Lottie Murray
Taylor Swift has announced her highly anticipated 10th studio album ‘Midnights,’ which will be released at midnight on October 21st. She first dropped the news in her acceptance speech at the VMA’s, when ‘All Too Well: A Short Film’ was acknowledged as Video Of The Year 2022.
Swift’s initial announcement at the MTV music awards was followed by an Instagram confirmation post later that evening at midnight precisely. In the post, she revealed that the album would consist of “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” She concludes the message to her followers by encouraging us all to “meet her at midnight.”
“total self-discovery”
She writes: “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching- hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”
Although Taylor has been regularly re-releasing her music, which she has finally begun reclaiming back the ownership of, the drop of ‘Midnights’ will be the first taste of her new music in almost two years since ‘Evermore’ and ‘Folklore’ dropped. Having had one of the most ground-breaking careers of our generation, this new album feels as though it will be a testament to a more matured and authentic version of Taylor Swift. Taylor has been releasing music for well over a decade, and throughout this time I truly believe she has developed an image and sound which is true to herself. Her journey through music has been one of total self-discovery.
“tremendous amount of self-reflection”
It is still not public knowledge what the name of each individual track will be, but ‘Midnights’ already has such a strong and encapsulating concept behind it. So far, it is apparent that the album will be based around a tremendous amount of self-reflection; a type of reflection that we often avoid truly delving into. Taylor has already managed to capture the essence of the album through the melancholy visuals on all four versions of the album covers that have been revealed.
“August may have slipped away but September brings 3 new special edition covers!” Taylor wrote. “Pre-order Midnights collectible CD versions and unique vinyl versions now.”
In true Taylor Swift style, the announcement warranted a beautifully dramatic reaction from her fandom. As soon as the news was made public, Twitter was certainly a very chaotic place with fans being literally sent into a state of shock! Taylor’s music has been, and continues to be, so influential that there have been several different conspiracies circulating among listeners. Some of the most popular have been regarding the potential collaborations that could feature on the album, and the various situations she may be addressing through her music.
Here is an archive of tweets from some of Taylor’s fans regarding the announcement:
she really said: this one’s for the mentally ill girlies #TS10 #meetmeatmidnight https://t.co/jwVQDqpPGB
— linds (taylor’s version) (@lindsayy_grace) August 29, 2022
13 years difference, the symbolism, HOW DOES SHE ALWAYS KNOW, LOOK WHAT YOU MADE HER DO #meetmeatmidnight #TS10 pic.twitter.com/dZbeSZoNEV
— Anna Davis (@annadavis2469) August 29, 2022
https://twitter.com/thisisabbytryin/status/1564095042410745856
For now, I urge you to pre-save ‘Midnights’ here and try your best to prepare yourself for meeting Taylor at Midnight *eek*.
Featured image courtesy of Alexandru Vicol on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to the image.
