some quick thoughts on Midnights

(just to be clear, this video did not have cameos from Anthony Fantano, Carly Rae Jepsen, Crazy Frog, and Jesus Christ.)

What did you think of Midnights? Let me know in the comments!

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 intro
01:04 how's the album?
04:58 she's won... right?

Photo by Tron Le on Unsplash

[MicTheSnare]

I wanted to get this out one before year-end season kicks off. You should see the Best Music of 2022 vid next week, then the Top 10 Albums the week after that. Thanks for watching!

[a.c.alexander]

Midnights to me just feels like an epilogue of sorts. A lot of the album seems like she’s getting some lingering feelings off her chest that must have ballooned up having to go back and re-record her previous albums and revisit old memories and old wounds. I feel like once the re-recordings are completed she’ll continue exploring the sounds and storytelling elements she touched on in folklore and evermore.

[Imnotspecial.]

I feel like this album is her finally closing those chapters in her life in order to move on to somewhere new and explore new themes.

[louisjones]

If there's any "bitterness" on Midnights I think it stems from the constant need Swift feels to reinvent herself every few years to stay relevant, not from being an "underdog". Her fans elevated her to a level of fame and success that has, in turn, alienated her from virtually everyone else alive today. The resulting themes of isolation and exhaustion in her recent albums just happen to match up with the world's current mood which ironically has brought her even more success.

[arielb]

I kind of see this album the same way I saw All Too Well (10 Minute Version) last year. Not necessarily Taylor slipping back into old habits, but more her looking back on her life (be it the relationship that inspired ATW or the 13 sleepless nights) and writing about it with the benefit of hindsight, making it feel more mature then, say, the original All Too Well or her previous pop albums such as Reputation. Personally, I see the album just as that, as a more mature take on her previous pop brought to her by the hindsight that she only now has.

[anisanurraudah]

The solution is simple: *make the next album a ROCK album*

[aidanbernales]

Midnights feels like the closing chapter of Pop Taylor for me. I feel like she wasn’t all too ready to let go of it yet when the Lover era had been forced to shut down because of the pandemic (she was about to go on this big tour for that, too). Folklore and Evermore were products of a tumultuous time and were able to breathe within it, but these were albums she wasn’t expecting to make. Midnights feels like she needed to make this one to close out that pop, tabloid-y side of hers. Plus, it’s enough material for a new tour—“The Eras Tour”—which makes it seem more plausible to me that this is her capping off that huge part of her life.

P.S. I hope she works with Sounwave more in the future

[technopat]

To your point at the end about Taylor winning, Taylor has always marketed herself as the underdog. A woman in country, a country star breaking into pop, fighting against big machine, Kanye, Apple. Midnights is the first standard album rollout she’s had where she is just a successful musician, and can’t use any other pretext

[Clazz]

Idk, I really like that Taylor moves around in genres a little. Folklore and Evermore brought me back after I didn't absolutely love her more pop-y albums (not saying they're bad, just not my cup of tea). I loved her more country stuff. So, I hope the next new album (not Taylor's Version) will be another step in a different direction. I think she's smart and likes to keep people guessing, knowing most of her fanbase will stick around.

[lynnsmith]

It's 2024 and this video aged like a fine wine

[AlaCooper]

Here's my thoughts:

I got really into Taylor after Evermore. I'd denied myself the pleasure of actually enjoying her music because I was a bit of a snob in some ways.
But Evermore won my heart and she won me over.
I was also genuinely hoping for more of a Dessner influence over this album. Honestly I also miss some of her Max Martin sounds too, but I know they won't be collaborating again soon (such a shame because I felt like some of this album could have been improved with his intervention). I remember a long-time Swiftie once saying Max is one of the few people that isn't a yes man around her.
Antonoff has produced some of my favourite tracks of hers so I can't say anything against their collaboration on this album, but having some variety in producers would have been nice.

On first listen this album was kind of monotonous, but I came to appreciate the slight differences between the tracks.
And yes this album was a sort of retread on what her old work was like, but I think that was sort of the point. It genuinely was an album that rewards her fans. Fans that know her back stories, the stories behind her older song etc. Yes the tracks can stand on their own, but knowing the context of these new songs (looking back on a failed relationship in hindsight almost a decade after it ended for e.g.) adds a layer to the listening experience. There are even multiple call-backs to her earlier sounds (like the "I remember" you pointed out being a big one people noticed), so that's another added bonus for her fans, especially the ones that have been with her over the years.

And honestly, in a way yes Taylor really is on top. No denying that. But I kind of still get the underdog narrative. She still gets written off by people when it comes to her technical skills. Yes some critics liked this album, but some didn't and I do feel like quite a few of these songs age well over time. Just like Red had a score revision years after its release.

Also Taylor is coming for that EGOT. She's not gonna slow down until she wins all 4.... maybe then she'll gun for a Pulitzer or something

[sharifhaason]

For the run of songs in the middle that are all in C major, all of those songs are midnights from before she met her current boyfriend Joe Alwyn. YOYOK is a memoir track which goes over her issues of her own identity in her life, and then the next five songs are all about her past. "Midnight Rain" is about a crush from her hometown, "Question...?" is about meeting a random guy at a party (1989 era), "Vigilante Shit" is about getting revenge on her haters (reputation era), "Bejeweled" is about her "cheating" on Tom Hiddleston (also reputation era), and "Labyrinth" is about her falling in love with Joe Alwyn. Karma is a different key because it represents a midnight in the present day, where she's enjoying her "karma".

[TheRegiTrio]

As she wrote herself, the songs are all based on thoughts she had past midnight and I think anyone can have similar feelings and thoughts at midnight if you're overthinking about love, friendship, hard battles and revenge so I don't think its a case of saying "Why is she writing a song when she has basically won" because its her mind that is overthinking things. To us, she has won because we would compare her to Kanye/Scooter but we don't know how her brain is thinking about these things. She could be comparing herself to her idols or just thinking pessimistically about what "winning" means.

[vialivialiviali]

I think the main thing you're forgetting is all these songs weren't written after the releases of folklore/evermore. In a way this album is Taylor going back and looking at her past. Even tho there were some recent events she talked about (mostly in the more upbeat songs), it was an album very much focused on the past and past events, and you can feel it in her writing. Since I'm not Taylor, I can't say anything for sure, but I don't feel like her next album will be as focused on her past. She seems rather happy with herself and I (and many other swifties) feel as though she's pretty much moved on from her past. To me, Midnights feels like Taylor's personal time capsule.
[edit : someone commented that the sogns were actually written after folklore/evermore, couldn't find the source tho so I don't know if it's true but I felt I should add that. Even so the album is still focused on the past and that production, lyricism and other stylistic choices all show that]

[rominavinas]

Interesting, very interesting. As a swiftie myself, I completely agree with you, It does feel like repeating the cycle. And I'm having fun with it, reminiscing and re-living. I like Taylor's music because it makes me feel like i'm not the only one who feels how I feel, I'm going to loose my shit when Speak Now it's announced.

It's very cool that you see it that way, and I completely understand, like completely. I thought the same but got excited)? and that's why I really liked this video, a new perspective and so fresh as always.

[johnsheam]

Super interesting video Mr. The Snare!! Listening to this album, the thing that was most present in my mind is "where does someone as big as Taylor Swift go from here?" And I think its going to be a while - and a few more "Taylor's Versions" before we actually see Taylor more her music forward.

[Forkaround]

“Be new to us, be young to us, but only in a new way and only in the way we want, ” she said. “And reinvent yourself, but only in a way that we find to be equally comforting but also a challenge for you. Live out a narrative that we find to be interesting enough to entertain us, but not so crazy that it makes us uncomfortable.”

[hannahj]

I appreciate your takes, even when I disagree (I think the bitterness is a function of going through her back catalog for the re recording process so it doesn’t bother me, plus it’s tempered by a lot of other emotions throughout the album)! I’ve watched all your TSwift videos and I get the impression that *overall* her music is generally not to your taste (and the discourse that follows her is VERY MUCH not to your taste) but that you have an appreciation for the things she is good at, and you give her credit when she does them well. It just feels very…normal? Like a NORMAL way to talk about an artist you like sometimes but don’t absolutely love, basically I wish more of the internet was like this channel 😂

[Natalie-syzs]

You know the day is going to be good when mic the snare uploads

[likeadevils]

i think the middle run (actually the entire back half of the album) is semi-chronological. you’re on your own kid and midnight rain can be seen as two sides of her learning how to be single in the 1989 era, one at the start of that journey one in the middle of it, question is reflecting on her relationship with harry styles (she also reuses the ah ah ahhhs from ootw in the chorus if you listen closely) and also is what happens when you get two midnight rains in a relationship with each other, vigilante shit is her tendency to start/stay in fights, another thing that got out a smidge out of hand towards the end of the 1989 era, bejeweled is partially about her leaving calvin harris in 2016, and labyrinth is about her falling in love with joe during the fallout. so imo the first four songs set up dominant themes and then the rest of the standard album is in more or less chronological order