Midnights

"Midnights" is the pop album I've always wanted from Taylor Swift since "1989", which for many is what they crave least.

My journey with Taylor Swift is interesting, I always liked and knew her songs and hits, but I was never a huge fan until "Folklore" happened. That project completely changed my opinion of her and shaped my whole personality into adulthood. The artist's lyricism is something that I can't explain how much it touches me and I would have to write an even bigger text to try to get there (so let's not do that). However, as a starting point, let's define that before this album the singer released her two best albums lyrically, and what would come forward was on a huge pedestal. What may have happened to "Midnights".

Before blondie entered the indie and folk world she released two albums that were overshadowed by her chosen singles: "Reputation" and "Lover". One of the main problems in these projects is the amount of fillers. Consequently the length of the album in "Lover" and the lack of cohesion of "Reputation". Listening to this album I thought about how this album combined the best aspects of those two albums and applied the peculiar lyricism and sonotory of "Folklore" and "Evermore".

The disc ends up refining the singer's qualities in pop music with the experience gained in the last two albums. We have a bit of everything here, from the singer's cryptic lyrics and bridges on "Your On Your Own Kid" to the 80s synth-pop that we love on "Lavender Haze" and "Mastermind". Jack Antonoff's production isn't as ambitious as other projects, but Swift's charisma manages to save songs from being completely mediocre like "Vigilante Shit", the album's worst song probably.

The album's theme turns out to be the singer's most intrusive and self-loathing thoughts in the middle of the night, the moment when we are most vulnerable, and how the tragic events in her life can affect her in a way she can't escape mentally. The whole kind of thoughts arise as for example in the single "Anti-Hero" ("Sometimes, I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I'm a monster on the hill / Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city"). The way the album combines heavier and lighter/fun lyrics in an authentic way, at the same time, brings an essential balance in a pop record.

"Midnights" has so much to discover over time that I might even come back here to mention more things and change the score, but so far I've had a fun and exciting experience, and it doesn't matter if many disagree with me, because I'm okay with that. However, I think that certain people have to get out of the mentality that the singer has to break barriers and change musical genres all the time, sometimes it takes transitions for an artist to be able to evolve more.