“Midnights” is the product of a lyrical mastermind. It all started on Aug. 28, when Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album at MTV’s (Music Televisions) Video Music Awards. Swift announced the album as “13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life…a journey through terror and sweet dreams,” and boy, did she deliver. 

Swift embraces the theme of retelling moments in her life with references to past genres, bringing back the pop sound from albums “1989” and “reputation,” and straying more from the acoustics in her most recent 2020 albums, “folklore” and “evermore.” Titually, she references her sixth album “reputation,” with the song “Karma,” a common theme for the latter album. Swift also references her fourth album (and recent rerelease) “Red,” with a song titled “Maroon,” which like “Red” (the song) was the second track on the album. The album expresses its duality with love songs like “Sweet Nothings,” the self-deprecating lead single “Anti-Hero,” while also including “Bejeweled,” a song about unrestrained confidence in yourself and your value. The album also features Grammy nominated Lana Del Rey on track four, “Snow on the Beach.” That isn’t all; at 3:00 a.m. on Oct. 21, Swift dropped the deluxe version of “Midnights,” subsequently titled “Midnights (3am Version)” containing 7 additional tracks that further showed the versatility of Swift’s songwriting. 

The album broke records on Oct. 21, its first day of release, including the most streamed Spotify album in a single day; with 6 hours left in the day. By the second day of “Midnights,” the album had the largest sales week for a vinyl album since 1991, when vinyl sales had just begun being documented.. The already apparent success of the album paired with Swift’s large and faithful fanbase has many predicting it will surpass the success of all previous albums. “Midnights” has become Swift’s eleventh album to top the Billboard 200, making Swift the sixth person with the achievement. 

With this new era of Swift, drop everything now and go listen to “Midnights,” on streaming services everywhere.