Taylor Swift

The vocals remain distinctive but the songs could do with more vividly told stories.

You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital, click here. You'll enjoy access to several newsletters including FirstFT, a daily newsletter with the global stories you need to know as well as Editor's Choice, a weekly newsletter featuring the editor's favourite stories.

On Swift's 10th and most challenging album, she and producer Jack Antonoff push her voice in new directions, rethinking the sonic rhetoric of first-person ...

She's still working to slacken the hold of the Old Taylor — of the many Old Taylors she's constructed through her music and celebrity. This is the kind of truth-telling that's earned Swift the devotion of her fans. For all of her kindness in the world and empathy and dedication to openness as a songwriter, Taylor Swift is, in her essence, sharp. "Labyrinth" — as good as any song inspired by one of her favorite subjects, the experience of still hanging on when you have to let go — melts her voice into myriad light streams, some as twisted as in a On "Midnight Rain" it's auto-tuned to vacillate between birdlike high notes and an almost masculine lower register, punctuating the story the verses tell of a young woman outgrowing a relationship with a sound that evokes that process of unfolding into a new self. is the kind of story song only Swift can write, dipping into gel-pen poetry to cultivate a swoony mood, then focusing on a scene of romantic persuasion and betrayal drawn so acutely that it stings. Usually she's explaining every move she makes, but here the music pulls her into the eternal now of her emotions, working against her persistent impulse to make sense of them. Sharpness is also key to Swift's perspective, surfacing in her love of the telling detail, of the rejoinder that cuts through whatever bulls*** the object of her love/hate has burdened her with. In the evening, with her lover nearby, does she vape a little Lavender Haze CBD Rosin and focus on the quietude creeping into her body beneath the relentless chatter of her thoughts? On Midnights she worked exclusively with her soulmate producer Jack Antonoff, bringing in only a handful of collaborators (the most notable is [Lana Del Rey](https://www.npr.org/artists/145913023/lana-del-rey), who gives great femme energy on "Snow On The Beach"), burrowing into a sound that might be called ahistorical chillout music. And then, in the studio, can she bring a lyric built on questions, turn to her trusted collaborator and say, "I don't care if this song is a hit, I want it to be weird"?

With its confident songwriting and understated synth-pop, Swift's sophisticated 10th album indicates that she no longer feels she has to compete with her ...

Last time she broke cover with new material, she released [Folklore](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/24/taylor-swift-folklore-review-bombastic-pop-makes-way-for-emotional-acuity) and [Evermore](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/11/taylor-swift-evermore-rich-alt-rock-and-richer-character-studies), two pandemic-fuelled albums of tasteful folk-rock produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner. There’s an appealing confidence about this approach, a sense that Swift no longer feels she has to compete on the same terms as her peers. Everything has been [pored over for potential information](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/14/taylor-swift-celebrate-album-release-midnights-pop-acclaim) about its contents, up to and including the kind of eye shadow she wears on the album cover. Meanwhile, Anti-Hero offers a litany of small-hours self-loathing set to music that feels not unlike the glossy 80s rock found on Swift’s Elsewhere, if the Swift you love is Swift in vengeful mode, settling scores with a side-order of You’re So Vain-esque who’s-this-about? [more of the same](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/16/go-easy-on-me-why-pop-has-got-so-predictable): building an immediately recognisable brand in a world where tens of thousands of new tracks are added to streaming services every day. It’s an album that steadfastly declines to deal in the kind of neon-hued bangers that pop stars usually return with, music brash enough to cut through the hubbub. In fact, Midnights delivers her firmly from what she called the “folklorian woods” of her last two albums back to electronic pop. There are filtered synth tones, swoops of dubstep-influenced bass, trap and house-inspired beats and effects that warp her voice to a point of androgyny on Midnight Rain and Labyrinth, the latter a leading choice given the preponderance of lyrics that protest gender stereotyping, or “that 1950s shit they want from me”, as Lavender Haze puts it. [Taylor Swift](https://www.theguardian.com/music/taylor-swift)’s 10th studio album, Midnights. It’s an approach that Midnights’ one marquee-name guest, [Lana Del Rey](https://www.theguardian.com/music/lana-del-rey), knows a lot about, but not one to which Swift has adhered. Instead, breadcrumbs of mysterious hints and visual clues are very gradually dropped via the artist’s social media channels.

On Midnights song Labrinth, Taylor Swift discloses a shocking opinion: She really doesn't like elevators.

No word yet on whether this will affect [her approach to planes](https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/taylor-swift-private-jet-emissions-response.html). [Midnights](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-stream.html)), Taylor Swift discloses a number of intriguing takes: on “Karma,” she says that “karma” is like “a cat, purring on my lap”; on “Anti-Hero,” she says that she sometimes thinks “everybody is a sexy baby”; and, on the album’s tenth track, “Labyrinth,” Taylor slowly and softly tells us a story about falling in love by relating it to … Almost one minute in, she sings, “You know how scared I am of elevators / never trust it if it rises fast / it can’t last.” Taylor has been in an elevator at least twice prior to this song — once while dressed [as a “pegacorn” for Halloween](https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/taylor-swift-is-trick-or-treating-in-an-elevator.html) in 2014, and once [with Taylor Lautner in Valentine’s Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRbVrY5DDqk) — so, either something changed or she was secretly hiding how much she disliked them. On TS10 (a.k.a. Breaking: Claustrophobia just fell to its knees.

Taylor Swift revealed very little about her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” before it was released on Friday – she didn't sit for any interviews and just ...

In “Anti-Hero,” that honor went to the line, “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster on the hill.” This was a new level of candor from an album that, as [multiple critics](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/taylor-swift-review-midnights-lyrics-b2207166.html) agreed in [early reviews](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/taylor-swift-midnights-1234611211/), was pretty dark music for Swift. “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. “Not to sound too dark, but, like, I just struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person.” But you know, this song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself. [usual cryptic hints](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/20/taylor-swift-midnights-easter-eggs/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) about what fans could expect.

A thread of feverishness ripples through the record; perhaps the most angst-infused the singer has yet released since Reputation.

This is the most potty-mouthed Swift we have witnessed, with several F-bombs strewn throughout. This is Swift exiting her hygge den only to discover that the world beyond is as overwhelming as when she pulled closed the shutters. Midnights materialises in a swirl of secrecy, with the singer declining to release any advance singles. The darkness gives the collection a twitchy energy that is often irresistible. Lana Del Rey, another Antonoff collaborator, duets on Snow on the Beach, an Enya-goes-shoegaze meditation on Swift’s relationship with Alwyn. Taylor Swift describes her 10th studio album, Midnights, as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life”.

US hitmaker Taylor Swift has released a new album Midnights which includes a song about a trip to Wicklow in July 2021.

this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators," she wrote. " Please review their details and accept them to load the content. "Life can be dark, starry, cloudy, terrifying, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic or lonely. "All they keep asking me is if I’m gonna be your bride," she sings. In a post on her Instagram to mark the album’s release, she shared a photo of herself with her collaborators and singled out Antonoff as her "co-pilot".

The pop megastar, 32, has described the record as the story of "13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life" and "a journey through terrors and sweet ...

this is our first album we've done with just the two of us as main collaborators," she wrote. " "Life can be dark, starry, cloudy, terrifying, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic or lonely. "All they keep asking me is if I'm gonna be your bride," she sings. In a post on her Instagram to mark the album's release, she shared a photo of herself with her collaborators, and singled out Antonoff as her "co-pilot". The penultimate track, Sweet Nothing, is co-written by Swift and William Bowery, the pseudonym of Alwyn, and describes a holiday to Wicklow in Ireland in July 2021.

Vigilante Shit,” off Taylor Swift's new album 'Midnights,' is Swift once again wielding her pen to settle scores. This time, she targets Scooter Braun in a ...

[A half-hearted statement](https://www.vulture.com/2022/09/scooter-braun-taylor-swift-masters-regret.html) about his “regret” around the deal.) The fight over her masters had already been a winning issue: Swift came in exponentially more famous and beloved than Braun, [her rerecordings have only made her more so](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-rerecorded-albums-which-album-is-next.html), and the idea that an artist should own her music adds up logically and morally. [ she wrote alone](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-song-writers-credits-zoe-kravitz.html), Swift is at her venomous best. On “Vigilante Shit,” the only song on Midnights that She’s skeptical, almost mocking, when she sings, “Ladies always rise above,” in the bridge, but at the same time, that’s her attitude here. It’s a signature Swift earworm, but it’s also a motto for her celebrity. Elsewhere, she surveys the fallout from her claim on “mad woman” that [Braun, now divorced](https://www.vulture.com/2021/07/scooter-braun-divorcing-wife-yael-cohen.html), is a cheat. “Draw the cat eyes sharp enough to kill a man,” she sings, and then adds a few lines later, “They say looks can kill, and I might try.” She’s past the reflections of “mad woman” and onto throwing barbs. She’s not rising above the drama, but she is carrying herself as the winner. [Midnights, Swift’s tenth album](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-stream.html). “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace / ’Cause when I’d fight, you used to tell me I was brave,” Swift sang on “my tears ricochet,” seemingly to Scott Borchetta, her former champion who first signed a teenage Swift to his Big Machine label before later overseeing the sale of her catalogue to her chief nemesis, Scooter Braun. The provocatively titled “Vigilante Shit” seems to revisit [the Braun-Borchetta drama](https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-and-borchetta-feud-explained.html) head-on while also returning to the scorekeeping, revenge-seeking Swift we thought we might have seen the last of during folklore and evermore. Swift’s message to Braun, though, was even clearer: “I’m takin’ my time / Takin’ my time / ’Cause you took everything from me,” she sang on “mad woman.” Still, these songs were cloaked in the fictional haze of that era, far from a direct response.

Critics praise the "fantastic songs" on Midnights, but some add there is "not a smash hit in sight".

On the twinkly Bejeweled she announces that she's "going out tonight", but the beats remain sleepy and sluggish. Swift's always as elusive as she is allusive." Swift is currently gearing up for a busy few months. Otherwise Midnights sounds ready for bed." All the while she keeps things just cryptic enough to keep the tension crackling and the speculation buzzing. But it also sees her re-engage her pop sensibilities, with lyrics that explore more personal subject matters. "As Swift has returned to her archive for to undertake the project of re-recording her previous albums, it's clear slipping back into her past self has unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting," she wrote. "The subtle melodies of Midnights take time to sink their claws in," she added. "But Swift's feline vocal stealth and assured lyrical control ensure she keeps your attention. [the Guardian's Alexis Petridis said](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/21/taylor-swift-midnights-review-small-hours-pop-rich-with-self-loathing-and-stereotype-smashing) Midnights "delivers her firmly from what she called the 'folklorian woods' of her last two albums back to electronic pop". Midnights is the 32-year-old's first original album in two years and sees her return to a more mainstream sound than the more muted, acoustic tone of her previous two albums. The Guardian said Midnights is a "cool, collected and mature" record which is "packed with fantastic songs".

'Midnights' is a concept album that charts a “journey though terrors and sweet dreams” and tells the tale of “13 sleepless nights” in Swift's life.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away. Readers like you keep news free for everyone.

Irish fans enjoying listening to her new music were doubting themselves after thinking they heard her mention Wicklow on a love song called Sweet Nothing.

Diplomatic efforts to repatriate back to Wicklow must begin in earnest,” one person said. A third commented: “taylor swift single-handedly saving the wicklow tourism industry and uniting ireland with sweet nothing.” Another said: “The reference to Wicklow in Sweet Nothing!!!! “Taylor swift saying wicklow in sweet nothings is a win for irish people everywhere,” one person wrote. Someone else wrote: “the happiness when @taylorswift mentioned wicklow in her song. It turns out they were correct as the international superstar recounts a romantic holiday to Ireland in the first verse.

Irish Taylor Swift fans were delighted to notice a nod to Wicklow in a song from her new album.

The singer posted a number of photos online with Irish fans almost instantly recognising the footbridge from Ballymastocker Bay in Portsalon. One person on Twitter wrote: "Taylor Swift saying Wicklow in sweet nothings is a win for Irish people everywhere." Another excited fan wrote: "IRISH SWIFTIES THIS IS NOT A DRILL, WICKLOW HAS GOT A MENTION IN SWEET NOTHINGS!???! Her song Sweet Nothing is among the tracks that offers a rare look into her relationship with actor Joe and references their time in Wicklow together. And Irish fans were delighted to discover a nod to her time spent in Ireland. Another said: "Taylor Swift mentioning WICKLOW in her songs is probably one of the very last things I’d ever expect."

In the lead-up to the release of “Midnights,” Taylor Swift herself said this 10th record of hers was inspired by haunting late-night thoughts and, ...

(Laura Dern, the Haim sisters and Swift wrote and directed the video, which follows a Swift tortured by monsters like ghosts, bathroom scales and judgey people at parties. There is a moment of silliness about midway through, after a verse in which Swift sings about a dream she had about a future daughter-in-law who kills her for money, but Swift left her out of her will.

Her 10th album is a culmination of 16 years in the spotlight, and Taylor Swift leaves nothing unsaid.

Like a knife to the gut, “Anti-Hero” is an instant self-hate anthem for the ages. Swift is cut open, bleeding to the world in this song, proclaiming herself a “monster” in a sea of “sexy babies” (it makes sense, trust us). I’m the problem, it’s me”

On the heels of her highly anticipated album 'Midnights' and the world premiere of her new music video for “Anti-Hero,” fans around the world can now visit ...

Swift also has five music videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club, two of which (“ [Shake It Off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM)” and “ [Blank Space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg)”) are part of a small group of videos to have crossed the 3 billion views mark. For the first time ever, Swift is inviting her fans around the world to share their anti-heroic traits to the soundtrack of the newly released track, “ [Anti-Hero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk),” only on YouTube Shorts. Her music has charted on YouTube’s Top Songs chart in over 50 markets, and her recent release of [“All Too Well [10 Minute Version] (Taylor’s Version)”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tollGa3S0o8) peaked at #1 on the Global and US charts. Once you’re ready, head over to YouTube Shorts to start your own #TSAntiHeroChallenge creation and follow these simple steps: An anti-heroic trait could be as simple as always grabbing the last slice of pizza, clapping at the end of movies, always putting your feet on the car dashboard, using the same word to start your daily Wordle, leaving your clean laundry in the basket until the next time you do it, pretending you didn’t already watch the next episode of the series you watch with your pals, or even treating your cat like a human. The #TSAntiHeroChallenge is inspired by one of Swift’s favorite songs ever written, track #3 on her new album.

The singer's tenth studio album offers fans a rare insight into her relationship with her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, and includes a sweet reference ...

this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.” Just like Midnights.” In a post shared on Instagram, Taylor wrote: “Midnights is a wild ride of an album and I couldn’t be happier that my co pilot on this adventure was @jackantonoff.”

Dropping the special edition of her tenth album Taylor tweeted: 'Lately I've been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like.

Even Ireland's beloved Richard Chambers of Virgin Media has chimed in, letting fans know that Swift has referenced Ireland in one of her tracks. One fan has said: "i said it once and i’ll never stop saying it taylor swift IS the music industry miss girl can do whatever she pleases and we will eat it up. Taylor has also teased the release of another music video, coming early next week.

Taylor Swift has released her 10th studio album Midnights to much fanfare, with critics publishing a string of glowing reviews.

The Times’ Will Hodgkinson also gave a four-star rating, singling out the album’s “icy effects” and “synthesized vocals”. While the reviewer felt the album had “no obvious chart-smashing bangers”, he acknowledged that “Swift fans will love this album”. With a rating of four stars, Neil McCormick of The Telegraph wrote that the album has “a sensuous electro-digital sound”.

The singer-songwriter's 10th studio album is a return to the pop pipeline, with production from her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.

Target, which has had a long relationship with Swift, has its own exclusive LP version (on “lavender” vinyl) as well as a CD with three exclusive tracks. The most ingenious or shameless part — take your pick — of Swift’s vinyl strategy is what she has done with the back covers. In a sense, “Midnights” is Swift’s return to the pop pipeline after her digressions of the past couple of years. Swift is releasing four standard versions of “Midnights” on vinyl, each with its own disc color and cover art; they also correspond to four variant CD versions. Swift’s friendship with Kravitz, as fans know, is close enough that she once acted as an [uncredited assistant](https://wwd.com/business-news/media/nyt-great-performers-2020-list-tv-tiktok-michaela-coel-sarah-cooper-1234672957/) on a pandemic-era remote photo shoot of Kravitz for The New York Times Magazine. [kitschy videos](https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorswift/video/7147533441326648618?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1) on TikTok that revealed song titles, one at time, taken from Ping-Pong balls in a basket, as if on a decades-old local TV spot. [making an album with Antonoff](https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a39035654/zoe-kravitz-interview-march-2022/), is listed as one of the six songwriters of the first track, “Lavender Haze,” alongside Swift, Antonoff, Mark Anthony Spears (a.k.a. But an important factor in the sales and chart prospects for “Midnights” may be Swift’s embrace of physical music formats like CDs and vinyl LPs, which, because of the way Billboard crunches data about how music is consumed, can have a major impact on chart positions. Swift’s marketing this time has involved a series of “I find myself running home to your sweet nothings.” “Folklore” won The marbled vinyl has been pressed and sorted into collectible variants.

The pop singer confronts her own flaws and calls everyone a “sexy baby” on the lead single from Midnights.

[1989](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-1989/), the neurotic image analysis of [reputation](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-reputation/), the dense lyricism of [folklore](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-folklore/) and [evermore](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-evermore/). But after so many years of defending the moral high ground—from ex-boyfriends, [rappers](https://pitchfork.com/news/66882-taylor-swift-kanye-and-kim-are-lying-committing-character-assassination/), [label executives](https://pitchfork.com/news/taylor-swifts-music-ownership-controversy-with-scooter-braun-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters)—Swift [started to admit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpKc3C9V3w) her own fallibility. Swift and trusted collaborator [Jack Antonoff](https://pitchfork.com/artists/32408-bleachers/) keep the production simple—a methodical drum loop, simmering synths—focusing in on a series of vignettes in which Swift is haunted by past mistakes.

Taylor Swift's new concept album about 'that mystifying, mad hour' feels unsurprisingly expert and alert.

(If you missed the cheap thrill of reorganizing the paparazzi photos on your conspiracy whiteboard, “Midnights” has plenty of “is X song about Y guy?” games to play, too, you sicko.) Love is the result of that intentionality. “I picked the petals, he loves me not,” she sings on one of her new songs, “ [You’re On Your Own, Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cboN_o7CvU),” addressing an anonymous flame without a blink. Taylor Swift has this dream where “my daughter-in-law kills me for the money — she thinks I left them in the will. The family gathers around and reads it, and then someone screams out, ‘She’s laughing up at us from hell!’” Maybe that’s why Swift is the biggest pop star drawing breath in this waking world and the rest of us are not. You have this dream where you’re all alone, and you’re rolling a big doughnut, and there’s this snake wearing a vest.

New album makes it clear that Swift has taken a step forward in the indie-pop genre.

But Swift presents “Midnights” as something different: a collection of songs that don’t necessarily have to go together, but fit together because she has declared them products of late night inspiration. Track one, “Lavender Haze,” pairs a muffled club beat and high-pitched backing vocals from Antonoff with stand-out, beckoning melody from Swift. And like always, we’re just along for the thrilling late-night ride. [the 13 tracks of “Midnights,”](https://apnews.com/article/what-to-stream-October-2022-midnights-music-movies-TV-f70b362a01e904e5b23adeb62c822dd0) a self-aware Swift shows off her ability to evolve again. “Midnight Rain” could be a thesis statement for the project she’s described as songs written during “13 sleepless nights,” an appropriate approach to the concept album for someone who has long had a lyrical appreciation for late nights (think “Style”: “midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights…”). The song’s chorus begins: “He was sunshine, I was midnight rain.” And continues: “He wanted it comfortable, I wanted that pain.

Swift's Midnights swiftly unseated Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti for most Spotify streams in 24 hours.

Truly, it’s (Taylor’s Version), and we’re just living in it. Spotify didn’t release specific numbers for Midnights and its one-day performance, but we do know who Swift unseated to score the honor: Bad Bunny, whose Un Verano Sin Ti posted its own record, with 183 million day-one streams, back in September of 2021. Guinness says Red scored 90.8 million streams during its first 24 hours on Spotify back in 2021, which means Midnights has blown way past that number today.)

Her new record sees her turn away from the intimate indie songwriting of her two last albums, Folklore and Evermore, in favour of electronica, synth-pop and ...

[Spotify users reported a huge spike in outages](https://news.sky.com/story/spotify-users-report-huge-spike-in-outages-as-taylor-swifts-new-album-midnight-drops-12726142) after the new album landed on the platform. It sees her turn away from the intimate indie songwriting of her two last albums, Folklore and Evermore, in favour of electronica, synth-pop and sometimes even hip-hop influenced beats. Her new record sees her turn away from the intimate indie songwriting of her two last albums, Folklore and Evermore, in favour of electronica, synth-pop and sometimes even hip hop-influenced beats.