By Paige Edmund
Taylor presents herself in this album as a friend. She is the person you talk to in the middle of the night that makes you feel warm. In comparison to other albums, Midnights (3am Edition) rings close with 1989 and the cherry of Reputation. She is a friend; she is finding herself. She is young and wants answers. A sharp turn from Folklore and Evermore’s folk vibe.
When listening, I feel like I’m drinking on the floor of my apartment with my friends. Laughing about exes, dogging on current relationships, and having an existential crisis of life. She rejects arbitrary and antiquated concessions of love and then begs for them to last. In Midnights (3am Edition), she’s talking through things with us, having debates on the bathroom floor, and making drunken jokes at our enemies.
In one song Taylor becomes the object of her own affections and in the next she pears into her psyche with abject horror and regret. A remnant of self-worth and the following fear that it was all just a mask.
One criticism I have surrounds its marketing. The photos and style were reminiscent of the 1970s soft rock era. Something many fans believed Taylor would explore more in this album. I was ecstatic over this, but the album I was presented with was pop. It was energetic. It made me feel like dancing. Critics say this is one of her most “cryptic and darkest” albums yet. I disagree. I think this album is great melodically and lyrically, just not in the way her fans and I had expected.
Written over pop and synth beats with cascading poetic lines and phrases we would say in passing. Taylor Swift and her collaborators have mastered how to curate pop songs in a cohesive and energetic manner. Most songs are a collaboration with Jack Antonoff and this must have been a holy pairing. When they began writing together on 1989, it’s no wonder they still write and produce together. In interviews, they said they began writing together and making this album when their partners were on set together. They were left alone in New York and left to their own devices, which breeds another album of pop perfection.
Rated thirteen out of thirteen
Editor’s note: at KXUA, we normally rate albums on a scale of 1-10, but given these special circumstances, we made an exception.
-ALD