Midnights

The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift began her career in country music in the 2000s, achieved global fame as a pop star in the 2010s, and earned critical acclaim as an indie folk songwriter after releasing the 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore during the COVID-19 pandemic. She began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020, due to a 2019 dispute with the music executive Scooter Braun, who acquired Swift's former record label Big Machine and the masters of those albums. She released two re-recorded albums in 2021: ''Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version)''. Critics and academics deemed Swift's re-recordings a key event contributing to a wider industry discourse on artists' rights and artist–label relationships. Amidst the re-recording projects, Swift attracted media attention following her appearance at Haim's One More Haim Tour concert in London in July 2022; it was her first live performance since 2019. At the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year, she announced a new original studio album. After the show, Swift revealed the album title, Midnights, on her social media. This was met with surprise from her fans, who had expected another re-recorded album in 2022. On music streaming platforms, Midnights was labeled "pop", which attracted media and public speculation on its sonic direction, after the "alternative" labelings of Folklore and Evermore. == Lyrics and themes ==

For the standard edition of Midnights, Swift wrote 11 of the 13 tracks with Jack Antonoff, who had worked with her on every album since 1989 (2014). She wrote "Vigilante Shit" alone and "Sweet Nothing" with Joe Alwyn, who is credited under the pseudonym William Bowery. Other co-writers include Zoë Kravitz and Sam Dew ("Lavender Haze"), Jahaan Sweet and Sounwave ("Lavender Haze" and "Karma"), Keanu Beats ("Karma"), and Lana Del Rey ("Snow on the Beach", also featured artist). An extended 3am Edition containing seven additional tracks was written by Swift, who co-wrote four tracks with Antonoff and three with Aaron Dessner. Dew and Sounwave also shared writing credits on the track "Glitch". Swift framed Midnights as a concept album inspired by her "sleepless nights", informed by five themes: self-hatred, revenge fantasies, "wondering what might have been", falling in love, and "falling apart". Expanding on these connotations, Midnights situates Swift's narrator as a woman examining her own psyche during the afterhours, when she confronts her reckonings about both her past and her future. The songs address diverse moods and emotions: self-criticism, self-confidence, ruminations on past decisions, hopes, fears, regrets, fantasies, and infatuation. Some music journalists argued that the broad themes resulted in Midnights being a loosely defined concept album; Alan Light of Esquire thought that the concept-album designation was questionable, despite the songs altogether constructing a cohesive record. "Maroon" is about the haunting memories of a long-gone romance, Swift ruminates over a broken relationship and how things could have turned out differently in "Question...?" Many songs address Swift's fame and how it intertwines with her personal life. According to The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz, these songs find Swift no longer seeing marriage as ideal, as depicted by her 2008 single "Love Story", and instead convey her ambivalent viewpoints on romance and adulthood. In "Anti-Hero", she details her insecurities and how her celebrity status hinders her from having meaningful relationships. "You're on Your Own, Kid" is an introspection on Swift's rise to fame and how alienating it was. In "Midnight Rain", Swift reflects on a forgone love back in her hometown and how she chose fame over a domestic life. "Labyrinth" hints at the pressure she faces in the spotlight, In the standard edition's closer, "Mastermind", Swift admits to her lover that she is the one strategizing every move of their relationship and makes fun of her image as a calculating woman. The songs "Vigilante Shit" and "Karma" have lyrics that conjecture revenge fantasies against one's rivals. "The Great War" references World War I as an analogy of heartbreak, while "Would've, Could've, Should've" uses religious imagery to describe an adult woman's reflection on her traumatic loss of innocence during her adolescence. "Glitch" is about how an original plan of staying friends with somebody strays away to become a romance, and "Paris" sees Swift fantasizing about a romance in Paris while in her bedroom. In "High Infidelity", Swift's character takes responsibility for a failed relationship with no regrets. The 3am closing track, "Dear Reader", sees Swift beseeching her audience not to look up to her as a "guiding light". == Production and music ==

Swift recorded all of the tracks of the standard edition and some from the later release of Midnights at Antonoff's Rough Customer studio in Brooklyn and at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Two tracks created with other producers are "Lavender Haze" (Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet) and "Karma" (Sounwave, Keanu Beats). and the production for the final track, "Karma", was completed after one day. Midnights has a minimalist,'' and the final melodies are generated by analog synthesizers that date back to the 1960s or 1970s, such as Moog, Mellotron, and Juno 6. The mid-tempo compositions and synthesized or electronically manipulated vocals. Several tracks feature subdued tones of other instruments such as saxophone, clarinet, flutes, and keyboards, played by members of Antonoff's band, Bleachers. Contemporary reviews mostly categorized Midnights as synth-pop and electropop. Several reviews described the album as bedroom pop and dream pop. Music critics deemed the album a throwback to the pop sounds of Swift's 1989, Reputation, and Lover, but its atmospheric production makes it relatively subdued and understated. NPR's Ann Powers wrote that the sound "might be called ahistorical chillout music", with a "soft and mutable glow" that stimulated an intimate and isolated atmosphere. electronica, and hip-hop, Powers wrote that Swift's vocals retained a country-influenced "relaxed" timbre but also interpolated hip-hop cadences that resulted in conversational sing-talking. electro-hip-hop on "Lavender Haze", "Midnight Rain", and "Vigilante Shit", and R&B on "Lavender Haze", "Maroon", "Midnight Rain", "The Great War", and "Glitch". Elise Ryan from the Associated Press and Lucy Harbron from Gigwise considered Midnights an experimental album. Ryan deemed it a move toward indie pop, Ilana Kaplam of the Alternative Press and Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that in addition to the electronic sound, Midnights incorporated alternative elements and contemplative lyricism that evoked Folklore and Evermore. == Artwork and aesthetics ==

Employing a minimalist design, the standard edition's cover artwork contains a square photo of Swift in blue eye shadow, black eye liner, and red lipstick, holding the flame of a lighter close to her face. The tracklist is on the bottom left, and the title Midnights is written in a blue gradient, printed on top of Swift's photo. Several 1970s cultural items that were listed by journalists as potential reference points for the Midnights cover include the English band Roxy Music's 1974 album Country Life, the French artist Guy Bourdin's photographs for Vogue France, and the English model Jean Shrimpton, as discussed by Jess Cartner-Morley The cover created a trend and was parodied by many brands, celebrities, and athletic teams. Other promotional visuals for Midnights also feature 1970s aesthetics. The photographs and videos that Swift posted onto social media featured a clock face, family-room furniture with retro upholstery, and a rust velvet curtain in the background. Her wardrobe incorporated embellishments that Vogue identified as "disco sequins" and "corduroy flare". The covers for three other physical editions all feature 1970s memorabilia: a retro piano, a push-button telephone, and a wood-paneled wall. The music videos for "Anti-Hero", "Bejeweled", and "Lavender Haze" feature Swift in 1970s fashion: houndstooth polo sweaters, ribbed knit trousers, and sequined bodysuits. == Release and promotion ==

Swift extensively used social media to promote Midnights. Using the video-sharing platform TikTok, from September 21 to October 7, 2022, she released a 13-episode video series called Midnights Mayhem with Me, where she announced the title of each track in a randomized order per episode. In each episode, Swift rolled a lottery cage containing 13 ping pong balls numbered from 1 to 13, each representing a track of the album; when a ball dropped out, she disclosed the title of the corresponding track through a telephone. Swift partnered with Spotify to display some lyrics from Midnights on billboards in five cities: New York, London, São Paulo, Nashville, and Mexico City. Another partnership with Apple Fitness+ included three exercise programs designed around Swift's music, featuring tracks from Midnights. Although Swift extensively promoted Midnights and announced multiple release pre-orders, she did not conduct press interviews or preview music prior to the album's release. Target stores exclusively sold a Lavender Edition on CD and vinyl LP, and Capital One distributed a box set that contained the CD and a Swift-branded T-shirt. The 3am Edition was surprise-released onto streaming and digital services three hours after the standard edition. She appeared, but did not perform, on the talk shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 24 and The Graham Norton Show on October 28. at SoFi Stadium in August 2023|alt=Swift, dressed in a rhinestoned bodysuite, singing into a mic "Anti-Hero" was released as the album's lead single on October 21, 2022. In the United States, it became the best-selling song of 2022 "Bejeweled" and "Question...?" were released for limited-time digital download exclusively through Swift's website on October 25. "Snow on the Beach" was issued to US triple-A radio as a single on November 7, 2022, followed by the US pop radio releases of "Lavender Haze" on November 29, 2022, and "Karma" on May 1, 2023. A remix of "Karma" featuring the rapper Ice Spice was released on May 26, 2023. On the US Billboard Hot 100, "Anti-Hero" reached number one, "Lavender Haze" and "Karma" both peaked at number two, and "Snow on the Beach" charted at number four. Molanphy argued that Midnights employed an optimal promotion for every consumption metric: the multiple CD and LP offers would boost physical sales, the limited-time download tracks would increase digital sales, and the surprise 3am Edition release would prompt higher streams. and the TikTok video series prompted Swift's fans to interpret possible Easter eggs, heightening the anticipation for the album. To support Midnights and her other albums, Swift embarked on the Eras Tour, which she described as a retrospective journey through her "musical eras". Running from March 2023 to December 2024, the tour spanned 149 dates and visited five continents. It became the first concert tour to gross over $1 billion, totaling $2 billion, the highest-grossing in history. During the run of the tour, a Til Dawn Edition of Midnights containing the bonus track "Hits Different" was released to digital platforms, and a Late Night Edition containing the bonus track "You're Losing Me" was sold as concert–exclusive merchandise starting from the East Rutherford show on May 26, 2023. == Commercial performance ==

Midnights was a commercial success across all consumption metrics: streaming, digital sales, and physical sales. It broke various records on music streaming platforms. On Spotify, Midnights broke records for the highest single-day streams and the highest single-week streams. It also claimed the highest single-day streams for a pop album and an album released in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music, the highest single-week streams for an album on Amazon Music, and the highest single-day requests on Amazon Alexa. All of its tracks entered the Billboard Global 200 simultaneously; it set the record for the most simultaneous top-10 entries (nine) and made Swift the first artist to occupy the entire top five. In the United States, Midnights became Swift's record-extending fifth album to sell one million first-week copies after five days of availability. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week units of 1.578 million, consisting of 1.14 million sales and 549.26 million streams, tying her with Barbra Streisand for the most number-one albums for a female artist (11). Swift became the first artist to have a yearly best-seller six times since Luminate tracked US music sales in 1991. Midnights spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200, Its songs, led by "Anti-Hero", made Swift the first artist to occupy the entire top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 the same week; all 20 tracks from the 3am Edition charted in the top 45. "Anti-Hero" and Midnights marked the fourth time Swift had a number-one album and song simultaneously. In September 2025, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album seven-times platinum, denoting seven million album-equivalent units. and made her the best-selling foreign artist in China of 2022 after selling nearly 250,000 copies within one day. On the Australian charts, Midnights was Swift's 10th consecutive number-one album, and its tracks made her the first artist to have nine songs on the top 10 of the singles chart the same week. In the United Kingdom, Midnights sold over 140,000 units in its first three days to become the fastest-selling album of 2022. It debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with 204,000 units, helping Swift achieve the shortest duration (10 years) for a female act to accumulate nine UK number-one albums. Midnights spent five weeks atop the UK Albums Chart. It sold 80,000 vinyl copies in 2022, the highest annual figure for an album in the 21st century, propelling total UK vinyl sales past CD sales for the first time since 1987. According to Universal Music Group, the album crossed three million album-equivalent units in its first week and six million in two months. Bloomberg News reported that the album generated $230 million in sales for Universal in 2022, accounting for 3% of their annual revenue—the highest from any artist. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) recognized Midnights as the second-most-consumed album of 2022; it ranked third in pure sales (first in vinyl sales) and fifth in streams; they named Swift the Global Recording Artist of 2022, which made her the first act to win the accolade three times (after 2014 and 2019). In the IFPI's 2023 report, Midnights was the year's fourth-most-consumed album (third in both streams and vinyl sales). As of April 2026, Midnights is the 18th most-streamed album of all time on Spotify. The album has been certified platinum or higher in many countries, including triple platinum in Australia, Poland, and the United Kingdom; five-times platinum in New Zealand; and eight-times platinum in Canada. == Critical reception ==

Upon release, Midnights was met with widespread acclaim from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 85 based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? compiled 29 reviews and gave Midnights an average of 8.0 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. and Alexis Petridis in The Guardian found it to be "confident" and contain a "sure-footedness". Some reviewers commented that her lyrics were more refined and inward. According to NME Hannah Mylrea, Spin's Bobby Olivier, and The Daily Telegraph Neil McCormick, the album featured Swift's intimate personal narratives that delved deep into her state of mind. Hirsh commented that while the themes were a continuation of what Swift had explored, the album showcased a newfound maturity with "serene acceptance". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times admired the storytelling lyrics and argued that they blurred the distinction between "what's drawn directly from Swift's real life and what's not". Hopper and Light considered the narrative-driven songwriting on Midnights an influence of Folklore and Evermore; Reactions to the production were somewhat polarized; most were complimentary and deemed the sound tasteful. Chris Richards of The Washington Post and Paul Attard of Slant Magazine deemed Midnights uninventive and too similar to Swift's past music. Moreland, Erlewine, and The Line of Best Fit Paul Bridgewater agreed, but they complimented the album as cohesive. Powers appreciated some sonic experimentation that attempted to innovate Swift's first-person songwriting but felt that it sometimes had a "half-finished quality". Helen Brown of The Independent wrote that the "subtle melodies" took time to "sink their claws in" and brought a rich listening experience with "feline vocal stealth and assured lyrical control". Will Hodgkinson of The Times said that despite some "off-putting" vocal treatments, Midnights was an appealing "old-fashioned singer-songwriter album" with resonant songs. == Awards and rankings ==

, where she won nine awards for Midnights and its songs|alt=Taylor Swift in a black gown posing In the United States, Midnights won Album of the Year at the 2022 People's Choice Awards, Favorite Album at the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, Pop Album of the Year at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and Album of the Year at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, where the Midnights songs helped Swift win eight other awards, including Artist of the Year. At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Midnights won Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year. It was Swift's fourth win for Album of the Year, making her the artist with the most wins in history. It also marked Swift's sixth nomination in that category—an all-time record for a female artist, tied with Barbra Streisand. The album was nominated for Top Billboard 200 Album at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. Midnights also won awards at the NetEase Cloud Music Awards in China, the Asian Pop Music Awards and the RTHK International Pop Poll Awards in Hong Kong, the Gold Disc Awards in Japan, the Fonogram Awards in Hungary, the Los 40 Music Awards in Spain, and the Danish Music Awards in Denmark. At the 2023 ARIA Music Awards in Australia, it helped Swift win Most Popular International Artist. It earned nominations at the Capricho Awards in Brazil, the Juno Awards in Canada, and the Gaffa Awards in Denmark. Midnights appeared on publications' lists of the best albums of 2022. It was featured in the top five by Rolling Stone, Billboard, the Los Angeles Times, People, PopMatters, and USA Today, and the top 10 by Hot Press, The Independent, MusicOMH, and The Times. Publications that featured Midnights in the top 50 include BrooklynVegan, Clash, Consequence, Gaffa, The Guardian, The Line of Best Fit, NME, Paste, Slant Magazine, and Under the Radar. It was also included in unranked lists by AllMusic, British GQ, the Alternative Press, and Uproxx. On individual critics' lists, Midnights was ranked first by Willman and second by Sheffield. == Impact ==

Midnights received extensive press attention around its release. The Guardian Laura Snapes commented that the album was "likely to hang around longer" than other "superstar releases" by Swift's contemporaries. She attributed this to Swift's popularity on streaming services and how she overturned the negative press to curate a positive public image since her 2017 album Reputation. Publications said the album's commercial success attested to Swift's longevity in the music industry. According to Billboard, it was the only album in 2022 that succeeded "evenly" across every consumption metric, namely streaming, album sales, and song downloads. Molanphy argued that by employing savvy business tactics that tackled the constantly evolving chart rules, she broke previously "unthinkable" records by the likes of the Beatles and Drake, which was "mind-blowing" for a musician in the "17th year" of her career. and Anna Nicolaou in the Financial Times said they were unseen since the "1990s boy bands" era, labeling Swift "the last pop superstar". Noting a 2021 article from The New York Times that asked "if Adele couldn't sell more than a million albums in a single week, could any artist?" after her album 30 missed the mark, Rolling Stone Ethan Millman responded that Swift "has once again moved the goalposts regarding what the music industry can see as possible from a major pop star". Swift shared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that she was astounded by the success: "I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the fans love for the record. I'm 32, so we're considered geriatric pop stars." Billboard commented in November 2022 that although the commercial success of Midnights was undisputable, "the legacy of the album within [Swift's] catalog [...] remains to be seen". and Entertainment Weekly Spin, and Slant Magazine. In an October 2023 article for The Guardian, Snapes dubbed the album Swift's "first consolidation effort" that signaled "a more sustainable, experimental, adult kind of music career". == Track listing ==

Notes • signifies an additional producer • signifies a co-producer • "Question...?" contains a sample of "Out of the Woods", written and produced by Swift and Antonoff. == Personnel ==

Musicians • Taylor Swift – vocals • Jack Antonoff – percussion, programming, synthesizers (all tracks); background vocals (1, 3–5, 7, 9, 10, 13), drums (1, 3, 4, 6, 11–13), Mellotron (1, 3–5, 7), Wurlitzer organ (1, 3, 8), bass (2–5, 9, 15, 18, 20), electric guitar (2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20), piano (2, 12, 15, 16, 20), acoustic guitar (3, 4, 5, 9, 15), crowd noises (7), Omnichord (11), slide guitar (15) • Aaron Dessner – percussion (14, 17), keyboards (14, 17), synth bass (14), piano (14, 17), electric guitar (14, 19), synthesizer (17, 19), acoustic guitar (17), bass guitar (19), harmonica (19) • Sam Dew – background vocals (1, 18) • Zoë Kravitz – background vocals (1, 18) • Jahaan Sweet – synth pads (1, 11); bass, flute, synthesizer (1); keyboards (11), • Sounwave – programming (1, 11) • Dominic Rivinius – snare drum (1), drums (7–8) • Evan Smith – saxophone (2, 12, 13); clarinet, flute, organ (2, 12); synthesizer (4, 5, 7–9, 13, 16), percussion (16) • Bobby Hawk – violin (3, 4, 13) • Dylan O'Brien – drums (4), crowd noises (7) • Lana Del Rey – vocals (4) • Rachel Antonoff – crowd noises (7) • Austin Swift – crowd noises (7) • Sean Hutchinson – drums (5, 7), percussion (5) • Mikey Freedom Hart – keyboards (9); programming (12–13), synthesizer (12–13, 16), theremin, organ (16) • Keanu Beats – synthesizer (11) • Michael Riddleberger – drums (13) • Zem Audu – saxophone (13) • Kyle Resnick – trumpet (14) • Yuki Numata Resnick – violin (14) • Benjamin Lanz – drums, trombone (17) • James Krivchenia – drums (17) • Bryce Dessner – electric guitar (19) • Bryan Devendorf – drums (19) • James McAlister – drums (19), synthesizer (19) • Thomas Bartlett – keyboards (19), synthesizer (17, 19) Technical • Jack Antonoff – engineering • Laura Sisk – engineering • Şerban Ghenea – mixing • Bryce Bordone – mixing assistance • Randy Merrill – mastering • Jahaan Sweet – engineering (1, 11) • Ken Lewis – engineering (1, 7, 8) • Evan Smith – engineering (2, 4, 5, 7–9, 12, 13) • Jon Gautier – engineering (3, 13) • Dave Gross – engineering (4) • Sean Hutchinson – engineering (5, 7) • David Hart – engineering (9, 13) • Sounwave – engineering (11) • Keanu Beats – engineering (11) • Michael Riddleberger – engineering (13) • Zem Audu – engineering (13) • John Rooney – engineering assistance • Jon Sher – engineering assistance • Megan Searl – engineering assistance • Jonathan Garcia – engineering assistance (1, 7, 8) • Mark Aguilar – engineering assistance (1, 11) • Jacob Spitzer – engineering assistance (4) • Laurene Marquez – additional engineer • James McAlister – drums programming (14, 17, 19) • Jonathan Low – mixer, engineering (17, 19) • Bella Blasko – engineering (14, 17, 19) • Justin Vernon – additional engineer (19) • Thomas Bartlett – additional engineer (17, 19) == Charts ==

Weekly charts Monthly chart Year-end charts == Certifications and sales ==