It’s Not Exhausting Always Rooting for Taylor

by Olivia Riportella '25 on November 4, 2022
A&E Staff


Arts & Entertainment


A Review of Taylor Swift’s New Album, Midnights

After two years of re-recording her music, Taylor Swift has finally returned with original songs for her 10th studio album, Midnights. In a historic release, Midnights has already smashed streaming records and has become this year’s best-selling album. Swift has proven once again that she is on top of the music industry, whether it be re-recording albums from a decade ago, randomly dropping a surprise release, or releasing an album she canceled years ago.  She has shown that she will always come out on top. 

Swift was inspired by 13 sleepless nights in her life for the production of her latest release. She described the journey with her album, saying, “These 13 songs are a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” Midnights emphasizes reflection more than innovation, as Swift returns to pop to describe the trials and tribulations of love, life, and navigating her insecurities and self-criticisms. She invites us to hear the introspection of her deepest feelings, as she painfully states that “life is emotionally abusive.” 

Midnights is Swift’s first album to be recorded entirely with Jack Antonoff, whom she has worked closely with for years. It plays with a mixture of electronica, synth-pop, dream pop, and chill-out music to create a moody, reflective vibe. This is seen throughout the setlist as she experiments with grooves and vintage synthesizers in tracks like “Lavender Haze” and “Midnight Rain.” Drawing from 1970s fashion and aesthetics, Swift creates a glamorous visual effect for this album through her music videos. Differentiating from her folkish style on her previous sister albums Folklore and Evermore, Swift brings back the glitz and glam for Midnights

After two months of building up anticipation for her newest album in a traditional roll-out through a TikTok series called Midnights Mayhem, where Swift revealed the album’s track list through one random selection at a time, Swift added to the excitement by teasing a “very chaotic surprise” that would occur hours after the release of Midnights

This surprise manifested into an extended version of the album, titled Midnights, (3am Edition). It features seven new songs that were written for but ultimately excluded from Midnights. Swift could not help but share them as her fascination with “vault” songs has led her to spoil her fans with tons of new tracks with each new release of an album. Arguably the most beloved song coming from these tracks is the gut wrenching “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” which many are claiming to be her best song from the entire album.

Midnights had the biggest first week for any album this year, as it almost doubled the number of sales of the previous title holder, Harry’s House by Harry Styles. Coming in with a high of 72.5 million streams, Midnights absolutely smashed the Spotify record for the most single-day streams for an album on the first day of its release. It now holds the title for the third most streams in a single week by an album ever. In the U.S., Midnights has become 2022’s fastest and best-selling album, along with logging the highest vinyl sales week of the 21st century. 

Tiff and Earl

by The Cowl Editor on November 3, 2022


Features


Hey Tiff and Earl,

My girlfriend sent me the song High Infidelity from Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights (3am edition)telling me to listen to the lyrics carefully. I have done as she said, and still cannot figure out what my girlfriend is trying to tell me. All advice would be appreciated!

Sincerely, 

Not A Swiftie


Hey Anti-Swiftie, 

I just listened to the song just for you, and I think your girlfriend might be cheating on you, bro. If I was you, I would cut her and her poor music taste out of your life and cheat right back on her with a hotter girl. Make your fellow city boys proud. 

Best of luck, 

Earl

image of earl


Dear NAS,

I won’t beat around the bush: sounds like your girlfriend had an affair with Taylor Swift. Tough cookies!

Sympathy, 

Tiff

image of tiff

A New Day for Swifties

by Claudia Fennell '24 on September 8, 2022
A&E Co-Editor


Arts & Entertainment


Taylor Swift Reveals Release of Yet Another Album

After a busy two years, Taylor Swift is soon to release her fifth album. This will be her 10th studio album, titled Midnights, and will be released on Oct. 21. The album will be composed of 13 songs representing a sleepless night in the artist’s life. Swift teased the content of the album, saying that each song was written throughout her life, always in the dark of night.

Swift announced that she is planning on releasing a new album at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 28. The announcement was made after the artist won video of the year for her 10-minute version of the song “All Too Well,” which she recorded as a short film. The short film is a few seconds short of 15 minutes long, with over 74 million views on YouTube, making it one of the most famous music videos from 2021. The film stars actors Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink who act out the relationship that Taylor Swift had with her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. The song gained so much popularity that it beat the Guinness World Record for the longest song to ever reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After thanking her fans for supporting her throughout her music career, Swift announced that she plans to release a brand-new album this fall. She stated that all the constant encouragement from her fans has motivated her to continue to release new music. The artist stated at the MTV’s, “I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this, I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21.” After winning the video of the year award for her short film, the artist was delighted to speak on the release of a new album.

As usual, Swift’s fans are looking for clues about the upcoming album throughout the singer’s social media and her public appearances, attempting to find hints about the new album. The singer has not confirmed any of the clues so far. Swift released two albums two years ago in 2020, Folklore and Evermore before she began rerecording her old albums after issues with her old record label. In 2021, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) were released, her first re-recorded albums now under her name and authority. Taylor was inspired to re-record after her old record label made a $300 million dollar deal to sell the pieces. This sparked Swift’s interest to re-record her work, stating on “Good Morning America” that she thinks, “artists deserve to own their work. I just feel very passionately about that.” 

Fans across the world are waiting in anticipation for Oct. 21, when listeners can “meet [her] at midnight” as Swift posted on her Instagram.