One of the most awaited albums since its announcement this year is definitely Taylor Swift’s new project “Midnights”which is her 10th studio album. This masterpiece arrived to us on October 21st, 2022, and ever since its release, it has been breaking every record, even Swift’s own records. Midnights is a concept album about nocturnal contemplation written and produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor herself. The project embodies a different new work by the singer and songwriter since Folklore and Evermore (both released in 2020). The studio album counts with thirteen songs including one featuring Lana Del Rey. Swift also released Midnights (3am Edition) which includes seven more songs; this edition would be considered the deluxe edition of the album.
Taylor Swift had five nominations for the All Too Well short film at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. In her acceptance speech on winning Video of the Year, she announced a “brand new” studio album coming on October 21st. At midnight, Swift posted on all her social media that her 10th studio album would be titled as Midnights. Also, the singer described the album as “the story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life”.
On September 21st, Taylor started revealing the tracklist through Tiktok in a new segment called “Midnights Mayhem with Me” where she would announce one title every three days. The series consisted of thirteen episodes, and the ones that caused more commotion through swifties, was the announcement of “Karma” and “Snow On The Beach” where Taylor said it was featuring Lana Del Rey. The long-awaited collaboration finally came to our ears, since swifties and Lana Del Rey’s fandom wanted these two powerful singers together in one song.
Midnights is just four days old, but it broke records since its release. It broke specifically two records in Spotify such as Midnights becoming the most-streamed album in a single day. Taylor herself broke the record for the most-streamed artist in a single day in Spotify history. In relation to sales, Midnight already has the largest sales week for any album since 2017 and now has become the top-selling album of 2022. It broke the record in the United States, selling around 800,000 copies in one day in different formats including digital album download, CD, vinyl and cassette variants. Taylor Swift surpassed Harry Styles who was the best-selling artist this year with his studio album Harry’s House selling around 620,000 copies through the week. The difference is that Swift sold almost a million copies in just one day, this is how the impact of the 32-year-old is noticeable worldwide.
Midnights is formed by thirteen songs such as, Lavender Haze; Maroon; Anti-Hero; Snow On The Beach (featuring Lana Del Rey); You’re On Your Own, Kid; Midnight Rain; Question…?; Vigilante Shit; Bejeweled; Labyrinth; Karma; Sweet Nothing and Mastermind. Swift confirmed that the project will also be a “visual album” meaning that each song will have a music video. In the visual content, famous people will feature, such as Jack Antonoff, Laith Ashley, Mike Birbiglia, Laura Dern, John Early, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Alana Haim, Danielle Haim, Este Haim, Pat McGrath and Dita Von Teese.
Needless to say that the album was praised by the critics, including the American magazine Rolling Stone, and newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent who all gave Midnights a 5 out of 5. Meanwhile in Metacritic, it scored 87% out of 100% with 17 reviews.
Taylor is back and again in a good way as she has broken records. Both fans and critics are delighted with the album and everything indicates that it will be successful at the level of winning awards.
Andrea Rich
