Swift's Midnights: Back to the Future?

MUSIC REVIEW

After a plethora of albums that went from soft to hard, pop on "1989"; experimentation on "Reputation"; earthy, pandemic isolation character exploration on "Folklore" and "Evermore", "Midnights" feels like a revisit to an older, safer idea of Swift. It is full of songs that are very promising and comfortable but may tend to feel like it's not enough.

Taylor Swift has always been at her best when it comes to self exploration. She manages to pinpoint her internal turbulences. She is ruthless when it comes to diving into her own battles. She treats herself as a character, an idea, a narrative - "Taylor Swift". She feels the world's POV of her and rather than opposing it, she faces it and makes them her own too.

These are the kind of songs that stand out on her new album "Midnights". The album's not quite unfamiliar when it comes to the way it sounds, while being her 10th studio album. It is a narration of raw love, in some aspects flashbacks to past romantic scenarios, but most importantly it feels like a depiction of what it feels like to live as a deeply observed figure, constantly narrativized by others.

Lyrics like, "Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, like some kind of congressman?" are what that comprises her track "Anti-Hero". This track is one of the high points in the album. The track has gone viral in social media and the repetition of the words "I'm the problem, it's me," in the hook is what made the track stand out. The music video for the same is well done with proper demonstration of the concepts. A very catchy track, filled with self imagery.

On the track "Mastermind," Swift tries to paint a picture of how her villain origin story developed. If you are one of those fans who wanted to see her as a villain, these are your go to lyrics, "No one wanted to play with me as a little kid /So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since/To make them love me and make it seem effortless."

Every pop star tries to pick up elements from some outside perspective. Swift did the same and she picked up some of the best elements in this process. However, there are certain limitations to this process. Like every other star, Swift seems to be stuck at times with the thought of whether to reckon with the past or walk ahead boldly into the future.

In this aspect, Swift mostly looks backward on "Midnights". In many points in the album, it seems like an extension of her 2019 LP "Lover." This was another album which was inconsistent in its formation. Production-wise the songs in this album feature syrupy synths, which give the album an astral, slow-motion effect. A listener might feel as if Swift was singing from a reverb chamber.

After a plethora of albums that went from soft to hard, pop on "1989"; experimentation on "Reputation"; earthy, pandemic isolation character exploration on "Folklore" and "Evermore", "Midnights" feels like a revisit to an older, safer idea of Swift. It is full of songs that are very promising and comfortable but may tend to feel like it's not enough.

However, these old modes play really well on her at times. On the track "Karma," we see the incorporation of an aggressive non conventional sound. Along with it, there's a soft burst in her voice toward the end when she sings the lines "Karma's a relaxing thought/Aren't you envious that for you it's not?"

But some of the lyrics tend to lack vitality and are too clear in presentation. It feels like the album lacks the details that made Swift one of the signature pop songwriters of the 21st century. On the metallic and tense track "Bejeweled," Swift sings "Don't put me in the basement/ When I want the penthouse of your heart".

"Snow on the Beach," in collaboration with fellow great American songwriter Lana Del Rey, starts as a track with light Christmas music energy. However, when one would expect it to ascend it doesn't do so. Del Rey presents her voice with at a rumbling gravitas. It's like the aroma of being caught in a spider's web. However, Swift's vocals doesn't do the same.

Many critics are of the view that the album constrains her voice. It was produced by Swift with her regular collaborator Jack Antonoff. Throughout the album, on songs like "You're On Your Own, Kid" and "Maroon," Swift's vocals are layered together to a point where it tends to be suffocating. However, the track "Sweet Nothing," stands out as a romantic playground lullaby that she wrote with her longtime romantic partner, Joe Alwyn.

There does exist songs which present a way out of the whirlpool. Tracks like "Lavender Haze" includes some sweet singing.

Another high point in the album is "Vigilante " Words like "Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man/You did some bad things but I'm the worst of them, " stands up for the narration of an antagonist. This track is where Swift leans with intention to her character version. It is the pak or her self-reflection effort.

Listeners have also been presenting views that Perhaps "Midnights" feels a lot like a revisit of her old accomplishments. 'Midnights' leaves a way for listeners to question where Swift might go as a midcareer pop star.

The album feels like a failed retreat attempt to something similar to the territory that filled stadiums in the mid-to-late 2010s. She did pick up elements in her previous albums, which a listener would expect her to bring back in her new albums as a proper comeback to pop. Overall the album did manage to build the hype but the same cannot be said for its outcome.

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