Share and Follow
Hitmaker Taylor Swift surprised her fans with the announcement of the release of a new album at the MTV Video Music Awards 2022. The shocking announcement increased the rating of the MTV VMAs, as reported by the award show’s producer.
The Lover singer was at the show to accept the awards for her three wins for All Too Well (10 Minutes Version) (Taylor’s Version). “I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21st,” Swift said in her ‘Video Of The Year’ award acceptance speech while simultaneously promising more details at midnight.
True to her word, Taylor revealed the name of her tenth studio album along with an insight into the concept of the album, through her social media handles. This would be her first album since November 2021 when she released Red (Taylor’s Version), the re-recording of her album Red, in an attempt to gain the masters of her first six albums.
The One-Of-A-Kind Reveals
Soon after sending the fans into a frenzy by announcing the release of a brand-new album, the Wildest Dreams crooner revealed the album’s name and other details about it. Like the genius she is, Taylor disclosed that the album is called Midnights one August midnight.
Swift described Midnights as “a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams” and “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered through my life.” She invited everyone to meet her at midnight.
The album has 13 tracks, unsurprisingly so because she is reasonably obsessed with that number. The 11-times Grammy winner unveiled the track list through a series of videos titled ‘Midnight Mayhem With Me’. These videos were uploaded on TikTok and Instagram.
The singer effectively kept the fans on their toes as she revealed the name of the tracks one at a time using a bingo roller machine containing 13 numbered ping pong balls. She insisted that she wanted to do it this way to defy her “habit of dropping cryptic clues and Easter eggs” about her music.
The ‘mayhem’ series consists of 9 videos. Taylor revealed the names of the remaining 5 tracks in the last video. She also made a surprising revelation that she has collaborated with singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey on track 4, Snow On The Beach.
Taylor’s Midnights Dove Deep
The album Midnights is based on ‘nocturnal contemplation’. However, every song on it was undoubtedly written with a different sentiment. Instead of leaving her admirers second-guessing, the Getaway Car singer decided to give an insight into some tracks.
Swift began by explaining the meaning of the third track named Anti-Hero. She expressed her vulnerability in the song by saying, “I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before.”
She added that out of all the songs that she has written so far, this is one of her favorites because “it’s really honest”.
The next two tracks that the fans got to know about were Lavender Haze and Snow On The Beach. The former is about ‘the feeling of being in love’ about her relationship with her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, who has already been the subject of some of the songstress’ songs.
Read Related Also: Zendaya And Nika King Completely Improvised One Of The Most Intense Scenes On Euphoria
Snow On The Beach features a Lana Del Rey collab about “falling in love with someone at the same time as they’re falling in love with you in this cataclysmic, fated moment.”
Taylor said that it is similar to witnessing “snow falling on a beach.” Another little detail that was discovered about this song later was Dylan O’Brien playing drums on it.
A few days before the release of the album, Taylor promised to unveil the five things “that kept me up at night and helped inspire the Midnights album.” These things were: “self-loathing,” “fantasizing about revenge,” “wondering what might have been,” “falling in love” and “falling apart.”
Swift Had More Surprises Planned
The Willow singer is infamous for her creative surprises. So, fans were more than happy when she decided to give them more of those.
One of these surprises was a sneak peek into the lyrics from the album. These lyrics were seen in different markets around the world each day at the stroke of midnight. In addition to these reveals, Swift also uploaded clips about Midnights on Spotify’s phone-only pre-save page.
The first lyrical tease “I should not be left to my own devices” appeared on a Times Square billboard. The second reading, “I polish up real nice” showed up on a billboard in her London Boy’s hometown, London.
The next three lyrical teases came up in Brazil, her hometown – Nashville, and Mexico. The first two happened a couple of days before the album’s release. The last lyrical tease was something Taylor had said during her NYU commencement speech.
Three hours after the official release of the album, the Cardigan singer had a “special very chaotic surprise” planned according to the calendar that she had shown through a video posted on her social media accounts.
This calendar also showed the airing of a teaser trailer for her album scheduled during the third quarter of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video.
The “chaotic surprise” turned out to be a ‘3 am edition’ of the Midnights album with seven bonus tracks.
