musical artist Lana Del Ray is also featured in this song, and Taylor describes her as “one of the best musical artists ever.”
The latest big announcements we have received were announced on Monday, October 17th at midnight, with a calendar going from dates Thursday, October 20th to Friday, October 28th. On that Thursday, what is listed is “Teaser Trailer- 3rd quarter of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video”. On Friday the 21st, the “Midnights Album Release” is listed at 12 am EST, as well as a “Special very chaotic surprise” at 3 am EST. At 8 am EST that day, the Anti-Hero Music Video will be premiered, the first music video to be released from the album. On Monday the 24th, Swift will make an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”, hopefully meaning she will be doing a performance as well. The next day, the second Midnights Music Video will be released at 12 am EST, though Swift does not say which music video this will be. Lastly, on Friday, October 28th, Swift will make an appearance on “The Graham Norton show”.
Taylor has also been making a trend of releasing a new song lyric each day, the first being released on October 17th, on a billboard in Times Square, “I should not be left to my own devices”. Swift then continued to post different lyrics in different cities everyday, London, on October 18th, “I polish up real nice”, São Paulo, Brazil, on October 19th, “Just like clockwork, the dominoes cascaded in a line”, in Nashville, “Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?”, then lastly, on October 20th, in Mexico City, Mexico, “Breathe in, breathe thorough, breathe deep, breathe out”. The last lyric was also featured in Swift’s NYU commencement speech on May 18, 2022, before anyone even knew that she was working on a new album.
Though we already know so much about Swift’s next big project, much more was revealed when we delved into the lyrics and stories of her album on October 21st, midnight sharp.
