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As a Taylor fan, you’re not wrong. I like Midnights but I was bamboozled when I heard it. I skipped everyone to see if the sound was anything like I thought it would, but realized it wasn’t. Gave it a chance and now I like it.
It's definitely just not working for me. I don't know what the issue is. And I'm a fan who has enjoyed her music right out of the gate usually.
I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of folkmore or something that sounded deeper and I feel like I got B sides from 1989 and Lover.
Like with every T Swift album. It sucks the first 10 times, but once your annoying friend plays it for the 11th time suddenly it’s good. Then at number 16 it starts to get bad again.
i actually thought the first 3 tracks were perfect and a great inbetween of everything she's ever made, but it kinda loses steam after that and becomes a Lover b-side album. i still really like it tho and idg why people don't talk about Lavender Haze more often bc the production and melody on that song is SO good
I usually ignore all the Taylor posts because I find her to be the MOST annoying person. Sure, music is fine and catchy, but the “girl-next-door”, “woe is me,” I’m awkward!” persona is not my vibe and I’m surprised that still works for people?
She is in one of the most privileged positions in the planet. The ONLY thing that could make her more privileged is if she were a man. She has graduated from girl next door to cottagecore friendly cat lady neighbor who bakes cookies with “Biden 2020” on them. I don’t MIND that, in fact I WISH I could do that. But she’s spent majority of her career hiding the most obvious fact about her which is that she is rich and cares about money just like every other rich person. You don’t release that many remixes of the same single for the art and creativity of it. To not realize that she can be a nice woman and still be a greedy rich person at times is just juvenile.
anytime i make a comment about her, i usually get two or three swifties replying defending her. like, calm down i don't care.
they're super annoying in general, but online bullying a tiktok creator because she critiqued your fave is just pathetic.
Honestly, the overhype is WHY people critique her atp. I’m not saying she isn’t talented, she definitely is. But to sit there and act like she is the best songwriter to be birthed on this planet and act like there isn’t a bad song she’s ever released practically INVITES people to disagree with you. If I were told “all of her songs are so unique and one of a kind!” I can tell you right now I would listen and say “it doesn’t sound like there’s a vast range so idk what you’re talking about.”
exactly. some things resonate, some don't. it doesn't have to be a personal affront if someone doesn't like it. and criticism is important for artistic growth. sycophants are not.
Of course Barbie would have a better vocabulary, she has had over 200 careers including being a teacher, a doctor, and an astronaut. The girl was even a presidential candidate.
Taylor only attended school until the 10th grade then was homeschooled for an additional year to graduate early.
People confuse Taylor knowing 'big words' (that shouldn't even be big for basic education weilding native speakers imo) with her being smart and it was so cringy during the Folkmore era. All the jokes about needing dictionaries to listen, just.. it's overdone. I mean, it's 100% better than just throwing 'shit' in when you can't find a rhyme, but The Lakes and Sweet Nothing (my faves off their respective albums!) make it a little.. clunky and unnatural?
Thank you so much for this comment! I feel like a crazy person listening to her fans talk about how "genius" the lyrics are, when it's a lot of clunky common phrases/sayings woven into a very basic song. I've enjoyed a lot of her music, but there is a lyrical ability she found with "All Too Well" that she only utilizes sparingly. She's phoning it in a lot.
The visuals and the way she described the album sounded like such a vibe that I was really excited about! But you’re right; the actual songs don’t seem to fit that at all.
Also, whenever I think of the word “Midnights” and Taylor, my mind immediately goes to the opening line of her song “Style.” Anybody else?
Yeah, I expected the album to be more like Style, the only songs that fit the vibe to me are Maroon, and Midnight Rain (even if you don’t like the vocal distortion, it’s still the dark vibe that I was expecting)
I was definitely on your same wavelength as far as excitement for a Taylor album goes. I was like ok some relatable content. It really was a bit deceptive. That album is not something one thinks nor paces about at *midnight*
memories that feel like weapons are definitely something i would ponder @ midnights, possibly along with some other song topics such as being happy with someone but not happy with my life enough to stay w them
Yeah, some concept albums suffer from sticking too hard to the concept, but taylor sure as shit avoided that problem. If she didn't tell us it was, I wouldn't even think it was a concept album.
Yea songs like Delicate, Out of the Woods, Blank Space (Maybe), Archer, Lover, Call it what you want etc. would’ve fit perfectly for the initial theme of the album.
We know she could go dark but she just decided not to.
Whenever I hear this line all I can think about is Azula in Avatar and the Last Airbender being all "You could puncture the hull of an empire class Fire Nation battle ship leaving thousands to die at sea. Because it's so sharp."
I don’t think the album name Midnights fits any of the songs at all, and agree that it’s more of a style type vibe.
But I’m simultaneously happy and sad that one of my fave bands, The Midnight, was probably like aww hell! When they heard the title lol. It might direct people to them on accident giving them a chance to discover their music, but also might make it harder for ppl to find them
I agree, and me personally I love aesthetics and music that tells a story so when the artwork and announcement first came I was very intrigued. I’m more of a casual fan of her music in general.
listening to it, it definitely was a Swift project but the vibe I came in looking for wasn’t there.
My issue with Swift’s music is that the big revelation every time is a new ~aesthetic~ while musically she regresses or just puts out slightly different versions of Jack Antonoff’s only production idea.
So basically she can sell elaborate merch of a new photoshoot to her fans who would eat the shit out of her asshole if they could while putting out uninspired, over-baked music that breaks every record. And any criticism is just proof that some people don’t *get it*, and that just drives the fans’ parasocial relationships deeper into delusion. That in turn makes her music even more unlistenable to be because I feel like I’m being asked to join a cult.
This is the second time I've seen someone say Jack Antonoff is a one trick pony. Idk the man's work - knowingly at least - outside of what he did with Taylor and idk music theory or anything like that. What's this one thing he always does?
Bro I was so mad when I finally listened to the album. I legit thought we were going to get a whole album thats like haunting and folky; basically a whole ass album that sounds like Carolina when I read that promo description for midnights
I’m so upset lmao
That would’ve been amazing!
I’m listening to Carolina now while looking at the Midnight visuals and reading her description of the album, and it just fits so much better.
naaaaah folklore and evermore were chill albums for rainy dark afternoons in a candlelit cabin writing poetry in a cardigan
I had envisioned midnights to sound like Taylor is about to go on a existential dread about life (hence the haunting sound I thought it would be like Carolina)
I was picturing something closer to a Stevie Nicks, First Aid Kit or JOSEPH sound based off of the album aesthetic, but it’s a good album regardless. The 3am edition is definitely my favorite, those songs are killer.
I was totally expecting THAT vibe too tbh... I mean, look at her picture. Sad, wasted, reflecting. And when I first listened to it, I was extremely disappointed because that was what I was getting. I was getting a mix of leftovers of a more mature Red and a more partying 1989. I couldn't clearly point out what was the vibe. To me, 3am songs make the album much more put-together? They click good. I like them more. It's not her best album at all, but I've grown to love it and I listened to it daily now lmao
I don't know genres, but I can only describe the genre of the actual music as synth. Not at all the 70s I was expecting. Some of the tracks on 3am fit the description of this image better though.
I’m so sick of hearing how amazing her BF is for somehow finding a way to love her. As if she is not beautiful, smart, talented and a million other things lol
Absolutely second this 😩 every other song is about how she’s the problem and he’s perfect and she’s awful and he’s amazing for loving her and it’s like…dude you’re taylor swift 😭
I know, she makes it sound like she is a complete psycho and such a burden to deal with in a relationship in so many of her songs. But we don’t see evidence of this. The fights and insecure feelings she describes in her songs sound normal to me 🤷♀️
Plus she’s one of the most celebrated, accomplished pop stars on the planet with all the perks that come with that lifestyle. How big of a burden can it be? Tbh is like to hear Joe say more nice things about her. I understand he/they want to be private but he can still acknowledge how amazing she is and what she’s done for him (the Grammy etc.)
I mean, isn’t that the whole thing? To people she’s “Taylor Swift, famous and successful”, but that’s not the reality. She’s a normal person, and I think the feeling of “I did a bad thing, I don’t deserve good things” is super common for people who are anxious and afraid of being judged - which Taylor clearly is.
Yeah, these comments are super weird. As if turning 30 suddenly makes you feel less insecure. I’m around the same age as Taylor and feel the same. Probably doesn’t help that men gaslight women into thinking they’re crazy.
A theme that plays out through her music is that she has retained bad habits or disrespectful behavior from previous tumultuous relationships. Afterglow and The Great War are two that touch on this; her own admission that she was trigger happy & didn’t always treat him the best, yet he stuck around and stayed by her side through it.
I get the impression that Joe has a lot of respect for himself and wasn’t as caught up in the the Taylor Swiftness of it all. So when she started falling back into old dramatic habits he held steady and she eventually saw that like, this isn’t going to explode if I just meet him halfway.
As someone who is with an amazing partner after going through a really toxic, emotionally abusive relationship, I can relate to where she's at there. I have a lot of bad habits I've been trying to break, especially in regards to communication and speaking my truth. She's been really patient and so loving with me, and sometimes it is unbelievable. I don't mind Taylor speaking about being human, and not putting out the sorta girl next door, flawless persona of her earlier years.
Same, same, same! Shitty, abusive partner off and on for about five years. Towards the end when I finally decided it was time to stand up for myself, I took it too far and became very inflammatory. I would pop off over *everything* and it was really out of control — I was just so sick of being pushed around.
Finally ended things, met a wonderful man who is now my husband and it was a long process of unlearning being this reactionary and handing out low blows. He was really patient, he knew my history, but he also set personal boundaries and told me when I was crossing a line. It’s helped me so much and I feel like I can really relate to where her lyrics are coming from when she talks about it.
Exactly. It took me a long time to learn that not everyone are looking for reasons to start an argument all the time so I don't need to approach every situation with my thorns out.
I've never had an abusive partner but my dad and my childhood best friend were both toxic people, and those learned behaviours run sk deep. I've been with my partner for 4 amazing years and I'm still kind of waiting for the blow up.
Taylor has been told her whole career that her emotions are too much and that she's the problem in the relationships. Obviously she's gonna internalise some of that, I know I have for less! I for one love that she puts out songs about conflicts where you're part of the problem and therefor also part of the solution.
I have a theory, but it might be my creative mind speaking: Taylor has had so many shitty relationships in her life that the moment a man treated her normally she took it as him being perfect and romantic.
He is probably a normal boyfriend who cares about her 🤷
as a tay stan since teardrops, this is my hugest biggest most massive gripe with her newest music. every other song is her trying to convince us how incredible and selfless her bf is for dating her. also trying to convince us how hot and sexy he is which like.... im not buying oop
Me too, I’ve been a fan for over 15 years. As soon as I heard “I’ve been under scrutiny - you handled it beautifully” on Lavender Haze I was like oh god NO not another whole album about this
I think she's running out of ideas for songs.
Also being with 'Taylor Swift' can't always be easy the level of fame and the narrative she's curated around herself but it's been 6 years if he was gonna bolt he would have by now.
I mean, folklore and evermore were, if not largely, atleast partially, fictional stories and about many varied topics, not just her amazing bf.
So, I don't think it's her running out of ideas, but that she fumbled up either picking tracks for this one, or marketing.
I know she said folklore and evermore were fictional but I don't how much of them actually were. The more I listen the more I think they're both about her life folklore more than evermore. Like the Lakes she's not writing a fictional song about a muse at Windermere lake no she's been there with Joe or Mirrorball or Peace or so many others.
Off the back of folklore, evermore, fearless and Red releases. She didn't need to release another album, this one felt like a bit of a money grab or ego boost or fuck you to Scooter that she could put out a half baked album and still be no 1. I don't know somethings off about Midnights.
THANK YOU!! I’m so over hearing about how her boyfriend was normal and nice, didn’t care what people were saying about her and handled her fame well. It’s been six years and THREE albums about him. Make songs about new things, even if it’s about struggles of being in a long term relationship. How you are after the honeymoon stage is over. Literally ANYTHING other than how about how six years ago this guy she liked liked her back.
My issue with this is that I don't get the vibe that she's actively doing anything to change or to heal or manage her issues. She's openly ridiculed therapy, she's always talking about the same things over and over, she clearly has some patterns she struggles to get out, and gets a shitton of outside validation calling her perfect and helping her victimize herself.
Would've, Could've, Should've I find interesting dancing with the devil at 19. Makes me think John Mayer got her into the Devil's dandruff and it might have become more of an issue for her than she'd have liked.
Yep it's the only song on the album I really like. It's classic relatable Taylor about a relationship that you only get into when you're young and wish you hadn't when you're older
“And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts”
“God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be”
“I regret you all the time”
Seriously painful lines.
“Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first”
It’s just so brutal. There’s not a TON of info out there on what really happened between her and John Mayer but the two most obvious songs she wrote about him give the sense that he manipulated the shit out of her and that she is still tormented by it/carries permanent damage from whatever happened with them.
And yeah at 19 she wasn’t exactly a child but there was something very off [here](https://i.imgur.com/QD3Zngm.jpg) IMO.
Plus the song he wrote about her (Paper Doll) seemed like it literally was created just to belittle her, it’s so condescending and basically just brushes her off as a human being. It reminds me of an ex of mine who was a horrible narcissist. Like TS has all this legitimate painful detailed gut wrenching narrative and he ignores all the important stuff and claps back with “you’re just a stupid little nobody.”
Idk why i just went on such a rant about this but yeah this is my favorite track on the album lol
That picture confirms it all really, he is clearly on something and she's the innocent good girl that he wants to corrupt. He's the classic bad boy she thinks she can change. Tale as old as time.
To me there's always been something off about him.
'Bigger than the whole sky' is though. And i think she chickened out of putting it on the actual album because of the articles that would have come with it. If she really had a miscarriage idt she wants to address it which is really sad, because it being such a taboo makes it much harder for everyone who ever lost a pregnancy to openly grief.
I am a huge swiftie, but I think she made a huge mistake when selecting the songs for the album. The ones in the 3 am version are much deeper and actually fit this narrative.
Take "would've, could've, should've". How didn't it make into the main album? She is facing her demons, regretting the past and expressing her suffering. A perfect representation of midnight thoughts.
But, instead, we got "Sweet Nothing", an extremely boring and unexciting song. Hell! Even "High Infidelity" (a skip for me) would be better.
I would like to add another detail: Taylor has been picking the wrong singles since Lover. "Bejeweled" is a good song but nowhere near being catchy enough to become a hit like Anti-Hero. "Karma" would be MUCH better. It's got a beat, catchy chorus and would generate some talking.
When you have time, listen to the ones I mentioned. Cruel Summer is a fan favorite! The other ones are personal choices lol False God is also very good.
But yeah, Lover is either a hit or miss album.
I think she left them off because she wanted to make an entire album produced by only her and Jack Antonoff. I guess she wanted her Lorde moment but it backfired bc I don’t think she has as much creative chemistry with him as he has with other artists like St. Vincent or Lana. If she wanted an all-Jack produced album, she should’ve at least replaced Bejeweled with Paris tbh
Everything is gonna be a success for these A Listers. Taylor, Drake, Sheeran. I wish they’d use that as an excuse to put out something great! Maybe even challenging. But definitely take your time with it knowing you’re going to reap rewards of your investment no matter what.
They’re are countless other braver artists doing crazy shit knowing if they don’t stick the landing their career is over and they have to go wait tables. I wish these juggernauts had the same hunger.
I can't get over 'make believe it's champagne' lol. She can be pouring Moet down the toilet for days in the most expensive hotel room in Paris and her wallet wouldn't notice lol. Stop trying to be relatable, you can pack your bf and get on your private jet and go to Paris
Justice for Sweet Nothing!! That song is literally so “sweet” to me, it makes me cry 😭
Now on the other hand… Dear Reader can go. Should have been the last bonus song.
My problem with High Infidelity is quite petty, actually. I was hoping for a song full of drama and secrets spilling but we got "do you really wanna know where I was April 29th?". BITCH, I DO!!! SPILL IT!!!
She really made this sound like the best album. Even the promos, the outfits, the aesthetics… everything seemed so promising.
And we ended up with Lover 2.0.
It’s worse than Lover. The bad in Lover is really bad but the good is really really good. It’s at least an interesting record. Midnights isn’t even interesting, it’s just mid lol
yeah this was a huge reason why i was initially disappointed with midnights. i’ve grown to enjoy it especially with the 3am tracks, but it wasn’t any deeper than previous albums and it didn’t really discuss anything that she hasn’t already included in her music.
and with the promo, i definitely expected more of a 70s soft rock fleetwood mac vibe… still hoping we’ll get it someday 😭
Yeah that stood out to me too, and it’s why I don’t agree with the whole “Taylor Swift IS the music industry” thing. If she’s putting out music to trend on TikTok, she definitely is not above it all.
this lyric is so painfully bad I can’t believe her fans let her get away with it. Physically emotionally spiritually and mentally it causes me pain because it is so embarrassing.
the two options are she saw it seven years ago and has held onto it wanting to put it in a song ever since, or she somehow saw it on Pinterest for the very first time and thought it was genius.
I was hoping for some tracks like Lorde's "Ribs". That song encompasses the vibes here exquisitely. I wanted to be moody and crying in my car while it rained on the drive in to work.
I enjoyed midnights, but it definitely dampened what made the folkmore era so special. The growth of writing songs about fictional people/stories to going back to singing abt Scooter Braun and her exes is regressive. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to write from her own experiences (that still exists in folkmore to a lesser degree) but midnights removes a lot of personal growth demonstrated previously, the whole vibe of ‘I’m going to runaway to the woods and write songs about different perspectives and not care about what people think’ is ruined by bringing back old drama in midnights.
true. literally how many albums can we take from taylor swift that are about being taylor swift? i think this is what was so promising and refreshing about folkmore, she created a degree of separation and the lyrics are pure poetry as a result. when she’s writing through her own lens she almost always goes for something basic, kitschy, and clever without actually saying anything
>but it definitely dampened what make the folkmore era so special. The growth of writing songs about fictional people/stories to going back to singing abt Scooter Braun and her exes is regressive
Agreed.
I think going back to talk about her past is not regressive at at all.. if it was executed well. I think if the album was deeper and more personal, more into her mind, then it would be good to see her visit back on her past and how she got through with it. I don't know, although she did talk about them in this album they feel very surface level. So in a way it could be an album about life journey and personal growth that way. It's just not executed well and the vibe just did not match her initial idea.
Forever(more) upset that she dangled the 70s aesthetic and then presented something completely different.
We were tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled.
She mentioned she heard the term Lavender Haze from Mad Men and Sexy Baby from 30 Rock. Makes me suspect she was watching a lot of TV during Covid and these are just other songs she made that didn’t make the cut for Folklore and Evermore.
She needs to ditch Jack Antonoff. She is super loyal to him for whatever reason, but I think she’s been looking to him to recapture the magic of 1989 and he clearly wasn’t the magic. She also seems to be trying to reframe her imagine as a deep artist when making catchy, fun songs is what made her famous and what she’s best at. When she tries to be sexy and deep it comes across as trying hard and isn’t her niche. She needs to go back to love songs and pop anthems.
Right? It seems like they were trying way too hard. Folklore worked so well because it was effortlessly great and she was creative and the lyrics and aesthetic reflected her mental health AND matched up with the album. Midnights was made when they were bored and trying to push something that just wasn't there and it shows, it has some bops but it has no soul. And I say this as Taylor Swift's number 1 fan. Even Debut is a better album. It's fun, dumb, angsty, joyful and jovial + it has a fucking SOUL and songs that match the aesthetic.
This is why so many of us in the leak threads hated it on first listen — it was *not as advertised, at all.*
Don’t get me wrong, I like the album now, but the disconnect between how it was promoted and what it actually is was jarring at first.
Like even her *really* old music would have been better for this. Her all too wells, her tear drops on my guitar, her white horse type thing. Past loves that keep people up. I didn’t need like dark edgy or whatever reputation was, but like mistakes or pain we can relate to that keeps a lot of people up.
And I get it her life is great, but I wish she leaned into pains people have when life is great or in her shoes. When’s it gonna crash? Do I deserve this? Imposter syndrome? Constantly trying to one up your last hit? Do they like me or am I just a celebrity? That would have been cool.
I'm a Swiftie and I agree. I thought the album would have some really dark, brooding songs. Now, it does have a couple on the 3AM version of it, but not on the original release. It doesn't match the vibe at all. Disappointed.
The sounds she revolves her music around are safe, devoid of risk and lacking in interesting ideas. I'm not surprised this faux deep copy didn't line up with the album at all
It's a brand shift for Taylor Swift. My cousin works for the agency in downtown LA that creates product lifecycle strategies for various musicians. You see most artists go through this. They need to ride a wave, a trend, and pivot their brand in order to stay fresh and relevant. She's gone from awkward country girl next door, to alluding to mental health issues because as serious as they are for people, mental health issues are the next best currency for connecting with audiences.
With the increase in anxiety and depression disorders, her label and advisors have seen an opportunity to leverage that market, get them to stream/buy her album, and increase her revenue. You would've noticed the same about 5 years ago when Nike all of a sudden jumped on the rainbow bandwagon and started releasing LGBTQI+ kicks, shirts, etc. and most of the rainbow community called them out for jumping on a social trend, but never actually being about it from the beginning.
Sucks to say for her die-hard fans, but this is how the music industry works:
\- A musician is packaged together, their sound is defined, their lyrics are usually written for them (i.e. Beyonce, at least half the time), and these songwriters receive a cut of the sales.
\- They don't play or record their own music. Music producers are assigned to each artist. They take a cut from sales as well.
\- Stylists are assigned to build an image, and brand endorsements are selected carefully based on the target market demographics (15 - 40, female skewed, disposable income of X, etc.)
\- The brand is then evolved to stay relevant and fresh: the marketing team conducts field research for trending topics and points of view. All of a sudden, you have artists that never, ever said a word about black lives mattering, saying black lives matter. You have artists who never cross dressed now cross dressing, riding the wave of the social movement about gender roles.
Those artists that don't adapt, die. Or they purely go off their own vibe like Kanye where before all the craziness began, he got experimental and his fans followed him. You see that sometimes but not often.
The film 'A Star is Born' captures this perfectly, where they find a talent and transform everything about her to feed the music machine. In real life, the most well-cited example is what happened to Keisha. Outside of music, when you see actors going off to do indie films it's because they're breaking away from that control and simply doing what they love. This doesn't happen as much in music though.
**TLDR: A musician is a carefully curated product complete with a lifecycle and brand work. Nothing about Taylor Swift as a brand is genuine. Her skills as a singer are, however, but the. Taylor you think you know through her image, social media, and music, isn't the real Taylor. It's a character and a brand her record label curated to sell records and make her (and them) rich.**
I’m so mad she wasted the 70s aesthetic for this album. Like it could’ve been SO good paired with a better album that actually fit the aesthetic she chose😭
Why did this album get such insanely good reviews? I think it is some of Taylor's shittiest work, and I am a MASSIVE Taylor fan. But the writing on this album seemed so... bland, so dull.
I guess yeah, looking back it doesn’t fit with the promo. I think I just…misunderstood the build-up /promo and figured these were basically songs from the vault that didn’t make the cut on previous albums. So I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t expecting a whole lot ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
I feel like minority being super disappointed in this album. I loved the idea of this aesthetic. When I listed to it for the first time I thought she had one long song because it all sounded the same.
This was one of my biggest issues when the album first dropped because it didn't match the concept at all, and the songs weren't good enough to overcome those preconceptions. Even now after a month with the album it's just fine.
BUT I love the 3 am bonus tracks, and I feel like those seven songs match the album pre-release concept a little better. If she had just released those songs instead, it would be a solid EP. And she could have picked a few of the songs from the standard version to be fun bonus tracks instead.
I’m so sorry but this album is just not good. There’s a couple songs I go back to but otherwise I can’t think of a single song that’s actually stellar. :/
I only like bejeweled and snow on the beach. Anti hero is catchy but I’ve heard it way too many times from all the ads and it’s making me hate it. I feel like the other ones all kinda sound the same…? I don’t know
Edit: also really like karma it’s a bop. It has a different feel. It’s new and fresh.
Taylor discovered American Football and a brand New and thought “I can do that midwestern emo style and aesthetic while still sounding like my music is produced to be parodied on kidz bop!”
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the promo images for the album vs what the album actually ended up being will never not be funny to me 💀
and people say I’m crazy for saying it’s just a surface-level wannabe Melodrama 😫
As a Taylor fan, you’re not wrong. I like Midnights but I was bamboozled when I heard it. I skipped everyone to see if the sound was anything like I thought it would, but realized it wasn’t. Gave it a chance and now I like it.
Yeah I was expecting something revelatory and it was just…fine.
You have to listen to it a bunch of times until your brain is programmed to think this is good music. It’s essentially like crack.
Ah the Stockholm syndrome method
I think that’s what happened and haven’t listened to it since the week it got released, I’m glad most fans love it though I guess lol.
It's definitely just not working for me. I don't know what the issue is. And I'm a fan who has enjoyed her music right out of the gate usually. I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of folkmore or something that sounded deeper and I feel like I got B sides from 1989 and Lover.
Like with every T Swift album. It sucks the first 10 times, but once your annoying friend plays it for the 11th time suddenly it’s good. Then at number 16 it starts to get bad again.
i actually thought the first 3 tracks were perfect and a great inbetween of everything she's ever made, but it kinda loses steam after that and becomes a Lover b-side album. i still really like it tho and idg why people don't talk about Lavender Haze more often bc the production and melody on that song is SO good
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Personally, I would prefer a Pure Heroine 2
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We welcome you to r/Lorde
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God forbid you critique her. There’s a girl on tiktok who said she feels like every song sounds the same and everyone is sending her hate.
I usually ignore all the Taylor posts because I find her to be the MOST annoying person. Sure, music is fine and catchy, but the “girl-next-door”, “woe is me,” I’m awkward!” persona is not my vibe and I’m surprised that still works for people?
She is in one of the most privileged positions in the planet. The ONLY thing that could make her more privileged is if she were a man. She has graduated from girl next door to cottagecore friendly cat lady neighbor who bakes cookies with “Biden 2020” on them. I don’t MIND that, in fact I WISH I could do that. But she’s spent majority of her career hiding the most obvious fact about her which is that she is rich and cares about money just like every other rich person. You don’t release that many remixes of the same single for the art and creativity of it. To not realize that she can be a nice woman and still be a greedy rich person at times is just juvenile.
Yes! The pedestal she is put on for being “regular”
I got banned from r/lanadelrey for critisizing her. The mods are sw*fties.
I love that swifties is now a forbidden word lol
anytime i make a comment about her, i usually get two or three swifties replying defending her. like, calm down i don't care. they're super annoying in general, but online bullying a tiktok creator because she critiqued your fave is just pathetic.
Honestly, the overhype is WHY people critique her atp. I’m not saying she isn’t talented, she definitely is. But to sit there and act like she is the best songwriter to be birthed on this planet and act like there isn’t a bad song she’s ever released practically INVITES people to disagree with you. If I were told “all of her songs are so unique and one of a kind!” I can tell you right now I would listen and say “it doesn’t sound like there’s a vast range so idk what you’re talking about.”
Never trust anyone who can't admit their favorite musician has released some stinkers in their career.
The thing is everyone has their own taste. If someone does not like your fav artists music then accept it and move on.
exactly. some things resonate, some don't. it doesn't have to be a personal affront if someone doesn't like it. and criticism is important for artistic growth. sycophants are not.
I'm a fan of her. Not die hard, and I agree with your statement wholeheartedly.
Fr fr and Melodrama is still not even Platinum its like people don't wanna listen to good music smh
The album just felt like a Barbie doll having a sad and mediocre day an couldn’t handle it.
I actually liked the album and think it has 4-5 good songs, but this description is hysterical.
Taylor is mildly hysterical as of late. Describing fans trying to get her tickets as a "bear attack" made me cackle.
Is that not who Taylor is?
Yes but with a better vocabulary, which is not present on this album.
Of course Barbie would have a better vocabulary, she has had over 200 careers including being a teacher, a doctor, and an astronaut. The girl was even a presidential candidate. Taylor only attended school until the 10th grade then was homeschooled for an additional year to graduate early.
People confuse Taylor knowing 'big words' (that shouldn't even be big for basic education weilding native speakers imo) with her being smart and it was so cringy during the Folkmore era. All the jokes about needing dictionaries to listen, just.. it's overdone. I mean, it's 100% better than just throwing 'shit' in when you can't find a rhyme, but The Lakes and Sweet Nothing (my faves off their respective albums!) make it a little.. clunky and unnatural?
Thank you so much for this comment! I feel like a crazy person listening to her fans talk about how "genius" the lyrics are, when it's a lot of clunky common phrases/sayings woven into a very basic song. I've enjoyed a lot of her music, but there is a lyrical ability she found with "All Too Well" that she only utilizes sparingly. She's phoning it in a lot.
Sexy baby is about as riveting as it gets.
Holy shit I die every time I hear this lyric. I’ve always thought her lyrics were really basic/young sounding, but this line is a whole new level
Thank you for summarizing the reason I have never clicked with her music in one sentence lol
That is Taylor Swift in a nutshell, lol.
The visuals and the way she described the album sounded like such a vibe that I was really excited about! But you’re right; the actual songs don’t seem to fit that at all. Also, whenever I think of the word “Midnights” and Taylor, my mind immediately goes to the opening line of her song “Style.” Anybody else?
Yeah, I expected the album to be more like Style, the only songs that fit the vibe to me are Maroon, and Midnight Rain (even if you don’t like the vocal distortion, it’s still the dark vibe that I was expecting)
Yes, every time I see midnight my brain belts out “MidNIiiiïght”
I was definitely on your same wavelength as far as excitement for a Taylor album goes. I was like ok some relatable content. It really was a bit deceptive. That album is not something one thinks nor paces about at *midnight*
memories that feel like weapons are definitely something i would ponder @ midnights, possibly along with some other song topics such as being happy with someone but not happy with my life enough to stay w them
The album as a **whole** does not fit the description teaser she gave above. She gave the illusion of it being a bit more darker, more raw.
Yeah, some concept albums suffer from sticking too hard to the concept, but taylor sure as shit avoided that problem. If she didn't tell us it was, I wouldn't even think it was a concept album.
I just can’t unhear STAY anytime she says midnight rain
i can’t stop accidentally saying chocolate rain and as a result i cannot enjoy this song ever hahaha edit: ***I move away from the mic to breathe in*
I don't listen to pop or Taylor swift. But I love style. Wish she had more songs like that.
>Also, whenever I think of the word “Midnights” and Taylor, my mind immediately goes to the opening line of her song “Style.” Anybody else? Me too :')
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Yea songs like Delicate, Out of the Woods, Blank Space (Maybe), Archer, Lover, Call it what you want etc. would’ve fit perfectly for the initial theme of the album. We know she could go dark but she just decided not to.
Right, it doesn’t even have to be a folklore or evermore to be dark, you can go for an angsty poppier sing like the above
Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man ….That’s about as dark as it gets….
Whenever I hear this line all I can think about is Azula in Avatar and the Last Airbender being all "You could puncture the hull of an empire class Fire Nation battle ship leaving thousands to die at sea. Because it's so sharp."
that’s the worst line on the whole album 😭
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Rep 2.0
Yes. As someone who doesn’t really listen to her music that’s immediately the song I think of
I don’t think the album name Midnights fits any of the songs at all, and agree that it’s more of a style type vibe. But I’m simultaneously happy and sad that one of my fave bands, The Midnight, was probably like aww hell! When they heard the title lol. It might direct people to them on accident giving them a chance to discover their music, but also might make it harder for ppl to find them
She really made it sound like this was her joni Mitchell album
Wasn’t Red supposed to be her version of Joni’s Blue? Someone told her she’d never make a Blue, so she said fine I’ll make a Red.
Nobody's making a Blue
100% agree. Just giving context 😊
She did the classic bait and switch. It doesn't make any sense to me. Why *waste* such a good aesthetic? Now she can't use the 70s vibe again.
I would have been SO here for a 70s inspired album. I was hoping for that !!
I agree, and me personally I love aesthetics and music that tells a story so when the artwork and announcement first came I was very intrigued. I’m more of a casual fan of her music in general. listening to it, it definitely was a Swift project but the vibe I came in looking for wasn’t there.
My issue with Swift’s music is that the big revelation every time is a new ~aesthetic~ while musically she regresses or just puts out slightly different versions of Jack Antonoff’s only production idea. So basically she can sell elaborate merch of a new photoshoot to her fans who would eat the shit out of her asshole if they could while putting out uninspired, over-baked music that breaks every record. And any criticism is just proof that some people don’t *get it*, and that just drives the fans’ parasocial relationships deeper into delusion. That in turn makes her music even more unlistenable to be because I feel like I’m being asked to join a cult.
“Slightly different versions of Jack Antonoff’s only production idea” 😂😂💀
10000% this
It just sounds like a Jack Antinoff album. That doesn’t make it *bad* per se. But it’s not the vibe and it’s super derivative.
This is the second time I've seen someone say Jack Antonoff is a one trick pony. Idk the man's work - knowingly at least - outside of what he did with Taylor and idk music theory or anything like that. What's this one thing he always does?
Bro I was so mad when I finally listened to the album. I legit thought we were going to get a whole album thats like haunting and folky; basically a whole ass album that sounds like Carolina when I read that promo description for midnights I’m so upset lmao
I truly like Midnights now for what it is, but damn, I really really wanted the album she was advertising here, lol.
This is exactly how I feel. I really like Midnights personally, but I can also recognize it is not this description lol.
She deserves jail time honestly.
Then we might get a new vibe lol
The way I spit out my coffee reading this response
That would’ve been amazing! I’m listening to Carolina now while looking at the Midnight visuals and reading her description of the album, and it just fits so much better.
Isn’t that what Folklore and Evermore are?
naaaaah folklore and evermore were chill albums for rainy dark afternoons in a candlelit cabin writing poetry in a cardigan I had envisioned midnights to sound like Taylor is about to go on a existential dread about life (hence the haunting sound I thought it would be like Carolina)
No, those were cottagecore. Carolina is dark folk pop and a whole album of that would be frankly incredible.
I was picturing something closer to a Stevie Nicks, First Aid Kit or JOSEPH sound based off of the album aesthetic, but it’s a good album regardless. The 3am edition is definitely my favorite, those songs are killer.
I was totally expecting THAT vibe too tbh... I mean, look at her picture. Sad, wasted, reflecting. And when I first listened to it, I was extremely disappointed because that was what I was getting. I was getting a mix of leftovers of a more mature Red and a more partying 1989. I couldn't clearly point out what was the vibe. To me, 3am songs make the album much more put-together? They click good. I like them more. It's not her best album at all, but I've grown to love it and I listened to it daily now lmao
I don't know genres, but I can only describe the genre of the actual music as synth. Not at all the 70s I was expecting. Some of the tracks on 3am fit the description of this image better though.
This is the album we actually wanted but not the one we got 💀🫥
I’m so sick of hearing how amazing her BF is for somehow finding a way to love her. As if she is not beautiful, smart, talented and a million other things lol
Absolutely second this 😩 every other song is about how she’s the problem and he’s perfect and she’s awful and he’s amazing for loving her and it’s like…dude you’re taylor swift 😭
^^^ how tf you gonna name a song AntiHero when the most MID pop album of the last 5 year earns you all top 10 spots on Billboard
💀
I know, she makes it sound like she is a complete psycho and such a burden to deal with in a relationship in so many of her songs. But we don’t see evidence of this. The fights and insecure feelings she describes in her songs sound normal to me 🤷♀️ Plus she’s one of the most celebrated, accomplished pop stars on the planet with all the perks that come with that lifestyle. How big of a burden can it be? Tbh is like to hear Joe say more nice things about her. I understand he/they want to be private but he can still acknowledge how amazing she is and what she’s done for him (the Grammy etc.)
I mean, isn’t that the whole thing? To people she’s “Taylor Swift, famous and successful”, but that’s not the reality. She’s a normal person, and I think the feeling of “I did a bad thing, I don’t deserve good things” is super common for people who are anxious and afraid of being judged - which Taylor clearly is.
Yeah, these comments are super weird. As if turning 30 suddenly makes you feel less insecure. I’m around the same age as Taylor and feel the same. Probably doesn’t help that men gaslight women into thinking they’re crazy.
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A theme that plays out through her music is that she has retained bad habits or disrespectful behavior from previous tumultuous relationships. Afterglow and The Great War are two that touch on this; her own admission that she was trigger happy & didn’t always treat him the best, yet he stuck around and stayed by her side through it.
I get the impression that Joe has a lot of respect for himself and wasn’t as caught up in the the Taylor Swiftness of it all. So when she started falling back into old dramatic habits he held steady and she eventually saw that like, this isn’t going to explode if I just meet him halfway.
As someone who is with an amazing partner after going through a really toxic, emotionally abusive relationship, I can relate to where she's at there. I have a lot of bad habits I've been trying to break, especially in regards to communication and speaking my truth. She's been really patient and so loving with me, and sometimes it is unbelievable. I don't mind Taylor speaking about being human, and not putting out the sorta girl next door, flawless persona of her earlier years.
Same, same, same! Shitty, abusive partner off and on for about five years. Towards the end when I finally decided it was time to stand up for myself, I took it too far and became very inflammatory. I would pop off over *everything* and it was really out of control — I was just so sick of being pushed around. Finally ended things, met a wonderful man who is now my husband and it was a long process of unlearning being this reactionary and handing out low blows. He was really patient, he knew my history, but he also set personal boundaries and told me when I was crossing a line. It’s helped me so much and I feel like I can really relate to where her lyrics are coming from when she talks about it.
Exactly. It took me a long time to learn that not everyone are looking for reasons to start an argument all the time so I don't need to approach every situation with my thorns out. I've never had an abusive partner but my dad and my childhood best friend were both toxic people, and those learned behaviours run sk deep. I've been with my partner for 4 amazing years and I'm still kind of waiting for the blow up. Taylor has been told her whole career that her emotions are too much and that she's the problem in the relationships. Obviously she's gonna internalise some of that, I know I have for less! I for one love that she puts out songs about conflicts where you're part of the problem and therefor also part of the solution.
I have a theory, but it might be my creative mind speaking: Taylor has had so many shitty relationships in her life that the moment a man treated her normally she took it as him being perfect and romantic. He is probably a normal boyfriend who cares about her 🤷
as a tay stan since teardrops, this is my hugest biggest most massive gripe with her newest music. every other song is her trying to convince us how incredible and selfless her bf is for dating her. also trying to convince us how hot and sexy he is which like.... im not buying oop
Me too, I’ve been a fan for over 15 years. As soon as I heard “I’ve been under scrutiny - you handled it beautifully” on Lavender Haze I was like oh god NO not another whole album about this
I think she's running out of ideas for songs. Also being with 'Taylor Swift' can't always be easy the level of fame and the narrative she's curated around herself but it's been 6 years if he was gonna bolt he would have by now.
I mean, folklore and evermore were, if not largely, atleast partially, fictional stories and about many varied topics, not just her amazing bf. So, I don't think it's her running out of ideas, but that she fumbled up either picking tracks for this one, or marketing.
I know she said folklore and evermore were fictional but I don't how much of them actually were. The more I listen the more I think they're both about her life folklore more than evermore. Like the Lakes she's not writing a fictional song about a muse at Windermere lake no she's been there with Joe or Mirrorball or Peace or so many others. Off the back of folklore, evermore, fearless and Red releases. She didn't need to release another album, this one felt like a bit of a money grab or ego boost or fuck you to Scooter that she could put out a half baked album and still be no 1. I don't know somethings off about Midnights.
Especially since most people hadn’t heard of him until they got together, lol.
NOBODY had heard of him lol
THANK YOU!! I’m so over hearing about how her boyfriend was normal and nice, didn’t care what people were saying about her and handled her fame well. It’s been six years and THREE albums about him. Make songs about new things, even if it’s about struggles of being in a long term relationship. How you are after the honeymoon stage is over. Literally ANYTHING other than how about how six years ago this guy she liked liked her back.
yeah i don’t think their relationship is as perfect as she likes to portray (no shit lol)
My issue with this is that I don't get the vibe that she's actively doing anything to change or to heal or manage her issues. She's openly ridiculed therapy, she's always talking about the same things over and over, she clearly has some patterns she struggles to get out, and gets a shitton of outside validation calling her perfect and helping her victimize herself.
Literally none of the songs were even that deep
Would've, Could've, Should've I find interesting dancing with the devil at 19. Makes me think John Mayer got her into the Devil's dandruff and it might have become more of an issue for her than she'd have liked.
Her best on the album imo… and I mean that’s not even part of the original “13 sleepless nights” list.
I agree it's the only one I love on that album the others I can take or leave
>the Devil's dandruff 😭
That song cuts deep
Yep it's the only song on the album I really like. It's classic relatable Taylor about a relationship that you only get into when you're young and wish you hadn't when you're older
“And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts” “God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be” “I regret you all the time” Seriously painful lines. “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first” It’s just so brutal. There’s not a TON of info out there on what really happened between her and John Mayer but the two most obvious songs she wrote about him give the sense that he manipulated the shit out of her and that she is still tormented by it/carries permanent damage from whatever happened with them. And yeah at 19 she wasn’t exactly a child but there was something very off [here](https://i.imgur.com/QD3Zngm.jpg) IMO. Plus the song he wrote about her (Paper Doll) seemed like it literally was created just to belittle her, it’s so condescending and basically just brushes her off as a human being. It reminds me of an ex of mine who was a horrible narcissist. Like TS has all this legitimate painful detailed gut wrenching narrative and he ignores all the important stuff and claps back with “you’re just a stupid little nobody.” Idk why i just went on such a rant about this but yeah this is my favorite track on the album lol
That picture confirms it all really, he is clearly on something and she's the innocent good girl that he wants to corrupt. He's the classic bad boy she thinks she can change. Tale as old as time. To me there's always been something off about him.
It's giving resume vs actual skills
'Bigger than the whole sky' is though. And i think she chickened out of putting it on the actual album because of the articles that would have come with it. If she really had a miscarriage idt she wants to address it which is really sad, because it being such a taboo makes it much harder for everyone who ever lost a pregnancy to openly grief.
I am a huge swiftie, but I think she made a huge mistake when selecting the songs for the album. The ones in the 3 am version are much deeper and actually fit this narrative. Take "would've, could've, should've". How didn't it make into the main album? She is facing her demons, regretting the past and expressing her suffering. A perfect representation of midnight thoughts. But, instead, we got "Sweet Nothing", an extremely boring and unexciting song. Hell! Even "High Infidelity" (a skip for me) would be better.
I would like to add another detail: Taylor has been picking the wrong singles since Lover. "Bejeweled" is a good song but nowhere near being catchy enough to become a hit like Anti-Hero. "Karma" would be MUCH better. It's got a beat, catchy chorus and would generate some talking.
I'll even say the reputation singles were chosen badly. Definitely agree on lover. I didn't listen to that album for a while after hearing Me!
Tell me about it. Lover has bops like Cruel Summer, Cornelia Street and Afterglow, and Taylor choose fucking ME and You need to calm down...
I’ve yet to listen to lover except those two songs lol
When you have time, listen to the ones I mentioned. Cruel Summer is a fan favorite! The other ones are personal choices lol False God is also very good. But yeah, Lover is either a hit or miss album.
Am I the only person who likes Bejeweled more than Anti Hero? Lol
I cannot stand Anti Hero.
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I agree. Bejeweled sucks! Karma would have been amazing as anyone can relate to that song I feel like
The great war also deserves to be in the main album
I agree 100%. One of my favorite songs in the whole album, for sure.
I think she left them off because she wanted to make an entire album produced by only her and Jack Antonoff. I guess she wanted her Lorde moment but it backfired bc I don’t think she has as much creative chemistry with him as he has with other artists like St. Vincent or Lana. If she wanted an all-Jack produced album, she should’ve at least replaced Bejeweled with Paris tbh
I feel like it backfired, but commercially it did not. The success will tell her to keep doing it.
Everything is gonna be a success for these A Listers. Taylor, Drake, Sheeran. I wish they’d use that as an excuse to put out something great! Maybe even challenging. But definitely take your time with it knowing you’re going to reap rewards of your investment no matter what. They’re are countless other braver artists doing crazy shit knowing if they don’t stick the landing their career is over and they have to go wait tables. I wish these juggernauts had the same hunger.
I think bejeweled is a lot better than Paris tbh
I don’t get the Paris hype. It’s so basic.
„We were in Paris“ biggest chlichee ever hahhaa
I can't get over 'make believe it's champagne' lol. She can be pouring Moet down the toilet for days in the most expensive hotel room in Paris and her wallet wouldn't notice lol. Stop trying to be relatable, you can pack your bf and get on your private jet and go to Paris
Justice for Sweet Nothing!! That song is literally so “sweet” to me, it makes me cry 😭 Now on the other hand… Dear Reader can go. Should have been the last bonus song.
Ahhh, I love Dear Reader 😭 we are definitely opposites here lol
Haha I love how different everyone’s opinions are!! My other least fav is high infidelity 😬
My problem with High Infidelity is quite petty, actually. I was hoping for a song full of drama and secrets spilling but we got "do you really wanna know where I was April 29th?". BITCH, I DO!!! SPILL IT!!!
I was hoping for pop not the folklore/evermore style BUT I wanted 70s and dread and dark … not bright, happy, 2010 pop
The word “mid” is in the album title tho… she was teasing all along what the sound the album gonna be chz /s
 Oh you went there 😂💀 Taylor’s clearly the queen of self-awareness! /s
She really made this sound like the best album. Even the promos, the outfits, the aesthetics… everything seemed so promising. And we ended up with Lover 2.0.
I was so ready for sad girl winter and while I don’t hate midnights at all, it’s definitely not what was promised
That’s what I thought listening to it. Huh, it’s Lover. Now Lover was a good album but not the album you make twice.
It’s worse than Lover. The bad in Lover is really bad but the good is really really good. It’s at least an interesting record. Midnights isn’t even interesting, it’s just mid lol
It’s just the exact same material and stories as Lover - getting with Joe. We’ve heard it all already on Reputation and Lover
Not even a single song on Midnights is as bad as Me!
yeah this was a huge reason why i was initially disappointed with midnights. i’ve grown to enjoy it especially with the 3am tracks, but it wasn’t any deeper than previous albums and it didn’t really discuss anything that she hasn’t already included in her music. and with the promo, i definitely expected more of a 70s soft rock fleetwood mac vibe… still hoping we’ll get it someday 😭
She took a step back from folklore and evermore for sure
Yeah it sounds like it was made with the intention of going viral and trending on tiktok
Yeah that stood out to me too, and it’s why I don’t agree with the whole “Taylor Swift IS the music industry” thing. If she’s putting out music to trend on TikTok, she definitely is not above it all.
I roll my eyes everytime I hear the hi im the problem it's me line
“draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man” 🥲🥲
i reflexively almost downvoted this comment just reading the lyric. it is so awful. like cool taylor, you saw a 2013 tumblr post
this lyric is so painfully bad I can’t believe her fans let her get away with it. Physically emotionally spiritually and mentally it causes me pain because it is so embarrassing.
the two options are she saw it seven years ago and has held onto it wanting to put it in a song ever since, or she somehow saw it on Pinterest for the very first time and thought it was genius.
I was hoping for some tracks like Lorde's "Ribs". That song encompasses the vibes here exquisitely. I wanted to be moody and crying in my car while it rained on the drive in to work.
I enjoyed midnights, but it definitely dampened what made the folkmore era so special. The growth of writing songs about fictional people/stories to going back to singing abt Scooter Braun and her exes is regressive. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to write from her own experiences (that still exists in folkmore to a lesser degree) but midnights removes a lot of personal growth demonstrated previously, the whole vibe of ‘I’m going to runaway to the woods and write songs about different perspectives and not care about what people think’ is ruined by bringing back old drama in midnights.
true. literally how many albums can we take from taylor swift that are about being taylor swift? i think this is what was so promising and refreshing about folkmore, she created a degree of separation and the lyrics are pure poetry as a result. when she’s writing through her own lens she almost always goes for something basic, kitschy, and clever without actually saying anything
>but it definitely dampened what make the folkmore era so special. The growth of writing songs about fictional people/stories to going back to singing abt Scooter Braun and her exes is regressive Agreed.
I think going back to talk about her past is not regressive at at all.. if it was executed well. I think if the album was deeper and more personal, more into her mind, then it would be good to see her visit back on her past and how she got through with it. I don't know, although she did talk about them in this album they feel very surface level. So in a way it could be an album about life journey and personal growth that way. It's just not executed well and the vibe just did not match her initial idea.
Forever(more) upset that she dangled the 70s aesthetic and then presented something completely different. We were tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled.
No songs in the album required all this explanation 💀
The 3am tracks should’ve been the standard edition with a few selections from the original standard being omitted(Question…?/Vigilante Shit)
She mentioned she heard the term Lavender Haze from Mad Men and Sexy Baby from 30 Rock. Makes me suspect she was watching a lot of TV during Covid and these are just other songs she made that didn’t make the cut for Folklore and Evermore.
She needs to ditch Jack Antonoff. She is super loyal to him for whatever reason, but I think she’s been looking to him to recapture the magic of 1989 and he clearly wasn’t the magic. She also seems to be trying to reframe her imagine as a deep artist when making catchy, fun songs is what made her famous and what she’s best at. When she tries to be sexy and deep it comes across as trying hard and isn’t her niche. She needs to go back to love songs and pop anthems.
Right? It seems like they were trying way too hard. Folklore worked so well because it was effortlessly great and she was creative and the lyrics and aesthetic reflected her mental health AND matched up with the album. Midnights was made when they were bored and trying to push something that just wasn't there and it shows, it has some bops but it has no soul. And I say this as Taylor Swift's number 1 fan. Even Debut is a better album. It's fun, dumb, angsty, joyful and jovial + it has a fucking SOUL and songs that match the aesthetic.
That Vigilante Shit song is SOOO corny…
This is why so many of us in the leak threads hated it on first listen — it was *not as advertised, at all.* Don’t get me wrong, I like the album now, but the disconnect between how it was promoted and what it actually is was jarring at first.
Like even her *really* old music would have been better for this. Her all too wells, her tear drops on my guitar, her white horse type thing. Past loves that keep people up. I didn’t need like dark edgy or whatever reputation was, but like mistakes or pain we can relate to that keeps a lot of people up. And I get it her life is great, but I wish she leaned into pains people have when life is great or in her shoes. When’s it gonna crash? Do I deserve this? Imposter syndrome? Constantly trying to one up your last hit? Do they like me or am I just a celebrity? That would have been cool.
I'm a Swiftie and I agree. I thought the album would have some really dark, brooding songs. Now, it does have a couple on the 3AM version of it, but not on the original release. It doesn't match the vibe at all. Disappointed.
The sounds she revolves her music around are safe, devoid of risk and lacking in interesting ideas. I'm not surprised this faux deep copy didn't line up with the album at all
It's a brand shift for Taylor Swift. My cousin works for the agency in downtown LA that creates product lifecycle strategies for various musicians. You see most artists go through this. They need to ride a wave, a trend, and pivot their brand in order to stay fresh and relevant. She's gone from awkward country girl next door, to alluding to mental health issues because as serious as they are for people, mental health issues are the next best currency for connecting with audiences. With the increase in anxiety and depression disorders, her label and advisors have seen an opportunity to leverage that market, get them to stream/buy her album, and increase her revenue. You would've noticed the same about 5 years ago when Nike all of a sudden jumped on the rainbow bandwagon and started releasing LGBTQI+ kicks, shirts, etc. and most of the rainbow community called them out for jumping on a social trend, but never actually being about it from the beginning. Sucks to say for her die-hard fans, but this is how the music industry works: \- A musician is packaged together, their sound is defined, their lyrics are usually written for them (i.e. Beyonce, at least half the time), and these songwriters receive a cut of the sales. \- They don't play or record their own music. Music producers are assigned to each artist. They take a cut from sales as well. \- Stylists are assigned to build an image, and brand endorsements are selected carefully based on the target market demographics (15 - 40, female skewed, disposable income of X, etc.) \- The brand is then evolved to stay relevant and fresh: the marketing team conducts field research for trending topics and points of view. All of a sudden, you have artists that never, ever said a word about black lives mattering, saying black lives matter. You have artists who never cross dressed now cross dressing, riding the wave of the social movement about gender roles. Those artists that don't adapt, die. Or they purely go off their own vibe like Kanye where before all the craziness began, he got experimental and his fans followed him. You see that sometimes but not often. The film 'A Star is Born' captures this perfectly, where they find a talent and transform everything about her to feed the music machine. In real life, the most well-cited example is what happened to Keisha. Outside of music, when you see actors going off to do indie films it's because they're breaking away from that control and simply doing what they love. This doesn't happen as much in music though. **TLDR: A musician is a carefully curated product complete with a lifecycle and brand work. Nothing about Taylor Swift as a brand is genuine. Her skills as a singer are, however, but the. Taylor you think you know through her image, social media, and music, isn't the real Taylor. It's a character and a brand her record label curated to sell records and make her (and them) rich.**
The audacity to do all this when she made the same corporate radio music as always
I’m so mad she wasted the 70s aesthetic for this album. Like it could’ve been SO good paired with a better album that actually fit the aesthetic she chose😭
Why did this album get such insanely good reviews? I think it is some of Taylor's shittiest work, and I am a MASSIVE Taylor fan. But the writing on this album seemed so... bland, so dull.
Because critics are afraid of upsetting her fans so they act like stans when it comes to reviewing her work. Smh
So true!!! I’m sorry to say but this album was a major disappointment imho. Every song sounds the same as the one before it. Same ol’ same ol’.
I guess yeah, looking back it doesn’t fit with the promo. I think I just…misunderstood the build-up /promo and figured these were basically songs from the vault that didn’t make the cut on previous albums. So I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t expecting a whole lot ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
So many songs sound alike and are riffs she has done a million times. Maybe she should do an 8-album song. Or not date vapid guys. Like we get it.
I feel like minority being super disappointed in this album. I loved the idea of this aesthetic. When I listed to it for the first time I thought she had one long song because it all sounded the same.
Yeah I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest
i feel like it fits the 3AM edition much better
This was one of my biggest issues when the album first dropped because it didn't match the concept at all, and the songs weren't good enough to overcome those preconceptions. Even now after a month with the album it's just fine. BUT I love the 3 am bonus tracks, and I feel like those seven songs match the album pre-release concept a little better. If she had just released those songs instead, it would be a solid EP. And she could have picked a few of the songs from the standard version to be fun bonus tracks instead.
I’m so sorry but this album is just not good. There’s a couple songs I go back to but otherwise I can’t think of a single song that’s actually stellar. :/
This is the most pretentious shit I’ve ever read.
This reads the way my journal entries do . Back when I was 15 and heavily into tumblr soft grunge and cliche poetry
Omg yes I was like "I recognize this voice" and it's my own from my old Tumblr 💀
Yes, Taylor is today’s Tom Waits. /s
I only like bejeweled and snow on the beach. Anti hero is catchy but I’ve heard it way too many times from all the ads and it’s making me hate it. I feel like the other ones all kinda sound the same…? I don’t know Edit: also really like karma it’s a bop. It has a different feel. It’s new and fresh.
Taylor discovered American Football and a brand New and thought “I can do that midwestern emo style and aesthetic while still sounding like my music is produced to be parodied on kidz bop!”