"Midnights"

My whole life I’ve never been a big Taylor Swift fan. I used to hear her on the radio all the time as a kid and I thought some of her songs were alright, but there wasn’t really anything that drew me to her music or made me want more. This new album, “Midnights,” being her first new album since 2020 I thought I’d give her music another chance. I went in with low expectations so I wouldn’t be disappointed, and yet somehow I still was. My biggest problem with most of the tracks was how oversaturated it sounded, almost like the songs were made in a factory. A majority of the songs on the album don’t show off her vocal range at all and it’s very obvious that her voice has been through so many different vocal effects it doesn’t sound natural. The first song, “Lavender Haze,” doesn’t have this problem as much for me. You can tell there’s some vocal effects there but it’s still a catchy song. It’s a fun intro where she actually sings, which mixed with the upbeat instrumental and sample during the chorus it’s easily the best song on the album. After that though is where many of the problems start. Maroon is the first song that has a really bland, uninteresting instrumental. The drop into the chorus is really underwhelming as well, and Taylor’s singing doesn’t save it at all. The same can be said for tracks like Anti-Hero, which sounds like it was only meant to be a hit, “Questions…?,” “Sweet Nothing,” and a few others. These all just sound like extremely generic pop songs that almost any mainstream pop artist could make in their sleep. A lot of my other problems with this album come with the songwriting. It sounds like she didn’t take much time writing the lyrics, a lot of the lines sound like nursery rhymes with how simple they were, which may not be a problem for a lot of people but it feels repetitive and like I’ve heard them before. On songs like “Question…?” The painfully average songwriting made it flow really weird and sound off. Some lyrics stood out as really bad as well too, “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby

And I'm a monster on the hill,” or “No one wanted to play with me as a little kid So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since.” These lines just come across as forced and kind of corny. She also seemed to be trying to go back and use some of her old sounds on songs like “Vigilante S***,” which just sounded like a sad attempt at capturing the old sound she used to have in her revenge era.

I know it sounds like I just hate this album, but there were some highlights. “Snow on the Beach” with Lana Del Rey was a really nice, calming track, and the intro “Lavender Haze” was another really good song. Other than those two tracks “Karma” was the only other song I’d say I enjoyed on the album, despite some questionable lyrics it has a fun vibe to it and it’s pretty tolerable. Overall after two listens I can confidently say I wasted an hour and a half of my life listening to this album. Overall I thought this album was pretty bad, but if you enjoyed some of her old work you should give it a listen.

Rating: High 4/10

Track rating: