the holidays have come and gone, at least 3 self-imposed but un-enforced deadlines for this edition have passed, and i’ve got a hundred thrown-out speeches intros i almost sent to you. it’s a long one - it’ll probably get cut off in your inbox - but i’m just trying to give you a little distraction from going back to work as a treat, ok?!
It’s clear from Midnights that the process of re-recording her music has taken Taylor down a well of self reflection deeper than one’s typical midnight spiraling. Why is that? Well, imagine for a moment that I sat you down and told you that you needed to hand-copy all of your past journals or sketchbooks. (idk, suspend reality for a sec, maybe they were cheap and the paper is disintegrating) It would be an all-access tour of memories & emotions - in detail that you have long since forgotten - expressed in the form most personal to you. Now consider the monumental task of recreating all of it at a level of believability & skill that renders the old versions worthless. You’d be living it all over again.
You’d probably have LOTS of feelings during/about that process, and because you are a creative person who has grown and evolved, you might also have new ideas about how to express them. Maybe you can better articulate your feelings from a distance. Maybe you question your past selves; maybe you answer their questions. Maybe you find courage to put the longing into words and the guts to confess your truths - and to pull no punches when you do it.
Midnights, Taylor’s tenth album, features musical & lyrical callbacks to various eras of her 16+ year career. In a q&a session with SiriusXM, Taylor spoke about Midnights’ relation to her past:
“…nothing is left over from a different album; it might have been, you know . . . things I've thought of maybe making in the past, but I didn't write anything until I was making this album. I think in terms of referencing my previous work, that’s a fun thing for me to do that all does, usually, lead to something. But if we’re reflecting back on eras past and music that I’ve made in the past, I think you’ll find that there’s a really good reason for that, but it doesn’t necessarily have to do with this album. I will leave you with that very cryptic and very truthful answer.”
Okay, maybe this was just an easter egg for the Eras Tour announcement, but I think it tells us something more. Anyone remotely familiar with her work will know that Easter eggs and callbacks are nothing new for Taylor - but the references on this album feel…different. In lieu of conspicuous hints at subjects’ identities, most allude to “eras past and music I’ve made in the past.” Honestly, it’s a pretty clever way for an artist with an extensive catalog (of both music and lore 😅) to revisit themes from her life with new levels of candor.
My theory/hope is that Midnights tracks will be interspersed throughout the Eras Tour setlist, i.e. “13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life.” Weaving the stories together with their respective eras would make for poignant storytelling. (and yes - it’s also an oblique way for her to spill a little tea 👀) I’ll be making note of these callbacks below, though I do think some songs are solidly Midnights-era! I’m also considering a playlist, but that’s for another day…if I let my ADHD indulge itself now, y’all will never get this newsletter.
Lavender Haze
blondie had her foot on my NECK right off the bat, y’all - this is a DANCE song! [see: me in the kitchen, doing laundry, etc.] a shining example of Taylor’s pop prowess, with a little funk added by members of red hearse: Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew, & Sounwave.
i’m damned if i do give a damn what people say • i love when she twists idioms.
GET IT. OFF YOUR. CHEST. GET IT! OFF MY!! DESK!!!
dear reader, snap when you have to! there is a strong through-line in Midnights of Taylor (re)considering spilling her soul, and she makes it very clear that she will not be cornered into breaking those boundaries. in the lavender haze, she gets to exist free of everyone’s opinions and assumptions.
harmony highlight: only kind of girl they see (1:29)
this is such a dorky category but taylor has gotten so good at stacking vocals and i just really love harmonies ok!!!
callbacks:
I Think He Knows (Lover): the quick lyrical runs into a beat-drop chorus feels so familiar that for the first week my brain kept anticipating, “he got my heart! beat! skipping down 16th avenue…”
Maroon
my first thought, 5 seconds in: REP ERA!
the burgundy on my t-shirt / when you splashed your wine into me / and how the blood rushed into my cheeks / so scarlet, it was / the mark thеy saw on my collarbone / the rust that grew bеtween telephones / the lips I used to call home / so scarlet, it was maroon
can’t get over her poetically throwing in a reference to a hickey 😆
that’s a real fuckin’ legacy!!! • front-runner for best line to dryly quote
the way she sings the last chorus all low and husky 😩 MA’AM!
harmony highlight: starting at “the mark they saw…” in the chorus
callbacks:
all the shades of red - a love that was like Red, but with more facets/nuance
King of My Heart interlude from the reputation tour (below), and the cadences of: is this the end of all the endings and your roommates cheap-ass screw top rosé
when you splashed your wine into me • spilling wine in the bathtub (Dress, rep)
Anti-Hero
the Blank Space of this era!!!
i'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror / it must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero
boyoyoy this song hits different after therapy!!! IT’S ME, HI. I’M THE PROBLEM, IT’S ME. 🙋🏼♀️
isn’t it just classic Taylor to take the saddest lyrics and make them a BOP?
sexy baby: taylor confirmed 30 rock fan
“everybody agrees, everybody agreeeessss…” perfectly captures the feeling of being up at midnight and convincing yourself that everyone hates you 😔
taylor said this song is a “real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself,” and i felt that. (you know, except the ~*rich and famous*~ problems 🤪)
harmony highlight: “did you hear my covert narcissism…” it’s not different from the other pre-choruses, but something about this one is so satisfying (1:29)
Snow on the Beach
there are two moments in this album where she enters on a weird beat - the beginning of this song is one.
i could really do without lana whispering on the back of my neck!!!
my smile is like i won a contest / and to hide that would be so dishonest
the urge i have to make this my AIM away message!!! an iconic taylor line that the girlies will be quoting for years!
your eyes are flying saucers from another planetno 💖harmony highlight: “it’s coming down…” (3:51) the low harmony caught my ear one day in the car and i love it so much
callbacks:
it might just have been you / passing by unbeknownst to me • and he’s passing by / rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky (long story short, evermore)
the wintry jingles & the percussion that evokes waves crashing, the dreamy vocals - very evermore
lines in other songs that sound more like Lana than any part of this song:
i’m goin’ out tonight - bejeweled
i thought the plane was going down - labyrinth
ladies always rise above, ladies know what people want - vigilante shit
You’re On Your Own, Kid
[credit to my friend Taylor, who sent me this! she has a fragrance newsletter called The Trope Notes that you should check out - this edition pairs a perfume with each Midnights track!]
me, October 21: the nice part about the main 13 tracks is that i don’t want to skip any for fear of crying
me, just now, listening to this song: *crying*i didn’t choose this town / i dream of getting out
baby taylor was probably so ticked that she asked to move to nashville and her parents chose…hendersonville
something different bloomed / writing in my room is where the tears threaten - it also reminds me of these lines that also make me choke up (do these count as thematic callbacks? five tracks in and i’ve lost control of my own system!)
back then i swore i was gonna marry him someday / but i realized some bigger dreams of mine • i’ve found time can heal most anything / and you just might find who you’re supposed to be (Fifteen, Fearless)
who knows if i never showed up what could’ve been? (The Last Great American Dynasty, folklore)
‘cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / everything you lose is a step you take / so, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it / you've got no reason to be afraid / you’re on your own, kid / yeah, you can face this
i’m not writing out the whole 3rd verse/bridge combo but it is flawless and chokes me up every time.
i s2g if she ends the eras setlist with this song i will SOB!!!
no harmony highlight, but an honorable mention: the two beats before the third verse/bridge (2:03) and the drumroll (2:42) get me SO HYPE
callbacks:
NYU commencement speech: “How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t. Scary news is: You’re on your own now. Cool news is: You’re on your own now.”
the backing notes remind me of the Love Story & You Belong With Me intros
Midnight Rain
that abrupt opening is STARTLING 😳
my town was a wasteland
she’s really dragging hendersonville for filth 💀 go off, girl!
deep portal, time travel / all the love we unravel
that memory that swoops in while you’re trying to go to sleep, and for a second you think “what if…” 🌀
harmony highlight: the harmonies that come in with the first clear chorus!!! (1:33) you can hear them even better on this Dolby Atmos mix (have fun going down THIS rabbit hole!):
callbacks:
i guess sometimes we all get / some kind of haunted - immediately made me think of the song Haunted, but it is just generally a favorite theme of hers - it appears on 6/10 albums 👻
Question…?
it’s just a question gives me big “asking for a friend” energy
my brain every time i listen to this: is she talking to the person who did this to her? is she asking for advice/solidarity from someone who went through the same thing? are they retorts to someone who doesn’t understand what she went through???? (the reddit swifties have all but twisted themselves into pretzels trying to figure this out. bless their hearts.)
does it feel like everything’s just like / second best after that meteor strike?
joe alwyn’s ego found dead in a ditch!
harmony highlight: 1) the above line. 2) the selective harmony on YOU! 3) the “doooo” at (3:09) 🤌🏼
callbacks:
“i remember” and the backing vocals on the chorus are both samples from Out Of The Woods (vocals from 3:29)
the “can i ask you a question?” ad lib on the last chorus reminds me SO much of 1989
you painted all my nights / a color i have searched for since • the rest of the world was black and white / but we were in screaming color (ootw) • you showed me colors you know i can’t see with anyone else (illicit affairs, folklore)
Vigilante Shit
draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man // this tumblr-ass line. twee is back, y’all.
the way that i was truly shook by a cocaine reference in a taylor swift song!!!
i don’t really like this song all that much - it’s pure corny taylor - but it’s short so i listen to it every time, mostly just for: she looks so pretty 💅🏼 / drivin’ in your benz 😎
harmony highlight: another beat wins out here - the little high-hat switch sound first heard at (:17) is so satisfying!
callbacks:
the master of spin / has a couple side flings / good wives always know (mad woman, folklore) • she needed cold hard proof so i gave her some / she had the envelope, where you think she got it from? 😈
Bejeweled
didn’t notice you walking all over my peace of mind / in the shoes i gave you as a present
is this…about…THIS?! if it is, you know she has been WAITING to drop this info. and now i laugh every time i hear it.
familiarity breeds contempt / don’t put me in the basement / when i want the penthouse of your heart // taylor said GET YOUR DICTION UP!
✨ NICE! ✨
i made you my world (huh?) / have you heard? (HUH?) / i can reclaim the land 👑
the amount of struttable songs on this album - girlie will be getting her STEPS in on this tour!
harmony highlight: the different harmonies on the last chorus!
callbacks:
shimmer/sparkling • shimmering beautiful…shining just for you (mirrorball, folklore) • mirrorball is about being a hyper-visible figure who can make herself into whatever you desire - something she says she struggled with, especially during the 1989 era. (which she was still firmly in while dating the person walking all over her peace of mind…)
did all the extra credit then got graded on a curve • i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere (this is me trying, folklore) • not the same “curve” but this is me trying is the breakdown/aftermath of being the good girl that lives to make everyone else happy
i miss you…but i miss sparkling • in clips from the making of Gorgeous (Lover), taylor workshops the line “i gotta boyfriend, he’s older than us / i haven’t seen him in a couple of months” 👀
Labyrinth
i desperately need her to drop “the making of” videos because this album has so many weird little sounds, like…is that taylor beatboxing?! the synth smash??
i think of this song as the thematic inverse of gold rush; it also plays with the same alternation between light/dreamy & clear, warm vocals
gold rush - a crush that you entertain and fall out of love with, all in your head.
Labyrinth - trying to hold yourself together after losing someone and - uh oh - you’re falling for someone new.
i’ll be getting over you / my whole life
…can we do a wellness check on joe? is he ok?
break up, break free, break through, break down / you would break your back to make me break a smile 😭 (joe’s fine.)
harmony highlight: “i’m falling in love again” (3:30)
callbacks:
breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out - NYU speech
Karma
the only acceptable response when the chorus hits (thank u, sami 💕)
i keep my side of the street clean / 😒 you wouldn’t know what i mean 😒
spider-boy is the only flaw in this song.
KARMA IS A CAT! PURRING IN MY LAP ‘CAUSE IT LOVES ME!!!
iykyk. and if not, you’re probably “more of a dog person.”
now frequently heard in my house: “finny is a cat! purring in my lap cuz he loves meee!”
aren’tyouenviousthatforyouit’snot? at first listen, my brain was like…is this spanish?
ask me why so many fade but I’M! STILL! HERE!!!! 😤 this line is going to go HARD on tour, i just know it!!!
harmony highlight: karma is the guy on the screen / coming! straight! home! to! meeee!
callbacks:
if a man talks shit, then i owe him nothing (I Did Something Bad, rep) • you’re talking shit, for the hell of it
fifteen years, fifteen million tears / begging 'til my knees bled (it’s time to go, evermore) • ask me what i learned from all those years / ask me what i earned from all those tears
you wear the same jewels that i gave you / as you bury me (my tears ricochet, folklore) • now he sits on his throne in his palace of bones / praying to his greed (it’s time to go, evermore) • my pennies made your crown…don’t you know the cash ain’t the only price?
the world moves on, another day another drama, drama / but not for me, not for me, all i think about is karma (Look What You Made Me Do, rep) • DUH
Sweet Nothing
tyler: idk how you don’t cry every time you hear this song
me: um…i do.the swifties are torn on whether this is a song for her mom or a song for joe and idc i love both interpretations. this song really captures the feeling of being safe. ❤️
and the voices that implore / you should be doing more / to you i can admit / that i’m just too soft for all of it 🥹
harmony highlight: the ooohs!
callbacks:
musically, this feels like a mash-up between Lover & folkmore sounds (cornelia street, it’s nice to have a friend, the lakes, horns from this is me trying)
Mastermind
i’m the wind in our free-flowing sails / and the liquor in our cocktails 😎
and i sweaaaaaaarrrrrr / i’m only cryptic and Machiavellian ‘cause i caaaaare!
this song is cheekier than a lot of fans are giving it credit for - she’s winking at us!
callbacks:
musically, this reminds me of The Archer - the driving beat, the drop-off ending. and like gold rush/Labyrinth, they are kind of each other’s inverse.
you should think about the consequence/ of you touching my hand in a darkened room (Gorgeous, Lover) • and the touch of a hand lit the fuse / of a chain reaction of countermoves
i hate accidents / except when we went from friends to this (Paper Rings, Lover) • …what if i told you none of it was accidental? *OprahSoWhatIsTheTruth.gif*
Hits Different (Target Bonus Track)
LISTEN - it is a CRIME that she took one of her best songs ever and made it a Target exclusive. tbh? i wish i had never heard it because now i’m just mad that i have to find shady ways to listen to it until she decides to put it on streaming! (i haven’t done the CD → iTunes → iPod/iPhone dance in at least a decade, and i don’t plan on starting again! does it even work like that anymore? SEE?!)
this song just has…so much in it. it was very hard for me to pick favorite lines because the whole. thing. slaps.
i pictured you with other girls, in love / and threw up on the street • AND I NEVER DON’T CRY! AT THE BAAAR! • who among us!!!
i used to switch out these Kens, i'd just ghost / rip the band-aid off and skip town likе an asshole outlaw 🤠
now the sun burns my heart / and the sand hurts my feelings // please, Corny Taylor, i’m begging you 🙏🏼
the mother 👏🏼 fucking 👏🏼 BRIDGE!!! 👏🏼
I find the artifacts, cried over a hat
Cursed the space that I needed
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense
Why the wound is still bleedin'
You were the one that I loved
Don't need another metaphor, it's simple enough
A wrinkle in time like the crease by your eyes
This is why they shouldn't kill off the main guy
Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief
In the good in the world, you once believed in me
And I felt you and I held you for a while
Bet I could still melt your world
Argumentative, antithetical dream girl
yep, this song goes on the romcomaissance playlist as soon as it’s on spotify.
i heard your key turn in the door / down the hallway / is that your key in the door? is it okay? is it you? / or have they come to take me away? 🫠
harmony highlight: ✨ DREAMS ✨ (2:29)
callbacks:
i’m drunk in the back of the car / and i cried like a baby coming home from the bar (Cruel Summer, Lover) • and i never don’t cry at the bar…i slur your name till someone puts me in a car
that little up-and-down triplet - a musical callback to The Very First Night
— 3am Tracks —
The Great War
ayyy, THERE’s my boy Aaron! the addition of the 3am tracks really rounds out the album, but i do think it would feel more balanced if they were included as part of the main track list and ordered differently. with that said, is anyone actually listening to just the 13-track version? lmk!
this one has really grown on me since october! it’s a nice palate cleanser after pop for 45 minutes straight, and reminded me how much i love her more long-form songwriting.
harmony highlight: screaming from the crypt!
callbacks:
i swear you could hear a hair pin drop (right where you left me) • your finger on my hairpin triggers
clover blooms in the fields (ivy, evermore) • all that bloodshed / crimson clover
so yeah, it's a fire / it's a goddamn blaze in the dark / and you started it (ivy, evermore) • diesel is desire / you were playing with fire • burning embers • burned for better
war theme in ivy: so yeah, it's a war / it's the goddamn fight of my life / and you started it
flower & war imagery in Clean (1989) • the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst • hung my head as i lost the war
Bigger Than The Whole Sky
y’all, this song absolutely WRECKS me. i have tried to re-listen a few times while working on this, and i can’t get through it without crying. it is about losing someone too soon, so if that is a trigger for you…proceed with a box of kleenex. (but for real TW: many people online have said this song reminded them of their experiences with pregnancy loss.)
no words appear before me in the aftermath • a writer who works through her emotions with words has no words? devastating.
salt streams out my eyes and into my ears • this image!
did some force take you because i didn’t pray? is exactly where i lose it.
no callbacks, but of course my brain wants to connect “what could’ve been, would’ve been, what should’ve been you” to Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.
Paris
a certified BOP!
privacy sign on the door / and on my page, and on the whole world / romance is not dead / if you keep it just yours 💕 i love this for her.
harmony highlight: I’M SO IN LOVE! being yelled in the backing vocals of the 2nd chorus
callbacks:
privacy sign…on the whole world • the greatest of luxuries is your secrets (Dear Reader)
lived in the shade you were throwin' / 'til all of my sunshine was gone, gone, gone (I Forgot That You Existed) • levitate above all the messes made / sit quiet by my side in the shade / and not the kind that’s thrown, i mean the kind under where a tree has grown
as if the mere mention of Paris didn’t remind you of Lover, there’s this:
High Infidelity
is it bad that i’m kind of annoyed we got more songs about calvin? even if they do mostly talk shit about him?
i bent the truth too far tonight / i was dancing around, dancing around it
do you really wanna know where i was april 29? (would you say that dress is…bejeweled?)
tbh, this one’s kind of a skip for me.
harmony highlight: do i really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?
callbacks:
they ask do you have a man / i can still say i don't remember (Bejeweled) • i bent the truth too far tonight / i was dancing around, dancing around it
Glitch
the other red hearse collab!!! naturally, i love it. #TaylorSwiftWorkWithBlackArtistsMoreChallenge
i’d go back to wanting / dudes who give nothing 💀
the second instance of her coming in on a weird beat is at 1:57-8. i mean, i get it. it’s a glitch.
harmony highlight: in search of glorious happenings of happenstance on someone else’s playgroOUUNND!
callbacks:
we were supposed to be just friends • i hate accidents, except when we went from friends to this (Paper Rings, Lover)
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
we didn’t even have to wait for Dear John (TV) 😈
if i was some paint, did it splatter / on a promising grown man? / and if i was a child, did it matter / if you got to wash your hands?
ON A PROMISING GROWN MAN!!! the disdain in her voice. this song is divine feminine rage.
and now that i'm grown, i'm scared of ghosts / memories feel like weapons / and now that i know, i wish you'd left me wondering
harmony highlight: the high, screaming harmony on “first” of give me back my girlhood, it was mine first
callbacks:
don't you think nineteen’s too young / to be played by your dark twisted games (Dear John, Speak Now) • and i damn sure never would've danced with the devil at nineteen
Dear Reader
dear reader, burn all the files / desert all your past lives / and if you don’t recognize yourself, that means you did it right
dude…the early 30s energy…🫠
the vulnerability!!! this one stunned me upon first listen. her emotions may be tinged with 3 a.m. melodrama, but she’s telling the truth, and speaking straight to her fans. (did she finally go to therapy?!)
BRIDGE QUEEN 👑
So I wander through these nights / I prefer hiding in plain sight
My fourth drink in my hand / These desperate prayers of a cursed man
Spilling out to you for free / But darling, darling, please
You wouldn't take my word for it / If you knew who was talking
If you knew where I was walking
To a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there
Where I pace in my pen and / My friends found friends who care
No one sees when you lose / When you're playing solitaire
harmony highlight: my sexual orientation is the low harmony at 1:56. but i would be remiss to leave out the high harmony on prayers of a cursed man! 🤌🏼
You should find another guiding light / But I shine so bright 💔
ttyl swifties! (i don’t make the rules, but i feel like if you read this far…you’re a swiftie.)
🧡 jess