When the clock struck midnight, a new musical era began Taylor Swift as she released her 10th studio album, Midnight.
When announcing the album, Swift hinted that she would be sharing more personal stories, something she’s moved away from with her. Folklore and Forever album, and described it as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”
“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams,” Swift wrote. “The floors we walk and the demons we face. For all of us who have flown and turned and decided to keep the lights on and search – hoping that maybe when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet.”
Fans have been left wondering what direction and sounds the new era would bring after Swift’s latest indie folk chapter, Folklore and Forever. Midnight marks Swift’s return to a pop soundscape with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff collaborating with her on the album.
In an Instagram post, Swift called out Midnight “a wild ride” and how happy she was to be reunited with Antonoff. “We’ve been making music together for almost a decade,” he wrote. “However… this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.”
She went on to explain that she and Antonoff had toyed around with ideas and written a few things together, but that they really hit it off when their partners—Swift’s longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn and Antonoff’s girlfriend Margaret Qualley—shot Stars at noon together in Panama.
“Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late and exploring old memories and past midnights,” Swift continued, calling out their colleagues. “Midnight it is a collage of tension, ebbs and flows and flows. Life can be dark, starry, cloudy, scary, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic or lonely. Exactly like Midnight.”
Ahead of the album’s debut, a teaser trailer of Swift’s “secret projects” was released during Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. It was announced that Swift will also release the “Midnight music films,” where he will once again collaborate with cinematographer Rina Yang on the visuals.
“I love storytelling, I love songwriting, I love writing videos, I love directing them. And this was a really fun opportunity to work again with filmmaker Rina Yang, who was my collaborator on the 10-minute short film ‘All Too Well,’” he said.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves to do different things this time,” Swift said of the upcoming videos that will help visually explore “the world of this record.” “I’m really proud of what we made and I really hope you like it. We’ve worked with some amazing actors, who you’ll get to know more about at the end of the teaser trailer,” he continued to tease.
In the trailer, Swift is seen taking on a variety of personas with the videos featuring Antonoff, Laura Dern, Alana Haim, Danielle Haim, Este Haim, Pat McGrath, Laith Ashley, Jon Early, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Dita Von Teese and Mike. Birbiglia.
The Midnight The music videos mark the first time Swift has had an accompanying visual album.
In the days leading up to the October 21 release of the new album, the superstar built up fans’ anticipation by launching a ‘Midnights Mayhem With Me’ series on TikTok, in which she would reveal a song title from the tracklist. Among the songs featured in Midnight is a collaboration with Lana Del Rey called “Snow on the Beach,” which Swift described in an explanatory video as being about two people falling in love with each other at the same time, likening the feeling to watching snow fall on the beach. beach. Meanwhile, “Lavender Haze,” on which Zoë Kravitz is credited as one of the songwriters, uses the phrase “Lavender Haze” to describe the romantic feeling of being in love. Swift revealed that she learned the phrase by watching Angry men and I realized it’s a saying from the 50s to describe being in love. “If you were in the lavender mist, then that meant you were in this all-encompassing glow of love, and I thought that was really beautiful,” she said.
At the same time as the release of her new album, she is also going to make her debut a music video for her new single “Anti-Hero” on Friday. On social media, Swift described the song as “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.” “I really don’t think I’ve delved this much into my insecurities in this detail before,” she said. “I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has spiraled out of control and, not to sound too dark, I just struggle with the idea of not feeling human.” He also said the song is a “real tour” of “everything I tend to hate about myself.” Throughout the song, Swift describes various insecurities and personal fears, noting that it can be “exhausting rooting for the anti-hero” and describing herself as “the problem”.
In addition to falling and love, other songs on the album reminisce about lessons learned (“You’re on Your Own, Kid”), breakups (“Bejeweled”, “Maroon”), revenge fantasy (“Vigilante Shit, ” “Karma”) and what could have been (“Midnight Rain”).
Other surprises are already in store with the release of the album. In a calendar of events shared on her social media, the singer-songwriter noted that one music video for another Midnight song will be released on Tuesday, October 24th, however it was not revealed which song.
Swift teamed up with longtime collaborator Antonoff for the Midnight album, with William Bowery also credited as a songwriter on the track “Sweet Nothing” — Swift has since revealed that the mysterious songwriter is her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn. Others credited on the album include Mark A Spears, Keanu Torres, Jahaan Sweet and Sam Dew.
Midnight follows Swift’s first new album since her Folklore and Forever album — Folklore won album of the year at the 2021 Grammys. Swift is too re-recording her entire early discographywhich includes Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014) and 2017 Reputation. Swift was recently released Red (Taylor Edition) and directed it small film for the original 10-minute version of her revered song, “All Too Well.”
