Taylor Swift's 10th studio album had a promising concept, but failed to execute, leaving me frustrated with the singer's failed potential.
By Erika Gedgaudas
Rumored to sound as if Lana Del Rey performed Melodrama, Midnights was expected to be dark, fun, and full of emotive synth pop with lyrics that could break your heart. With Producer of the Year Jack Antonoff on board and Taylor Swift riding high after being named Songwriter-Artist of the Decade, hopes were high for the artist’s 10th studio album.
I wanted to like Midnights, I truly did. Sadly, the reality is that Midnights feels lazy. The production is disappointing. The vocal performance is distracted. The lyrics are some of the worst Taylor has ever written. While the album sonically “feels like the older sister to 1989,” it lacks the maturity and care expected from a singer-songwriter who’s been putting out albums for nearly half her life.
At its best, Midnights is fine. “Snow On The Beach” is pretty, with light, airy, yet exciting production that the rest of the album lacks. Lana and Taylor’s voices compliment each other beautifully and it’s some of the stronger lyrical work on the project. Production on “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “Karma” is a breath of fresh air: these tracks are the most reminiscent of sister-album 1989 (an album I was obsessed with at its release) and their guitar and synth instrumentals sit in a place that suits Taylor’s high vocal resonance. Compared to the rest of the album, the production is too bass-heavy and has lots of hollow space, which doesn’t compliment Taylor’s voice and drags the energy down.
Each track leaves something to be desired, with stagnant climaxes and songs that should have stayed in the writer’s room. “Labyrinth” could have been interesting if they did something out-of-the-box with the “Hard Feelings/ Loveless”-esque tone switch it attempts. “Anti-Hero” has a strong message, but the childish writing and production take the listener out of the emotion.
Compared to previous albums like folklore, Red, and Fearless, Taylor’s vocal performance is lacking. Majorly. We know Taylor Swift can sing her heart out, yet we heard none of it on Midnights. Her performance feels lazy, as though she was distracted or bored in the studio and couldn’t connect with the lyrics she apparently wrote in “turmoil and tears”. In particular, “Question…?”, with its simple melody and unmoving lyrics, has no saving grace in the performance, weakening the album and its weighty themes. The following song, “Vigilante Shit”, narrates a female revenge plot, but lacks the energy needed to get the listener excited about it. There is no emotion, no sharpness in her voice to indicate she means the words she says. The production doesn’t help, either, sounding like an unfinished demo of the new James Bond theme. Stripped back sonics require more passion to make the choice meaningful; the monotony of her vocals dampens any intensity she may have felt for this project.
What happened to Taylor’s strong belt? Why did she have one tone throughout what felt like the entire album? It became boring, almost frustrating, to listen to the same flat emotion in every track. Had she included more dynamic vocals, maybe I wouldn’t be so bothered by the downfalls of Midnights as a whole.
Unfortunately, the writing on Midnights doesn't reflect the maturity Taylor claims to have undergone. Touted by publications as Taylor’s most mature album yet, lines like “Karma is a cat purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me” seemed undeserving of such high praise. Many lyrics sound predictable, like Taylor spent little time conceiving them. “I wake up screaming from dreaming, one day you’ll watch as I’m leaving, ‘cause you got tired of my scheming” is hardly up to par with “I search the party for better bodies just to learn you never cared”. The back-and-forth between emotive and uninspired throughout Midnights feels like Taylor ran out of filler lines in an album full of heavy-handed concepts. Every once in a while, she brings up politics in order to take a stance on next to nothing. “It was one drink after another, fuckin’ politics and gender roles” is a stand-alone line that gives no context as to why this matters in the grand scheme of Taylor’s emotional journey. “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?” perhaps gives the listener more context to think about the lyric critically, but is so pretentious in its vocabulary that it sticks out like a sore thumb among the simpler lines of the rest of the song. Perhaps the line I’ve seen discussed the most online, “Anti-Hero”’s “It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me” plays loud and proud. An attempt at mocking those who blame her for all the wrongs she’s suffered, the lyric itself is not nuanced in any way. Who is she saying “Hi” to? It sounds like something a millennial TA trying to bond with their unimpressed class would say.
Swift in the music video for "Anti-Hero" / photo : Taylor Swift
Other lyrics like “Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man”, “Me and Karma vibe like that”, and “Talk your talk and go viral, I just need this love spiral” may not be the worst of the bunch, but they take away any chance Midnights had to be timeless. Like the line “Shade never made anybody less gay” in her 2019 hit “You Need To Calm Down”, using slang that quickly goes out of style can date a song in less than a decade. I fear this will be the outcome of Midnights; something that, in 2025, listeners will laugh at how out-of-touch it already is.
This is not to demean the hardships Taylor writes about; having been a global name since the age of 17, she’s undergone much more than her fair share of scrutiny. She writes about the pain she’s dealt with like isolation and eating disorders and heartbreak and abuse. It gives the listener a sense of what she’s had to do to persevere in her unique position. Yet, the writing on previous albums like folklore and evermore are much more indicative of her maturity and musical growth. Lines like “Eyes like sinking ships on waters, so inviting I almost jump in” (“gold rush”) or “You’re not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending?” (“exile”) are thoughtful and indicative of a strong writing style that reflects on her experiences. I struggle to find standout lines like these in Midnights, and despite the subject matter, the lyricism feels substandard in comparison to her previous work.
After folklore won Album of the Year and its sister evermore was nominated for the same award, Taylor must feel the eyes on her. Free from restrictive management and finally taking back what is rightfully hers, I understand that she would want to explore every path, genre, and opportunity she gets. Yet, in a time so necessary to make a name for her true self—without others controlling her—Midnights doesn’t show the careful consideration its predecessors had. It feels rushed and vacant. I’ve listened to the album at least three times now. While it’s grown on me slightly, I can’t help but question if Taylor really cared about this project.
In her time of renewal, Taylor needs to focus on doing things right, not doing things fast. Based on the quality of Midnights, there was no need for a third album release in a two-year span. People were still heavily engaging with folklore and evermore. If they wanted more, they were looking for quality, not quantity. The 13-song release, plus its surprise deluxe drop with an added 7 songs, suggests that more attention was paid to how many songs her fans would get over how much effort would be put into each one. Had more time and care been put into the lyrics, vocals, and production, a deluxe album would not have been necessary to make up for the shortcomings of the original.
Despite my criticisms, Midnights has genuinely renewed my interest in an artist I once held so dear. Midnights isn’t a step up from Taylor’s previous work, but it has the potential to bloom into something that reflects Taylor’s experience and musicianship. I hope that for future projects, Taylor can dedicate more time and energy into making them sound more full, thought-out, and mature.
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