{"id":35101,"date":"2023-01-18T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=35101"},"modified":"2023-01-18T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T15:46:00","slug":"review-of-taylor-swifts-album-midnights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2023\/01\/18\/review-of-taylor-swifts-album-midnights\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Taylor Swift’s Album Midnights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Swift is arguably the biggest pop star of the 21st century. She entered the music scene as a country artist with her debut album Taylor Swift<\/em> through which she skyrocketed in popularity among country fans with her song \u201cTim McGraw.\u201d In more recent years, she has taken endeavors into different genres of music, such as the radio-hit pop 1989<\/a> <\/em>and the indie-ensure albums Folklore<\/a> <\/em>and Evermore<\/a><\/em>. Her albums have had wild commercial and critical success, with Reputation<\/em> being the highest-grossing tour of all time and three of her albums being awarded the heavily sought-after Album of the Year award at the Grammys. <\/span><\/p>\n

On August 28th, 2022, Swift broke the internet at the 2022 Video Music Awards after announcing her 10th studio album Midnights<\/em> to be released on October 21st. Upon its release, the album broke hundreds of streaming records, Swift became the first artist to hold all 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, and her tour had over 14 million people try to get tickets which could fill up over 900 stadiums. With such overwhelming hype, Midnights<\/em> deserves a closer look.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review<\/b><\/h3>\n

After two folky albums released at the heart of the pandemic, Swift returned to the popstar music many people know her for. When discussing <\/span>Midnights,<\/span><\/i> Swift describes it as \u201ca collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.\u201d With this album, she isn\u2019t making as drastic artistic changes as she did with her last few albums but instead reflects on the different sounds she has played with and attempts to refine and polish them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first track, \u201cLavendar Haze,\u201d is layered with synthetic pop beats and rhythms that thump in the listener’s heart. This is a symbol of her collaboration with Jack Antanoff. He is well known in the female music industry after collaborating with megastars Lorde on <\/span>Melodrama<\/span><\/i> and Lana Del Rey on <\/span>Norman F*king Rockwell. <\/span><\/i>This song is about being blind in the face of love and how nothing else matters once you feel love. With lyrics like, \u201cI feel a lavender haze creeping up on me\/So real, I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say,\u201d Swift makes clear that to her, love conquers all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her airy falsetto contributes to this dreamy and mystical feeling she conveys throughout the album. This is seen again in the collaboration between Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey on “<\/span>Snow on the Beach,”<\/span> the chorus starts by describing \u201cweird but f*cking beautiful\u201d Swift’s relationship with her current boyfriend. This airy falsetto is also in the <\/span>Labyrinth<\/span><\/i> in which she famously revealed the song’s lyrics in her commencement speech at NYU earlier that year. <\/span><\/p>\n

In songs like \u201cAnti Hero\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re On Your Own, Kid,\u201d Swift returns to the autobiographical songwriting narrative she abandoned in her two latest albums which are a large success in her fanbase. However, a common lacking point in these autobiographical songs is the bland and uninteresting production. Backgrounded with a simple base temp on background, Swift tries to create a crescendo effect with her music that layers on more and more until it reaches its climax, only to fall short a few times because the things that go on don\u2019t add enough color to the music. \u201cMidnight Rain\u201d is the most experimental song to date, using autotune to distort and create a synthetic futuristic sound that is prevalent in \u201cBejeweled\u201d and \u201cMastermind.\u201d The autotune doesn\u2019t always land, often feeling forced and lacking sustenance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her songwriting in this LP is filled with witty one-liners like in \u201cVigilante Sh*t,\u201d where she says, \u201cI don\u2019t dress for women\/I don\u2019t dress for men\/lately I\u2019ve been dressing for revenge.\u201d While it is a downgrade from the metaphorical lyrics of her previous two works, the one-liners are often effective in appealing to larger audiences. <\/span><\/p>\n

This album wasn\u2019t meant to reinvent or establish itself as one of her greatest works. It was a fun and generally enjoyable work meant to be played on the live stage, which she has missed dearly in the past few years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Album Rating: 7.4\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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