Midnights Review
Part of what I want to do on this site is to show how I try to work through a redemptive lens when it comes to appreciating, critiquing, enjoying or even occasionally rejecting popular art and culture. I approach music not primarily as a critic but as a fan, and so I will tend to look at elements that I enjoy and appreciate, in and amongst elements that I perhaps wasn’t all that fond of.
I am well aware that no-one asked for another review of Midnights, the latest album (her 10th studio recording) from Taylor Swift. The reviews online are legion and they follow a fairly predictable pattern for releases of such magnitude. The early reviews were gushing, ready to anoint Taylor not just as a queen of pop but as a decent candidate for the UK’s next Prime Minister. But then, as a few days passed, the curmudgeons emerged from the dark wood paneled writing pits they inhabit with critiques so vociferous, so grumpy and so personal that you would swear that Ms Swift murdered one of their children with one of the many synthesizers that she wields on this record. These negative reviews most probably only serve as fodder for Taylor’s 11th album, which may well be here by next year given her current streak of prodigious output. She also may well be the UK’s next Prime Minister by then as pretty much everybody else would have had a go by then.
So … let me say a few things before I dive into a song by song review.
I am an unashamed Taylor Swift fan. She is immense. Her song-writing acumen, her prodigious output, her commitment to making themed and united albums, her marketing sensibility, her live performance ability, her gutsy fight against behemoths of the industry. She is a force of nature. Folklore was my favorite album of 2020 and it still gets regular plays in my headphones.
My voice means very little and won’t impact the unbelievable success of this album in any way. It is breaking almost every streaming and sales record there is and I don’t belittle or bemoan any of that commercial success.
But is it any good?
Well … it’s okay.
I like it in parts, but don’t love it as a whole. It feels more like a regression in the showcasing of her talent rather than a progression. It is a lot like her 2017 release Reputation in that way. I didn’t love that record either. It was flippant and a little trite and Midnights suffers some of that too.
Perhaps it would be helpful if I simply ran through what I like and what I don’t like lest I too join the club of curmudgeon critics?
What I like about it
Firstly, the concept itself, and her commitment to make albums that form around a concept. When I heard the idea of memories of a number of midnights from her life I was really interested in what she might come up with. Unfortunately it seems as if her creative well is still limited to slighted (or imagined) young loves, and the clear conflict she feels with loving and loathing the public eye so much.
Second, there are some great hooks, which is no surprise. Snow On The Beach and Question … ? stand out as clear examples of her continued ability to write great, simple melodies. I don’t think people understand how difficult it is to write good pop melodies. If it was easy then I would writing records that get reviewed, rather than writing reviews that don’t get read.
Third, there are sections of really interesting self awareness in the lyrics. Taylor seems to struggle to know who the villain in her story might be, but she is at her best when she sets her sites on her own insecurity. “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror” from Anti-Hero is a good example. What a great line.
Fourth, the recording has a sonic quality of the highest level. I have listened to it on a variety of systems, at different volumes, in different settings, and it sounds excellent everywhere. The mixing and mastering is phenomenal. This should be a given with records of this magnitude (and with this sort of budget) but it still worth noting how sonically good it is.
Lastly, I actually like how restrained it is from a vocal performance perspective. Taylor seems to want the songs to stand out as the heroes of the performance and so she has dialed her vocal back into an almost subdued level. I like it. She is a quality singer, with great tone that is all her own, and she needs no moments of vocal histrionics to prove it.
What I don’t like
Firstly, it lacks cohesion. For a record that seems to have such a clear idea of what it wants to say it has a jarring level of disunity on how it wants to say it. While there is a strong return to synth driven electronic pop as the overall genre, the actual songs vary in feel and style almost like coy nods to the influence of other artists. At points it feels like a Billie Eilish record, but then also Drake, and then Lady Gaga. It is a little all over the place.
Secondly, I really don’t like the production. I know the reputation of Jack Antanoff and the fine work he has done, including playing a huge part in Folklore, but this isn’t his best work. There is just too much derivative pop trickery. The role of a good producer is to make the song be as strong as it can possibly be. Sometimes this means addition, but just as often it requires a stripping down, a scaling back to let songs speak for themselves. The production overshadows the songs on this record, which may say as much about the strength of the song-writing as it does the overbearing reach of the production, but I think these songs would have been better with simpler parts, fewer effects and the eradication of pitch bend and auto tune backing vocal layering.
Third, and I know I am going to sound like a prude here, but I really struggled with the explicit language. Obviously Taylor doesn’t owe anyone a continued allegiance to the clean cut imagery of her early career but the foul mouth still seems out of place somehow. Some people swear naturally, and then some swear with the fake freedom of a middle schooler who has discovered some naughty words. Taylor swears like the latter. It adds nothing to her lyrics and it costs her a lot.
Fourth, while there are quite a few good songs, there isn’t a great one. The closest she gets is Snow On The Beach, but there isn’t a single song that has made me stop what I was doing so that I could hear it again. I think it will largely blur in the broader collection of her work.
Fifth, there are too many throw away songs. These include Bejeweled and Vigilante S*** which are going to be massive for bachelorette parties and drunken girls night outs, but not much good for anything else other than what will probably be rousingly nauseating dance routines to bring us back out of the mid-set lull on the next tour. But the worst one is Karma. If karma exists, well then the universe may well be coming for Taylor for subjecting us to such a rubbish song.
Lastly, it is cynical to the point of being fatalistic. It is difficult to determine any hint of redemptive theme or real hope anywhere in these songs. Now obviously not all art needs to (or is able to) display any real sense of hope. Some things are hopeless and need to be presented as such, but this record shows the tragedy of worldly hope where the ones who win at the game end up empty and hollow nonetheless.
In the end, Midnights is a powerful picture of commercial success without the underpinnings of ultimate meaning.
It sounds nice, and it looks pretty, but it can’t bear to look at itself in the mirror.
Summary
Rating - 3/5
Best songs - Snow on the Beach, Question …?, Mastermind
Worst songs - Karma, Vigilante S***, Bejeweled
