Taylor Swift - Midnights

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

Joel Little-era Lorde is a more apt comparison than Jack Antonoff-era Lorde.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk

Bejeweled, Labyrinth, Karma run is very strong. Also love Midnight Rain.

Can't be the only one disappointed that Taylor used her barely-matched power and pull within the industry to make four pressings of the album that form a clock (or something) instead of being a concept like Zaireeka (Taylor's Version).

strangling vinyl production for the rest of the industry in the process!

I know what the title of this album is, but just now misread it as “Midgets”.

it's midge nights, and it's about the 2007 american league division series

Lol

delighted by the tall girl angst on "anti-hero"

brad otm about "hits different" but maybe she felt it was too upbeat lol

i'm really just delighted that she's discovered the idea of consistency with these last 3 albums, after how all-over the place her albums had been for ages

Xp it's not tall girl angst, it's fatphobia masquerading as ED commentary. The music video makes it explicit. Pretty disappointing.

Haven't seen the video yet, but I do not really see the "fatphobia" reading. Earlier this month she was talking about how this song addressed her life as being "unmanageably sized":

💬 | “I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized […] the idea of not feeling like a person. Don’t feel bad for me, you don’t need to. This song is a real guided tour through all the things I hate about myself.” — Taylor Swift on Track 3 Anti-Hero pic.twitter.com/f1DzHpdBA2

— Taylor Swift News 🕰️ (@TSwiftNZ) October 3, 2022

Yeah well I'd watch the video...

i watched the video and you’re gonna have to hold my hand and explain bc it just registered to me as… tall girl angst

i don't think the scene of her as a giant is fatphobia or that she mishandled the pretty banal ED commentary?

there's layers of too tall/too fat/too famous and she's addressing all of them