Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album Midnights broke more records than any previous album. Midnights has been the number 1 album on the Billboard 200 since its release in November, and it also broke 73 other records around the world while continuing to today. During its release week, it sold over 575,000 copies on vinyl with the number growing daily. Most albums are announced and then released, but Taylor decided to leave breadcrumbs to increase excitement. Fans would stay up until midnight every other night as she released a song title and then posted lyrics around the world for people to piece together. Throughout the month of October she secretly dropped more clues. 

“Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight,” Taylor said in her announcement post on Instagram. In those midnight moments, Taylor gives in to her intrusive thoughts, allowing her romance, public image, and inner child to take over at various points and either wreck or save her. A nostalgic journey through her professional and personal life completes the 13 sleepless nights in Midnights. “Lavender Haze” is the first track on Midnights, with the last track being “Dear Reader.” Upon first listen, the album may sound like just a pop album, but once you dig deeper and strip back the lyrics you can find how vulnerable Taylor was with her words in the songs. For example in her fifth track, “You’re On Your Own, Kid”, Taylor sings, “From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes, I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this. I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by the perfect kiss. The jokes weren’t funny, I took the money.” This depicts the beginning of her music career when people viewed her as the perfect “shiny new toy”, yet in reality she was just hiding how she truly felt in her songs. In Midnights, Taylor challenged herself with her songwriting and wrote lyrics that were very vulnerable for her to put out into the world, which ended up paying off and creating her most successful album.

Overall I think Taylor Swift’s newest album Midnights deserves a 13/10 rating as the album is pop perfection with the deep lyrics included. There is a song that everyone can relate to and enjoy, and I recommend you give it a listen.