Taylor Swift - Midnights

it's me
hi
i'm the problem, it's me

Would love if this opened with some “Reelin’ in the Years”-type riff.

Seems fitting that both Taylor and Liz Truss had to bring forward their release dates.

IDGI

Blonde zillionaire libertarians who'll shoot you without blinking?

How did Taylor “bring forward her release date”?

(I’d ask why you think she’s a libertarian, but don’t really care to know…)

it's me
hi
i'm the problem, it's me

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, October 20, 2022 8:01 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

know nothing about this but if this is a lyric from the new album i wonder if it's a response to that last billie eilish song

https://www.vulture.com/article/taylor-swift-midnights-into-it.html

^^^ I really like this piece, it takes seriously Taylor's work as craft rather than just as a reflection of her inner self (even if the overall frame is "who is Taylor really?"). Powers' suggestion that Carole King (or at least 'Tapestry') provides the better point of comparison for Taylor's work than Joni Mitchell seems pretty canny to me, though less because Taylor is more like King than Mitchell and more because the popular understanding of Mitchell-circa-Blue itself gets a lot of stuff wrong.

Laura Dern is credited in her video teaser…

Video to be released in a few hours. Listening now but won't get through more than a few songs tonight.

Damn, love how spare this is.

It’s basically “1989 pt. 2” so far, in terms of sonics…

it's distinctively moodier & doesn't have duds like "welcome to new york" and "bad blood" or anything as corny as "shake it off"

I wish there was at least one track like that to shake off the same-y tempos. I’m also hearing various melodic bits that sound recycled from other songs of hers. Overall, a little underwhelmed by the aesthetic retreat, and nothing super catches my ear, but maybe it’ll grow on me

sonically it's closest to the good half of lover but the production is richer

That is how I feel about the new 1975 album.

Xpost

I think the production on Lover was more distinctive, fwiw… going back now and listening to a track like “I Think He Knows” feels like a breath of fresh air.

(I mention that song specifically, because you can hear its chorus in “Lavender Haze,” and its bridge in “Question…”)

Man, if you don't like the way Taylor Swift writes a melody, you're just never going to like Taylor Swift I guess. Why? Because she keeps revisiting the same few tricks again and again and again for close to 20 years.

*you = me

She does that thing a lot where she quickly raises the pitch of a vocal line

To abuse a trendy phase – this kind of sounds like if you asked an AI to make a Taylor Swift pop album. (I do like “Anti-Hero”…)

Anti-Hero and Vigilante Shit are highlights for me so far.

lover was more upbeat but the production was a bit chintzy, i just much prefer how all the synth textures sound here

I'm not a theory nerd so I don't know how to describe each of her melodic crutches, but she does that thing a lot where, yes, she curves the ends of words up. Or takes the lyric down into a warmer chord you don't expect (except it's Taylor, and she's done it the same way 80 other times, so you DO expect it). Or that thing where she'll chop the cadence up very staccato. I don't think I'd mind so much if her accompaniment was ever more than an afterthought, but it seems purposely bland in order to place focus on her melodies and, y'all, them melodies are TIRED.

Still working my way through a first listen, but it feels like a deliberate grower album - the sort where what seems like "this is the best song" will change a lot for me over the course of say six months.

The dream sequence in "Anti-Hero" is great.

And stuff like that hints at how this is like revisiting a lot of the explicit motifs (sonic and otherwise) of the 1989 through Lover era, but holding onto the storytelling emphases and flourishes of Folklore and (even more so) Evermore - "Vigilante Shit" is basically "What if "Bad Blood" but "No Body, No Crime"?" ("Well he was doing lines and crossing all of mine" is hilarious and corny and I love it).

My first impression is that all the songs are basically good. They're all very catchy. And mellow, which might be same-y to some. But lie Time says there are so many 'good' songs here I'm sure favourites will shift a lot, turn into great songs in the spotlight.

It's not as exciting an idea or maybe album as folklore and evermore, but it seems like a remarkably consistently good selection of songs - possibly several of her greatest synth pop songs collected together.

she sounds much more comfortable overall with pop than before, she doesn't really awkwardly try to force things at all

lmao the "chaotic surprise" she was teasing was a deluxe edition with 7 additional tracks being released 3 hours later

they're all good but i generally get why they weren't on the main album for one reason or another

this album is fucking GOOD

bonus tracks are totally amazing

this album is fucking GOOD

― johnny crunch, Friday, October 21, 2022

lol wau. This to me after three passes sounds like her most enervated release, a poor second attempt at LOVER.

haven’t felt this positively about her album offcuts since 1989

“would’ve could’ve should’ve” is instantly one of her best songs jesus

My teen's hot take is that it sounds like a cross between half of Lover and half of Reputation.

sounds closer to 1989 than lover to me

the mark they saw on my collarbone
the rust that grew between telephones

^^ "maroon" is evidence that taylor swift should only write songs about what colors remind her of

in addition to rilo kiley, "you're on your own, kid" reminds me a little of vanessa carlton's "white houses," the song that invented taylor swift in 2004

Dropping a surprise Deluxe Edition on the day the album comes out (and everyone’s orders have already been locked in) is a shit move.

i mean if we're talking about physical pre-orders, the deluxe edition is digital only anyway

After two times thru I don't have a firm grasp on this but I think I a.) like the vibe and her attempt at something different sonically; b.) also think the vibe has a bit of a deadening/homogenizing effect on the songs; and c.) the songs are ... pretty good?

I think "a pretty good Taylor Swift album" isn't as exciting an idea as a great one or an abject failure and I know it's more of a tepid take than a hot one. But that's where I feel like I'm landing, pending more time with it.

xp oh, ok - lol

agree with tipsy, listened to this last night and it seemed 'pretty good' but very little of it stood out to me; it has a very homogenous feel to it.

This album feels very "Johnny Fever's Shambala Threads circa 2014-2017".

Or alternatively, "1989, but we're just going to stick to sounding mostly like Lorde and Chrvches instead of trying to rewrite Happy".

I was thinking Lorde too, but I realize that probably mostly means Antonoff.

One vocal line definitely reminded me of Lorde, I forget what it was

Possibly, but 1989 gave me Lorde vibes in some songs at the time, and that was before Lorde started working with Antonoff.

ok for the most part i'm like "i see why the bonus tracks didn't make the record" but i am baffled that "hits different" didn't make it