Taylor Swift reads minds, souls and sleep journals

She knows those thoughts, feelings and cravings we have when doomscrolling and pining for lovers at 1.43am.

She knows those thoughts, feelings and cravings we have when doomscrolling and pining for lovers at 1.43am.

Taylor Swift's evolution from ingenue begging to be saved by Romeo to a woman who survived the shortcomings of lovers and loved ones is almost complete.

Almost.

Midnightsleaves you wanting her to go deeper into those dark corners and places where she conjured up her latest work. 

Swift once again offers up the sass and self-awareness she's been weaving into her work since 1989's Blank Space and the result is a soundtrack for hot girls who bite their tongues and think too much.

This time it's a little more acerbic. She punches us right in the part of that heart you think is healed, only to realise that scar tissue of a lover's wound is still swollen. Then, while we're hunched over and winded, she shakes hands with those thoughts we conjure up in the middle of the night and subconsciously carry around like invisible monkeys on our backs.

Those monkeys have inspired this new music. 

Midnights is 13 songs from "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 throughout my life”.

Swift isn't a singer. She's a poet. 

If e.e cummings carried hearts in his heart, Swift smashes them, mops up the mess and pieces them back together with her 10th studio album.

Swift is Emily Dickinson for a new century.

Midnights is hauntingly similar to the late poet's work. Epigrammatic flourishes, a haunting personal voice, enigmatic brilliance. "Ah ha" and "oh she said that" moments dance with unique sounding melodies produced and mixed by her long-term collaborator Jack Antonoff.

Swift picks up where Emily Ratajkowski left off this time last year. 

"Men never notice the over calculating that women do. They think things happen 'for some weird reason', while women sing songs and do backbends and dance elaborate moves to make those things happen," Ratajkowski wrote in her 2021 book My Body.

"Gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this. I hosted parties and starved my body. Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss. The jokes weren't funny. I took the money," Swift sings in response on You're On Your Own, Kid. 

Mastermind follows with: "You see all the wisest women had to do it this way. Cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover's game. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Strategy sets the scene for the tale. I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails. And the liquor in our cocktails." 

The way she practically spits: "And I wake with your memory over me.  That's a real f..king legacy, legacy (It was maroon) And I wake with your memory over me. That's a real f..king legacy to leave" is a melodic match to the flame she starts with Lavender Haze and into a tale of self-loathing and depression, Anti-Hero.

"It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me

At tea time, everybody agrees

I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror

It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero

Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby

And I’m a monster on the hill

Too big to hang out, slowly lurching towards your favourite city

Pierced through the heart, but never killed

Did you hear my covert narcissism lightly disguised as altruism

Like some kind of congressman."

Every Swiftie has a favourite type of Swift sound.

There's those who lean towards the bubblegum pop, synth tracks of 1989, and those who prefer to cry along to her moody, folk/rock-inspired sounds found in albums like Folklore, evermore and Red.

If you prefer the latter, you will be left feeling somewhat disappointed.

This is not that sort of album. 

For those who dreamed Swift's new folk-rock sound could go on forever, Midnights is here to wake you up.

Folklore and evermore was a strange Covid-19 induced blip in time, one which we will treasure forever, but pop star Swift is back, just with a more metallic taste.

This time she doesn't get sad, she gets even.

Something we learn with Vigilante Shit: "I don't dress for women. I don't dress for men. Lately I've been dressing for revenge. They say looks can kill and I might try."

While the majority of songs may be more pop than not, there's something in there for every type of Swift fan. 

That's not to say Swift has entirely ditched her folk-rock past.

Midnights might be a return to the sounds of 1989, but its lyrics carry the darkness and edge of her more recent albums.