Global megastar. Pop icon. The music industry. Taylor Swift.
11-time Grammy-winner Taylor Swift is a revered figure in modern music. Based on sales alone, she ranks among renowned musicians like The Beatles, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Still, at just 32, she’s already released 10 studio albums, each topping the last in scale, scope, and success.
Her most recent escapade, though, rocked the landscape of modern music.
Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, is a commercial breakthrough for the 2019 Artist of the Decade, but also proves to be her most vulnerable album yet. Alumni and avid Swiftie Caroline Sierk shares these sentiments. “‘Midnights’ is not only a triumphant return to pop music for Swift, but a homecoming to a genre all her own. She’s not ‘just’ a pop star, country sweetheart or indie artist. Her strongest skill is her storytelling ability, and, after honing in on that craft most recently for sister albums ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’, Swift can confidently release just about anything to fit her inimitable genre,” Sierk discusses.
Kicking off the album is her song “Lavender Haze,” a masterpiece of dreamy background vocals and airy synths. It addresses a major theme of the album; her relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. In her TikTok series, “Midnights Mayhem with Me,” she describes her experience that shaped the song. “We live in the era of social media. If the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re gonna weigh in on it… in my relationship of six years, we’ve had to dodge weird tabloid rumors… this song is about the act of ignoring all of that,” Swift explained.
“Lavender Haze” set the precedent for Swift’s triumphant return to pop, but, just three tracks in, she opens herself up in a way even the most devoted fans have scarcely seen. Track 3, “Anti-Hero”, carries on the familiar synthetic pop production established in the first two songs of the album, but, lyrically, it cracks Swift’s mind open and delves into her most guarded insecurities.
The track opens with the lyric “I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser,” referencing that, while many see her as the geriatric popstar of yesteryear, she doesn’t feel like she has mentally developed. The accompanying music video further explores her deepest fears, placing a controversial emphasis on her eating disorder, her feelings of exclusion, and her looming thought that she is the underlying problem behind her life’s strife. While each of these sentiments are uniquely Swift’s, she portrays them in a relatable way, allowing fans who have similar feelings to connect.
The B-side of her Long-Play album is packed with soft melodies akin to those of her 8th studio album, “folklore”, and club bangers harkening back to her early pop albums of “reputation” or “1989”, but it would be absurd to skip over her infamous 5th track.
For newer fans of Swift, every album since her debut “Taylor Swift” back in 2006 has placed its most heart-wrenching song at track 5. From anthems like “Dear John” and “All Too Well” to tear-jerkers like “White Horse” and “The Archer”, the 5th track of any Taylor Swift album is highly-anticipated. “Midnights” certainly did not disappoint.
“You’re on Your Own, Kid” tells the coming-of-age story of someone who, after a failed attempt at love, leaves their small town in pursuit of their dreams. After sacrificing everything, they discover that, despite everything that has changed, they always have themselves, and, as implied by the title, only have themselves.
It may seem like a tried-and-true story of how fame isn’t everything, but Swifties are all-too-familiar with this story: the story of Taylor Swift’s escape from her small-minded town in Pennsylvania to the shiny lights of Nashville, where she was taken advantage of by a poorly-intentioned record label and, after losing her life’s work through copyright law, realized that she would always have herself. This track is indescribable in its storytelling and proves that Swift, despite having moved away from her quill pen used in the “folklore” era, is capable of cathartic storytelling, which few, if any, other musicians have been able to match.
A final highlight of the album comes after a half-decade of rumors and speculation; track 11, “Karma”.
Following Swift’s fallout with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2016, fans got to work predicting her next move. A mysterious 6th album stood out among theories, rumored to be titled “Karma”. Of course, her 6th studio album was released under the name “reputation”, and the rest is history. In 2020, however, she alluded to the lost album in her music video for her 2019 song, “The Man”. When she announced that “Karma” was the name of track 11 off of “Midnights”, Swifties went wild with the knowledge that their speculation six years prior was grounded.
Does “Karma” live up to the six-year buildup, though? Lyrics like “Karma is a cat, purring my lap ‘cause it loves me” have fans debating if “Karma” is among the best of her new album for its extravagance and flair, or if it crumbles under the weight of years of expectations. While the track, with its camp production and to-the-point lyrics, doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s widely considered a pop sensation in its own right, and for Swifties with specific tastes, it’s all that could’ve been asked for.
“Midnights” is, along with being a commercial home-run and a critical success, a bold move from a popstar who has cemented her place among musical legends. Swift interrupted her expected release timeline of her re-recorded albums to deliver an anticipated return to the synth-pop that won her a Grammy for Album of the Year with “1989”. As she drops hints for her upcoming tour, Swift will continue to shatter records at an age when most public figures are ousted from their industries. Sierk summarizes the reception of this album perfectly. “The clock has struck Midnight, but Swift is truly timeless.”
