ALBUM REVIEW: Taylor Swift - Midnights

    Swift has been seemingly riding high as of recent - hot off the critical acclaim of her back-to-back folk albums folklore and evermore, as well as the beloved re-recordings of her albums Fearless and Red (with a re-recording of 1989 seemingly on the way soon). With all this in mind, I went into Midnights with high hopes, albeit with a strong hope that she would continue in the direction of the aforementioned folk albums. Well, that's not what I got, but even still I can't say that I was at all disappointed by Midnights. Jack Antonoff is back at the helm fully, and the result is Taylor's return to pop music, albeit with a moody, almost sleepy quality to the music that's presented. The results are generally clean and consistently good pop music, albeit with its fair share of duds within the collection. Still, Taylor and Antonoff pull off this restrained, almost minimalist pop very well, and its consistent atmosphere makes for a fully realized vision, even if this isn't quite what I was hoping for.

    Obviously, to touch on the differences between Midnights and Taylor's previous releases would be obvious, as she's seemingly switched back to pop. Primarily, Swift leans on synth-pop for most of the album, relying on textures and softer beats behind her vocal performances. The biggest benefit of this is that it allows Taylor's vocals to shine throughout - songs like "Lavender Haze" showcase the power of Taylor's voice over this setting, and it's a particularly great track, especially as the album opener. This loose, free style also allows the instrumentals to become a chameleon to any mood the album requires - one moment it's upbeat like on the track "Bejeweled" to the slower, melancholic "Sweet Nothing." All of these concepts and ideas tie together with Swift's "13 sleepless nights" inspiration that permeate the album's ethos and being. Perhaps the only downside is that by the second half (which I found to be noticeably weaker than the first half), I felt like some of the instrumentals became increasingly stale, albeit this was still largely balanced out by the cadences and cleanness of Taylor's voice from start to finish.

     The most obvious weak leg of this album lies in the second half, mainly because there is a comfortable string of songs that range from boring to outright bad in my estimation. "Vigilante Shit" easily ranks as the worst song on this album, with a dire hook and even more dire lyrics. Perhaps docking points so heavily for a weak hook is a bit harsh, but I'm listening to a pop album - I want strong fucking hooks. The songs immediately following, "Bejeweled" and "Labyrinth," are similarly boring feeling, although I can at least say that "Bejeweled" has a slightly more memorable hook, leaving "Labyrinth" to feel far more like a nothing burger of a song. This weak segment is at least made up for with a particularly strong series of songs that cap off the album, with everything from "Karma" to the closing track "Mastermind" being pretty solid. The best of this album doesn't just mesh sparse instrumentation with Taylor's great vocals - the lyrics are also noticeably stronger on certain cuts - "Anti-Hero" and "Sweet Nothing" are the first songs that stick out to me in this department, with the former being an introspective cut about Taylor's failures, and the latter being about the simple and peaceful love she has with her partner in comparison to her chaotic surroundings. "Maroon" is another great lyrical cut that gives Taylor the chance to tell a more matured love story.

     While I don't think it quite lives up to the previous highs of her last albums, I still found myself really enjoying what I heard on Midnights. Taylor's return to pop with a new purposely subdued, mellow atmosphere ends up suiting the material she tackles on this album to a tee, and it's very often matched with introspection and great vocal performances. While not every shot hits its target, and some moments certainly do feel same-y, for the most part this is a very solid Taylor Swift album, and one that could very possibly grow on me in due time. A brilliantly masterminded return to pop from Swift, and it's got the tunes to prove it.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Midnights.