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- Taylor Swift’s 10th album, ‘Midnights’, will be released at midnight on October 21, 2022.
- She announced the album while accepting an award at the VMAs in August, and has been dropping small hints about the record in the weeks leading up to its release.
- ‘Midnights’ features 13 tracks, including one that features Lana Del Ray, as well as 3 bonus tracks.
- The record will see Taylor revert back to pop music as she once again teams up with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.
The wait is almost over! It’s been nearly two months since Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 29, where she shocked fans with her big announcement of a brand new album. Taylor was accepting the award for Video of the Year for her “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” Short Film, and revealed that she had a new album coming out. She also said that she’d be giving more details at midnight, which was less than one hour away at the time.
True to her promise, Taylor announced the upcoming release of her 10th studio album, Midnights, at 12:00 on the dot. Although Taylor dropped some never-before-heard songs with the re-releases of Fearless and Red in 2021, this is her first full, new album since Evermore in 2020. In the weeks since the VMAs, Taylor has continued to surprise fans with more tibits about Midnights, including all the track names and one very special featured artist. However, she’s mostly been cryptic about the release, and hasn’t shared any full songs ahead of the album coming out. Find out everything we know about ‘Midnights’ below!
When Does Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Come Out?
While making her album announcement at the VMAs, Taylor also revealed that Midnights will be released on Oct. 21, 2022. She shared the album’s cover on Instagram, as well, which features a close-up of her face. She’s wearing glittery blue eye shadow and holding up a lit lighter. The cover also confirmed that there will be 13 tracks on the album.
In addition to the actual record, Target will be releasing a Deluxe version of Midnights. The Deluxe record, which is called the “Lavender Version,” includes two remixes and one additional bonus track. Taylor also kicked off September by announcing that there are Special Edition covers available for Midnights. They were on sale for one week after the announcement.
Of course, Taylor never goes small and always has something hidden in her work. On Sept. 16, she revealed via Instagram that if the Midnights album and three Special Editions are placed next to each other in a square, the numbers on their back covers form a clock. It’s all in the details!
What Songs Are On ‘Midnights’?
On Sept. 20, TikTok urged fans to check out Taylor’s page on the app at midnight. That evening, she released her new segment “Midnights Mayhem With Me,” which featured her revealing track names from the Midnights album. Following the first segment, Taylor continued “Midnights Mayhem With Me” every few days at midnight, revealing one track at a time. She used a random lottery ball spinner to decide which track would be shared each day.
@taylorswift Midnights tracklist reveal!! Introducing: Midnights Mayhem with Me 🌌😎 #TSmidnighTS #SwiftTok #MidnightsMayhemWithMe
The first track Taylor shared was track 13, which is called “Mastermind.” She followed it up with track 8, which is called “Vigilante S***.” On Sept. 26, she revealed track 7, “Question…?” and on Sept. 28, she shared that track 6 is called “Midnight Rain.” Friday, Sept. 30 brought the reveal of track 2, which is “Maroon.”
Next up, on Oct. 3, Taylor shared that Track 3 will be calfled “Anti-Hero.” Along with that announcement, she also posted a “Behind The Song” video for the track on Instagram, explaining what it is about. “Anti-Hero is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. I struggled a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized and — not to sound too dark — but I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person. Don’t feel bad for me, you don’t need to, but this song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves and it’s all of those aspects of things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we’re going to be this person. I like “Anti-Hero” a lot because it’s really honest.”
Taylor confirmed that track 9 is called “Bejeweled” on Oct. 5, but then she really threw fans for a loop with her Oct. 6 announcement, when she shared that track 11 is called “Karma.” For Swifties, there’s long been a theory that Taylor was supposed to release an album in 2016. The theory claims that Taylor scrapped the album amidst her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. She reignited the theory in her 2020 music video for “The Man” when she included a scene with all of her previous album names spray-painted on a wall…along with the word “KARMA.” From then on, fans were convinced that the scrapped album was called “Karma.” Needless to say, Taylor’s fans went absolutely nuts when they saw that this was a song title on Midnights, and even Taylor was in on the joke, as she chuckled while announcing the track on TikTok.
Fans were once again caught by surprise at midnight on Oct. 7, as Taylor began an all-night “Midnights Mayhem With Me” series. At the top of the next five hours, she announced the remaining Midnights tracks, so the full list was confirmed by the early hours of Oct. 7. First up was track 1, “Lavender Haze,” followed by track 5, “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” and then track 10, “Labyrinth.” The final two tracks announced were track 12, “Sweet Nothing” and track 4, “Snow On The Beach.” Oh, and track 4 will also feature none other than Lana Del Rey!
Additionally, Taylor included another “Behind the Song” for “Lavender Haze,” and explained that she learned the phrase while watching Mad Men. “I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the 50s where they would just describe being in love. If you were in the lavender haze that meant you were in the all-encompassing, love glow. I thought that was really beautiful. I guess, theoretically, when you’re in the lavender haze you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud. I think a lot of people have to deal with this now — not just ‘public figures’ –because we live in the era of social media. If the world finds out you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. My relationship for six years, we’re have to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. This song is sort of just about ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
On October 14, Target confirmed the title for the album’s deluxe version bonus track, which is called “Hits Different.” The brand also revealed which two songs will be remixed. “You’re On Your Own, Kid” will get a strings remix, while “Sweet Nothing” will get a piano remix on the deluxe album.
The full track list:
- “Lavender Haze”
- “Maroon”
- “Anti-Hero”
- “Snow On The Beach” (ft. Lana Del Rey)
- “You’re On Your Own, Kid”
- “Midnight Rain”
- “Question…?”
- “Vigilante S***”
- Bejeweled
- “Labyrinth”
- “Karma”
- “Sweet Nothing”
- “Mastermind”
- “Hits Different” (Bonus Track)
- “You’re On Your Own, Kid” (String Remix)
- “Sweet Nothing” (Piano Remix)
What Will ‘Midnight’s Sound Like?
Taylor took a step in a different direction with her last two new albums, Folklore and Evermore, in 2020. The records had more of an indie/alternative sound, which strayed from her former pop and country roots. Well, it looks like we’re back to the POP genre on Midnights. The album is listed as a ‘pop’ record.
Taylor also shared some behind-the-scenes clips from the making of Midnights on social media. In the footage, Jack Antonoff appears alongside her in the studio. Jack and Taylor collaborated heavily on 1989, which was her first full foray into pop music. He’s also been the producer on many of her most fan-loved pop songs. Some of the songs Jack and Taylor have worked on together include “Cruel Summer,” “Call It What You Want,” “Getaway Car” and “Out Of The Woods,” so fans are expecting that vibe on this record.
Meanwhile, Taylor also gave some insight into the inspiration behind Midnights when she announced the album in August. “We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears,” she wrote. “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.”
The message continued, “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching — hoping that just maybe when the clock strikes twelve…we’ll meet ourselves. Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life fie, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight.” Based on Taylor’s message, it appears that Midnights will tell various stories throughout her life, and not just from her last album to now.
As the release date for Midnights grew closer, Taylor also started sharing some lyrics from the album on Spotify billboards around the world. She did not specify which tracks the lyrics came from, thought. The first one was, “I should not be left to my own devices,” followed by, “I polish up real nice.” The other lyrics included, “Just like clockwork, the dominoes cascaded in a line,” as well as “Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out.” The latter lyric was actually a line from the speech that Taylor gave at New York University in May 2022, so that speech was an Easter egg and we didn’t even know it!
Taylor also revealed five things that kept her up at night to inspire the album. Those were: Self-loathing, Fantasizing about revenge, Falling in love, Wondering what might have been and Falling apart.
What Is Happening With Taylor Swift’s Re-Recordings?
Since Taylor was in the midst of re-releasing some of her records when she announced Midnights, many are wondering what the timeline is for the rest of those re-records. So far, Taylor dropped two re-recorded albums, Fearless and Red, which means she has four more to go: Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 1989 and Reputation.
Taylor has already released the full re-recorded versions of “This Love” and “Wildest Dreams” from 1989, as well as a clip from the new version of “Bad Blood.” This led fans to believe that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be her next record. However, without any warning, Taylor dropped the Midnights bomb on us instead!
The truth of the matter is that, like many things with Taylor…we simply don’t know! We can expect her to give Midnights some time to marinate before the next re-recording is released, but a timeline has not been shared just yet.
Taylor is re-recording her first six records so she can earn the Master’s to the music. She tried to buy the Master’s from her old record label, Big Machine, but was denied the right to do so by label head Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor as a teenager. Rather than just letting Taylor buy the Master’s flat-out, Scott wanted her to record six new albums for Big Machine in order to earn back the rights to each of the albums. Taylor did not want to take that deal, so she left Big Machine in 2018, and in 2020, she began the process of re-recording.
