Taylor Swift – Midnights

November 7, 2022

taylor swift – midnights

Midnights is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 21, 2022, via Republic Records. Announced at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, the album marks Swift's first body of new work since her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore. Midnights is a concept album about nocturnal contemplation, written and produced by Swift with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.

Inspired by “13 sleepless nights” of Swift's life, Midnights contains confessional yet cryptic lyrics, ruminating themes such as anxiety, insecurity, self-criticism, self-awareness, insomnia, and self-confidence. Musically, Swift experimented with electronica, dream pop, bedroom pop and chill-out music styles in the album, eschewing the alternative folk sound of her 2020 releases for a return to synth-pop. It is characterized by subtle grooves, vintage synthesizers, drum machine, and hip hop/R&B rhythms.

After meager promotion of her 2020 albums, Swift returned to a traditional album roll-out with Midnights. She unveiled the track list on a TikTok series called Midnights Mayhem with Me from September 21 to October 7, 2022. Seven bonus tracks were surprise released on October 21. Midnights received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised its restrained production, candid songwriting, and vocal cadences.

The album was a major commercial success across all formats of music consumption, breaking numerous records globally. It achieved the Spotify record for the most single-day streams for an album and topped the charts in 25 territories, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it opened with over 1.5 million units, became 2022's fastest and best-selling album, logged the largest vinyl sales week of the 21st century, marked Swift's 11th number-one album on the Billboard 200, and spawned 10 top-ten songs on the Hot 100—the most for any album—in the same week. The lead single, “Anti-Hero”, reached number-one in 12 countries, including the Billboard Hot 100; fellow tracks “Lavender Haze”, “Snow on the Beach” featuring Lana Del Rey, and “Bejeweled” also peaked inside the top-10 internationally. To support Midnights among her other albums, Swift will embark on the Eras Tour in 2023.