So… Taylor Swift. You might have heard of her.
Tonight, the diva herself is releasing her 11th studio album. The Tortured Poet’s Department. I am not addressing that right now, actually at all. I’m looking back, actually, one last time. Fairly recently, to 2022. Midnights.
If you were on my timeline during the Midnights release era, you probably know there were a lot of… conflicting reports. A truly mixed consensus. I believe a large part of the negative reaction was due to her pushing a very Specific Aesthetic in promoting the album, and the album itself… didn’t really portray that vision. The photoshoot and captions she used were very Dark and, ironically, Tortured. She said it was inspired by sleepless nights, and the visions that kept her awake in the night. Added onto the fact this was her official follow up to Folkmore. People were excited to see this specific image brought to life… so when the standard edition of the album was largely made up of nostalgic synth-pop, it did make people feel… catfished by the concept. Though, the 3 A.M tracks were met with more praise. I mean, the entire album received great praise from critics, but to understand my thoughts, it’s necessary to point out that it isn’t one of her most universally beloved eras from a fandom perspective. For more context, I recommend this video essay from one of my favorite content creators:
For quite some time I’ve considered doing an issue on Midnights. I actually drafted one soon before the Grammy’s happened. It just never really felt like there was a Right Time to actually commit to this issue. Partially because I don’t really have a particularly interesting take to share. My review is… I like it well enough. I wouldn’t personally have called it MY Album of the Year, but I’m a fan of Taylor, and it certainly is A Taylor Album. I find most of the 3 A.M tracks to be quite brilliant, and the peak of the standard edition is some of Taylor’s best work. At its worst, it can feel sonically and lyrically more uninspired for a Taylor project, and I don’t think it was rolled out particularly well, but I mean… it broke like 100 streaming records and won Album of the Year, so what do I know.
Recently, I hosted a Twitter Space and did a Taylor Swift album ranking sorter. I think Midnights landed at 7, for the record. Naturally, to create this issue, I sorter-ranked Midnights. That is how I will be framing this issue. Finishing this sorter made me realize, I quite like the vast majority of tracks from this album. You can’t accuse me of being a hater. Final disclaimer, the sorter I used did not have You’re Losing Me… so, no, I didn’t forget to include that. It just didn’t come with the sorter. Great song!
I’m not going to address any theories on what the songs mean here, nor am I going to address any album discourse… this is just going to be a strict ranking letter. I am writing this literally 3 hours before Tortured Poets drops. I’m not thinking about anything besides how the songs sound and what the lyrics are saying.
BOTTOM TIER - might skip if i have to.
21. Dear Reader
Favorite Lyric: “Dear reader, when you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t miss.”
I’m already going to start out being very apologetic. I’m doing this song very dirty right now. This is a very nice song. If I were to make a playlist of song recommendations, this would come to mind if I’m trying to convince a non-Swiftie to get into her music. The lyrics are nice, it’s well structured, it’s a song about learning from your mistakes in the format of giving advice. It has a lot of things going on that I loveeee. Now, personally… I just don’t particularly love listening to it. And is that not the point of listening to music? I will mention this a few more times throughout this issue, but the sound this song has…. isn’t the sound I gravitate towards. I offer no further context.
20. Bejeweled
Favorite Lyric: “Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve.”
When Midnights first dropped, I actually really felt a level of defensiveness over this song. I thought you all hated cute songs being cute, and I love good little cute pop songs! Over time, though… I kept hearing it… and I was like… well, maybe cute isn’t enough to carry it, after all. It doesn’t sound bad. It’s the most Lover coded on the album, and I loveeee Lover, but it’s more reminiscent of the songs I don’t love on Lover. It has aged arguably the worst from this album in my memory. It’s not terrible, but it’s hard to feel strongly about now that I’m years apart from the album.
19. Vigilante Shit
Favorite Lyric: “While he was doing lines… and crossing all of mine.”
Unseriously, this was a Love At First Listen track for me… because I’m an unserious person. To my core. I LOVE unserious Taylor. However, it’s another one that grew off me. For no particular reason, I still do enjoy it, but I feel as though she has done this simialr concept better in the past. No Body No Crime told a similar story, but with stronger lyricism and a better sound. The tour performance is very CUNT, though. I will always give her that.
ADVANCE A TIER - i could defend these tracks if you asked me to.
18. Karma
Favorite Lyric: “KARMA IS MY BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
It feels weird ranking her so low. I actually don’t know how to feel about this placement. I can’t argue with it, because I did put her here. I did it myself. I don’t disagree with it. But now that I’m asked to expand upon it, I don’t know what to say. There was a time where I would rank it within my top 8. I quote “karma is my boyfriend” at least once per day. I’m moving on.
17. Midnight Rain
Favorite Lyric: “He wanted a bride ; I was making my own name.”
Truthfully, the only reason this isn’t a lot higher is because I don’t like the pitched vocal effects throughout. The lyricism is some of the strongest on the album, but… again, I don’t particularly like Listening to That sound. I’m strict, I apologize.
16. Bigger Than the Whole Sky
Favorite Lyric: “Did some force take you because I didn’t pray?”
I really appreciate how open this song is left to listener interpretation. It takes a life of its own due to it not being tied down to one specific meaning.
15. Mastermind
Favorite Lyric: “What if I told you none of it was accidental?”
I love the story of this song, even more-so conceptually rather than how it relates to Taylor’s Real Life. The concept of just taking fate into your own hands because you’re so taken by someone. I love that she made this song.
14. Anti-Hero
Favorite Lyric: “She’s laughing up at us from Hell.”
People were very mean about this song. It’s a great pop song, and it stuck for a reason!! People really zoomed in on That One Line, and the “TikTok” chorus, they kind of just overlooked how smart the rest of the song is. I truly love the lyricism and how it explores that One Specific Concept of feeling as though you are Doing Everything Wrong. I like the video too! This is a track with discourse that exhausted me. Moving on with no further elaboration.
13. Labyrinth
Favorite Lyric: “You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back just like that.”
This song has a fandom to it. I get why. Or I suspect why. This is the sound that people wanted from this album. Pop, but with a more alt mix into it. Very soft, slowed down, lower register. Again, the main disconnect for me might just be the outro and the distorted vocals, though I do think that style choice works well here.
12. Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana del Rey)
This was my claimed track before the album released, and I do think it’s good. I actually think Lana worked well as backing vocals, but I do like that they released a version with more of her vocals. Their collaboration made sense, they did work well together.
ADVANCE A TIER - i like this!!!! No elaboration. I just like these songs.
11. High Infidelity
Favorite Lyric: “High infidelity, put on your records and regret meeting me.”
10. Maroon
Favorite Lyric: The part in the chorus when she starts singing really fast.
9. Glitch
Favorite Lyric: “But it’s been two-thousand one-hundred ninety days of our love blackout. The system’s breaking down.”
Okay, a little elaboration. I think people are sleeping on how fresh this song sounds. The lyrics are legitimately so clever and fun, the sound is a sound I never thought Taylor would really master, because I’d say she’s tried a time or two and never did it click as well as it did here. I do not get the slander she gets!!! Chant with me!!! GLITCH!! IS NOT!! A SKIP!!!!!
8. Sweet Nothing
Favorite Lyric: “To you, I can admit, that I’m just too soft for all of it.”
7. Lavender Haze
Favorite Lyric: “Damned if I do give a damn what people say.”
TOP TIER --- TOP TIER!!!
6. Paris
Favorite Lyric: “I’m so in love that I might stop breathing, drew a map on your bedroom ceiling.”
I sort of made my love for this song my brand for a while, and I stand by it. Earlier I said I’d try to defend Bejeweled by saying, “why can’t cute songs just be cute in peace?!” But that wore off on me with Bejeweled, whereas I still think Paris sounds soooo fresh and excellent. The lyrics to Paris are the brand of millennial unseriousness that I love from Taylor. The first time I heard the first verse, I knew I was going to be the only one who gets what she was doing here. I will die on the hill with Paris.
5. The Great War
Favorite Lyric: “Maybe it’s the past that’s talking, screaming from the crypt. Telling me to punish you for things you never did.”
This one snuck up on me as I was doing this sorter. I never actively considered it to be top 5, but when it was being put up against other songs, I really thought about it… she was firing from all directions, really. This was a masterfully crafted song in all areas. Every lyric is very good, it sounds great… I have to give it to her!
4. Question…?
Favorite Lyric: “I don’t remember who I was before you painted all my nights a color I’ve searched for since.”
I’m positive everyone who’s reading this just rolled their eyes. I feel bad for you, this is a great pop song. It still sounds fresh. It may read as a homage to 1989, but 1989 had the recipe for pop perfection on it, so I will let her revive it any time she may want. The story is so fun here, if you read the lyrics, it feels like you’re being transported to a 90s/00s romcom in front of your very eyes. It’s really a song she made for me and if nobody else gets what it’s doing up here, that’s okay… because she knew there’d always be me there to get it.
3. Hits Different
Favorite Lyric: “In the good in the world, you once believed in me.”
This is one of my favorite upbeat songs with heartbreaking lyricism Taylor has done. It’s sort of a Death by a Thousand Cuts variant if you walk with me, and Death by a Thousand Cuts is one of my favorite songs ever, so you should know how high of praise that really is.
TOPPEST OF TIERS --- PEAK!!!
2. You’re on Your Own, Kid
Favorite Lyric: The entire bridge.
I’m so happy she got her MOMENT with the Eras Tour and everything. This is one of those songs that feels so specific to Taylor, while also being universal. It’s one of the definitive Coming-Of-Age songs of Taylor’s catalog now. It is reminiscent of a song she’d have made during her Fearless era but with the wisdom she’s gained over the past 15 years. This and the song I ranked #1 are two of her most introspective, reflective lyricisms she’s done to date. It feels representative of what her writing career has been building to, in a way. It has taken so much new life since she’s released this album, and I do believe it will become a staple in her discography from this point on.
1. Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve
Favorite Lyric: “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.”
Genuinely, I believe this to be one of her career highlights. This is one of the best songs of the 2020s decade, if you let me tell it, and I do believe that wholeheartedly. It’s so heartbreaking to know that she had to live through this situation, but to make a track that so many people can feel seen by. A track that can be so universal and bigger than her, is so powerful. Art is so important, and songs like this are exactly why. I can listen to a song like this, and confront my own trauma, and work my way towards healing from it. This directly parallels songs like Dear John (and even All Too Well in a less direct way) but from a new perspective that only comes with growth and age. An all-timer of her career.
Okay… happy Tortured Poets Day.
dear reader being last hurt me
reading now but seeing this notification gave me heart palpitations