As much as some people don’t want to admit it, the independently famous Taylor Swift is one of the most famous singers and songwriters of our generation. Her tales of her young heartache on her first and self titled album achieved success in 2006, launching her iconic career. Since her first release in 2006, she’s put together eight more original albums and two rerecordings of previous albums (following the 2019 feud about ownership of her masters between her and her old record label, Big Machine Records).

Taylor’s most recent releases have been re-recordings, otherwise known as (Taylor’s Version), of the Fearless and Red albums and songs Wildest Dreams and This Love. This Friday, that changes.

Taylor Swift announced during the 2022 VMAs that she would be releasing a brand new album on October 21st, 2022. The album, titled Midnights, is the singer’s tenth original studio album.

Many fans, including myself, anticipated a rerelease of a previous album. Although the album isn’t what we thought it would be, fans everywhere are highly looking forward to the release. 

When announcing the album on her Instagram, the artist gave a brief insight into the album’s contents. “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams… Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21st. Meet me at midnight.”

Instead of hinting at lyrics or track titles as Taylor has done before, she created a new series that would be updated on her TikTok. In the series, titled “Midnights Mayhem With Me,” the singer revealed names of the new songs using a bingo ball cage. Every night she released one, it would be at 12AM EST, fitting right in with the theme of Midnights. In classic Taylor Swift fashion, the first track she announced was her lucky number, 13. 

In order, the track list reads: Lavender Haze, Maroon, Anti-Hero, Snow on the Beach ft. Lana Del Rey, You’re on Your Own, Kid, Midnight Rain, Question…?, Vigilante Sh*t, Bejeweled, Labyrinth, Karma, Sweet Nothing, and Mastermind. The album has 3 bonus tracks when purchasing the exclusive Target CD. Two of the bonus tracks are remixes, a string remix of “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” and a piano remix of “Sweet Nothing.” The final bonus track is a brand new song, titled “Hits Different.” 

The singer also shared behind the song featurettes on Instagram Reels for “Anti-Hero”, “Lavender Haze,” and “Snow on the Beach ft. Lana Del Rey”. 

According to Taylor, the song “Anti-Hero” is one of her most personal songs. “I don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageabley sized, and not to sound too dark, I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person.” The song is basically a guided tour of the things she tends to hate about herself. “So I like “Anti-Hero” a lot because I think it’s really honest.”

The following video covers the song “Lavender Haze”. She first heard the phrase while watching Mad Men, and looked up what it meant. The term lavender haze was typically used in the 1950s to describe the feeling of comforting and all consuming love. “Like, if you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow and I thought that was really beautiful,” she said. Taylor uses the phrase to sing about her six year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. Being in the limelight and trying to preserve a relationship is extremely difficult but there are ways to, says Taylor. “…and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years: We’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. And so this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.” 

The last explanation snippet was for the fourth track, “Snow on the Beach ft. Lana del Rey”. The song was inspired by the “cataclysmic, fated moment” when you realize you’re falling in love with someone at the same time as they’re falling in love with you. Swift connected that feeling to seeing snow falling on the beach.  

Taylor introduced the “Midnights Manifest” calendar on Sunday in an Instagram post. The calendar shows a planner for the release week and the following week. The singer writes in black ink that the music video for the song “Anti-Hero” will premiere following the release of the album on October 21st. She also marks that she will be making two talk show appearances! Swift will appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 24th, and The Graham Norton show on Saturday, October 28th. She also says that on Tuesday, October 25th, there will be a second Midnights music video! 

The week of an album release of your favorite artist is one of the most exciting times for a die-hard fan. I mean, I know I’m looking forward to streaming Midnights and watching everything surrounding it! 

Even if you’re not a huge Taylor Swift supporter, you should still tune in and listen to Midnights! Who knows, you may even find yourself relating to some of the songs or just really loving the album. Whatever the case may be, maybe you’ll meet yourself when the clock strikes twelve. Midnights is out now everywhere. Meet you there.