Taylor Swift releases Midnights: Fans and critics praise the dark and cryptic album - as it happened
Many are now poring over Swift’s lyrics for her usual easter eggs and any references to her personal life
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Taylor Swift has released her 10th album, Midnights, along with a new video and a surprise seven additional songs.
Critics have so far shared positive review, includingThe Independent which gave Midnights five stars. Critic Helen Brown called it her “darkest and most cryptic album yet”.
Fans are also praising the record, and claiming that Swift temporarily crashed Spotify upon the release of the seven bonus tracks.
Many are now poring over Swift’s lyrics for her usual easter eggs and any references to her personal life.
A few particuarly pointed lyrics in “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” – taken from the album’s 3am Edition – seem to allude to her previous relationship with John Mayor.
The release of the music video for “Anti-Hero” – directed by Swift, herself – has certainly provided Swift fans with plenty of material to pour over.
Some fans believe “Lavender Haze” references Swift’s current partner, the actor Joe Alwyn, and calls out speculation over their relationship status.
Follow live updates below:
Taylor Swift hits out at Joe Alwyn marriage speculation on Midnights track ‘Lavender Haze’
Taylor Swift has responded to the consistent speculation about her relationship with Joe Alwyn in the Midnights track, “Lavender Haze”.
The lyrics to the album’s opening track include: “All they keep asking me / Is if I’m gonna be your bride / The only kinda girl they see / Is a one night or a wife” she sings, before the chorus: “I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say/ No deal/ The 1950s s*** they want from me.”
Read more below.
Taylor Swift hits out at Joe Alwyn marriage rumours on ‘Lavender Haze’
Swift has mostly refrained from publicly discussing her six-year relationship with the British actor
Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey shout out Janet Jackson on ‘Snow on the Beach'
“Snow on the Beach” is the only song on Midnights to credit a featured performer other than Taylor Swift.
Lana Del Rey, who co-wrote the song with Swift and their shared producer Jack Antonoff, also provides gauzy if hard to detect vocals on the romantic track.
The song’s lyrics also feature a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it homage to pop star Janet Jackson: “I can’t speak, afraid to jinx it / I don’t even dare to wish it / But your eyes are flying saucers from another planet / Now I’m all for you like Janet”
The mention alludes to Jackson’s hit 2001 album All For You.
Taylor Swift reveals her biggest fear on Midnights – elevators
Taylor Swift made several revelations with the release of her latest album, Midnights. From celebrity feuds to her relationship status with her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, Swift laid it all out on the table, including one previously unknown fact about herself.
She hates elevators.
Read about her metaphorically resonant fear below.
Taylor Swift reveals her biggest fear on Midnights – elevators
Swift dropped her tenth studio album, ‘Midnights,’ on Friday
Where was Taylor Swift on 29 April?
The impossibly mysterious refrain on the Midnights bonus track “High Infidelity” has listeners checking their calendars.
“Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th? / Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?” Swift sings in a refrain, alluding to an infidelity that may have occured on that date.
On Twitter, a Swiftie scavenger hunt to document the singer’s whereabouts every 29 April is, of course, already underway.
In 2012, she was apparently at Glee star Dianna Agron’s birthday party.
In 2016, the Calvin Harris and Rihanna song “This Is What You Came For” – which was co-written by Swift under a pseudonym – was released.
That accounts for three of the 32 possible 29 Aprils in Taylor Swift’s life that the song could be alluding to.
Whatever else is true, expect the date to become an unofficial holiday for Swifties.
'Sis you just broke spotify’
After weeks of teases and staggered reveals, Taylor Swift’s album arrived with an extra surprise for Swifties.
The singer dropped a special edition of the album including seven bonus tracks, titled Midnights (3am Edition).
The album was apparently so in demand that Spotify crashed for a short time.
“Sis you just broke spotify,” wrote one fan on Twitter.
Read more about it below.
Taylor Swift fans tell singer she ‘broke Spotify’
The singer has released a special 3am edition version of her new album ‘Midnights’
Midnights lyric videos to drop at 8PM EST / 1 AM BST
Taylor Swift has revealed lyric videos to accompany her new album Midnights will drop on Friday (21 October).
In a video posted to TikTok, Swift gives her fans a rundown of the week’s album-related events, including the album release (tick) and the music video drop for her single “Anti-Hero” (tick).
Next up? The release of lyric videos for the songs, which are expected to be available from 8PM EST / 1 AM BST.
In the clip, Swift’s calendar also reveals that the pop singer will appear on Monday’s (24 October) episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and drop her second music video off Midnights on Tuesday (25 October) at, you guessed it, midnight (12AM EST / 5 AM BST).
On Friday 28 October, Swift will be a guest on The Graham Norton Show.
Taylor Swift fans speculate that Scooter Braun is the target on new songs ‘Karma’ and ‘Vigilate S***’
It wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift album if legions of her fans didn’t race to suss out who the pop singer is obliquely referencing in each of her intensely personal tracks.
When it comes to Scooter Braun, with whom Swift has publicly feuded for years, two songs off her new album Midnights have been a source of speculation – “Karma” and “Vigilante S***”.
On “Karma”, Swift sings: “Spider boy, king of thieves / Weave your little webs of opacity/ My pennies made your crown / Trick me once, trick me twice / Don’t you know that cash ain’t the only price / It’s coming back around.”
Braun was previously the owner of the masters to Swift’s music and is also an investor in the lifestyle brand 100 Thieves.
On the song “Vigilante S***”, Swift sings: “Now she gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride / Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife.”
Some fans believe this song references Braun’s recent divorce from wife Yael Cohen. The former couple have three children and, according to court documents, Cohen maintained ownership of their family home after the split.
That said, other fans think the exact same songs are really about Kanye West, with whom Swift has also publicly feuded for years. West is in the midst of a divorce from his former partner, Kim Kardashian.
Tom Hiddleston or Taylor Lautner? All the fan theories about ‘Midnight Rain'
Taylor Swift has a knack for confessional song writing that obscures just enough detail that two fans scrutinising the same track can walk away with very different ideas of what it’s about.
Such is the case with “Midnight Rain”, the sixth song on Swift’s newest album. On social media, fans who have been analysing the lyrics can’t quite agree which of Swift’s former romantic partners is being referenced.
The song opens with the following lyrics: “He wanted it comfortable, I wanted that pain / He wanted a bride, I was making my own name / Chasing that fame, he stayed the same / All of me changed like midnight.”
Some listeners believe those words are a reference to British actor Tom Hiddleston, who Swift dated in 2016, and who is currently engaged to actor Zawe Ashton.
That said, other Swifties are just as certain the song is intended as a reference to Twilight star Taylor Lautner. One telling lyric for people who support this reading is the couplet: “I broke his heart 'cause he was nice / He was sunshine, I was midnight rain.”
Don’t lose me, but in Twilight, Lautner played a character called Jacob Black, who was frequently described as sharing the radiant qualities of the sun.
Fans who believe “Midnight Rain” is about Lautner also point to the relationship’s timeline. The song references a speaker who was “making my own name / Chasing that fame”, which is arguably a fair description of Swift in 2009.
In 2016 when Swift dated Hiddleston, the argument goes, she was “already famous”.
That’s all for the first day of Midnights
Has an album ever produced more speculative fan theories and ecastatic reaction videos than Midnights did in a single day’s listening on Friday (21 October)? I suspect not. And yet this is really just the beginning of Midnights’ slow roll-out. There are lyric videos and music videos to come. There are talk show appearances, and then, finally, a UK concert tour – her first in 5 years.
As the saying (kind of) goes, it’s always midnight somwhere.
Midnights is a record smasher
We’re signing off on the live blog, but leaving with the exciting news that, less than 24 hours after its release, Midnights already smashed Spotify’s record for most-streamed album in a single day.
Turns out Swift’s pretty excited about it too – you can find out more below!
Taylor Swift’s Midnights named most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify ever
Swift said breaking the record was ‘mind blowing’
Enjoy listening to the album this weekend!
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