“I Want Your Midnights” – Taylor Swift Announces New Album
On August 28th, Taylor Swift surprised fans at the MTV Video Music Awards by announcing her tenth studio album while accepting the Video of the Year award for the “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” short film. After thanking her fans and production staff, Swift made the reveal at the end of her acceptance speech.
“I had made up my mind that if you were gonna be this generous, and give us this,” Swift said, holding up the award, “it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out October 21st” She ended the speech ambiguously, saying “I will tell you more at midnight.”
True to her words, the title of the album, Midnights, was announced at midnight via Instagram and Twitter. Midnights will feature 13 tracks, split into an A and B side, which Taylor described in an Instagram post as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life” and “a collection of music written in the middle of the night” Though it remains unclear what genre the album will be, based on the information released thus far, Midnight is anticipated to be one of Swift’s most intimate and emotional yet.
“We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t- right this minute - about to make some fateful life-altering mistake,” Swift wrote in her announcement to accompany a darkly lit photo of her with her head in her hands. Album photos have a vintage color palette reminiscent of the 70s, with recurring tones of mahogany and midnight blue.
Swift announced the tracklist via TikTok through a mini-series called “Midnights Mayhem With Me.” Each episode consisted of Swift rolling a ball, labeled with a number between 1 and 13, out of a bingo cage. Swift would then reveal the title of the song that corresponded to the number on the ball. The full tracklist was confirmed on October 7th, featuring the tracks "Lavender Haze," "Maroon," "Anti-Hero," "Snow on the Beach," "You're On Your Own, Kid," "Midnight Rain," "Question…?," "Vigilante Shit," "Bejeweled," "Labyrinth," "Karma," "Sweet Nothing," and "Mastermind."
Fans are particularly excited about “Snow on the Beach,” which will feature Lana Del Rey, and “Anti-hero,” which Swift states is “one of [her] favorite songs [she’s] ever written.”
The “Midnights Mayhem With Me” series is surprisingly straightforward, considering that Swifties know that Taylor loves dropping subtle hints and easter eggs leading up to her album releases.
“I know that I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about my music and I am not here to deny that, but I am here to defy that,” Swift said in the first episode of “Midnights Mayhem With Me.” However, this hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with creative theories concerning the album.
One popular belief is that Midnights is a sister album to Swift’s seventh studio album Lover, which was originally going to be named “Daylight.” The sister album concept isn’t foreign to Swift, as she released sister albums folklore and evermore during quarantine. Others believe that Midnights will contain songs from a secret, unreleased Taylor album titled Karma, whose existence has been theorized since 2016. These rumors sparked in an episode of Midnight's Mayhem as Swift read that track 11 is called “Karma,” subsequently laughing for several seconds.
Another theory circulating on TikTok suspects that Harry Styles will be featured on the Midnights album. This is fan speculation over a song used in one of Swift’s recent TikToks titled “life you lead” by unknown artist “niceboy ed” and Styles’ middle name being Edward. Others theorize that Nice Boy Ed is Joe Alwyn’s friend, Joe Alwyn, or even Taylor herself.
Fans will find out if their theories are correct on October 21st, at midnight sharp. Until then, millions of Taylor Swift enthusiasts wait in anticipation for what is likely to be one of the best selling albums of 2022.
by VIVIAN WANG