On Sept. 21, 2022, at midnight (of course), she released a TikTok video to begin her series “Midnights Mayhem With Me” to reveal her track listing one by one. The first track revealed, via a bingo ball cage, was Track 13 (“because of course”), called “Mastermind.” As of midnight on Oct. 7, 2022, we now have the full tracklist for Midnights. Swifties will likely want to get their hands on the Midnights Lavender Edition. Available exclusively at Target, the Midnights Lavender Edition vinyl features a marbled, pale purple record. The cover art matches the regular Midnights edition, save for pale purple text instead of deep blue. Taylor Swift Midnights Lavender Edition Vinyl, $29.99, Target.com Target The Midnights Lavender Edition CD features three bonus tracks, also available exclusively from Target. Taylor Swift Midnights Lavender Edition CD, $13.99, Target Target Swift first announced her new album Midnights at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, sending Swifties into an even higher gear than we’re used to seeing. For her last two original releases, folklore and evermore, Swift dropped them as a surprise with little to no fanfare ahead of time. Now, she’s back to the typical promotional cycle. Here’s everything we know so far about Midnights by Taylor Swift, including its release date, songs, Swiftie fan theories, Easter eggs and more.
Everything to Know About Taylor Swift’s Midnights
When does Taylor Swift Midnights come out?
Midnights will dropped on Oct. 21, 2022, at midnight ET. Swift often releases albums in the fall (heck, Red became a meme for #sadgirlautumn following every “Hot Girl Summer”), but Swifties were quick to note some potentially deeper meanings to this particular release date: For one, the numbers 10+2+1 add up to 13, Swift’s lucky number—and it’s also her nemesis Kim Kardashian’s birthday. While it’s obviously possible (probable, even!) that these are both mere coincidences, in Swiftie-land, there are no coincidences.
What is Taylor Swift’s Midnights about?
Swift said that Midnights is about “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life.” “We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made ages and pray that we aren’t—right this minute—about to make some fateful life-altering mistake,” she wrote in her album announcement. She continued, “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.” Republic Records
How many songs are on Taylor Swift’s Midnights?
Midnights has 13 tracks—Swift’s famous lucky number, of course. The Target exclusive Midnights Lavender Edition CD has three bonus tracks for a total of 16. It remains unknown so far whether other potential Midnights deluxe editions will have more songs or if bonus tracks will be released “from the vault” at some point in the future.
What is the Taylor Swift Midnights cover art?
The main cover art for Midnights features Swift with her hair down, rocking sparkly blue eyeshadow, winged black eyeliner, and pink lipstick. She looks down at an out-of-focus flame from a lighter. The Midnights title is written in gradients of blue over a white background, and text reading “Side A” and “Side B” accompanies a track list of just numbered songs. Of course, in her complete and proud capitalist nature, Swift will release several other limited editions of Midnights with different covers. The singer made the announcement on TikTok (or “Swiftok,” of course) on Sept. 1, 2022. Republic Records One of the editions is the Jade Green edition. The text is in a deep green gradient and features Swift lounging on a wicker chest-like bench with one foot resting on a plush chair. Next to her is a keyboard, and she stares at a vinyl record on the carpet to her right. The vibe is very “late night 1970s.” There is wood paneling on the wall behind her that’s also the backdrop of her online store for Midnights. The Midnights Blood Moon special edition vinyl is designed to resemble, well, a blood moon. In the cover art, which features dark, warm reddish-brown text, we see Swift once more in a wood-paneled room, sitting on a plush midnight blue chair holding a landline phone receiver. She appears pensive, which one might if they were stuck in the decade before their birth. Republic Records A third special edition is the Midnights Mahogany edition. On the cover art, an apparently unhappy Swift has her eyes closed and her hand over one side of her face as she sits against a wood-paneled wall. Republic Records
What is Taylor Swift’s Midnights tracklist?
The full Taylor Swift Midnights tracklist was revealed as of midnight (of course) on Oct. 7, 2022. Here is every song, minus the bonus tracks on the Target Deluxe Edition: Republic Records
1. “Lavender Haze”
With songwriting credits including Swift, Jack Antonoff, Zoë Kravitz, Mark A. Spears, Jahaan Sweet and Sam Dew, “Lavender Haze” may end up having a very different vibe than we’re used to for Swift. Swift revealed in an Instagram video that “Lavender Haze,” the first track of Midnights, was inspired by two things: Her romance with Joe Alwyn and Mad Men. “I happened upon the phrase ‘Lavender Haze’ when I was watching Mad Men, and I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool. And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s, where they would just describe being in love,” she said. “If you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow, and I thought that was really beautiful.” She explained how the phrase relates to her own life, noting that the song is about “doing whatever it takes to stay” in the “Lavender Haze” phase. “I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media. And if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re gonna weigh in on it,” she said. “Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. And so this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.” Swift has previously used “haze” as a metaphor for her love for Alwyn, most notably in the Lover title track, where she mentions a “dazzling haze.”
2. “Maroon”
“Maroon” is literally dark red … as in, Red? Maybe. The song is about a lost love that stains her like wine on her T-shirt, a sentiment that she previously sang about in “Clean” on 1989.
3. “Anti-Hero”
The first single from Midnights is “Anti-Hero,” which Swift revealed is one of her favorite songs that she’s ever written. The “Anti-Hero” music video will drop on Oct. 21, 2022, at 8 a.m. EST. “I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. You know, I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized, and that I, you know … not to sound too dark, but, like, I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person,” she admitted. She added quickly, “But don’t feel bad for me. You don’t need to.” She continued, “This song is a real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves, and it’s all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we’re going to be this person. So, yeah, I like ‘Anti-Hero’ a lot because I think it’s really honest.”
4. “Snow on the Beach” Feat. Lana Del Rey
“Snow on the Beach” features Lana Del Rey. A collaboration between Swift and Del Rey had long been rumored but was only confirmed at midnight on Oct. 7, 2022. “The song is about falling in love with someone at the same time as they’re falling in love with you,” Swift said in an Instagram reel about the song. “Sort of in this, sort of, cataclysmic faded moment where you realize someone feels exactly the same way that you feel at the same moment. And you’re kind of looking around going like, ‘Wait, is this real? Is this a dream? Is it Is this real? Is this happening? Is it really happening?’ Kind of like it would be if you were to see snow falling on a beach.” (Ma’am, have you ever been to Tahoe?) Swift’s 1989 song “Wildest Dreams” was compared to Del Rey’s “Without You” at the time of its release, and she appears to have confirmed the “Video Game” crooner’s influence on her. Swift gushed of working with Del Rey, “The fact that I get to exist at the same time as her is an honor and a privilege and the fact that she would be so generous as to collaborate with us on this song is something I’m going to be grateful for for life. Absolutely love her and I really hope you love this song as much as I do.”
5. “You’re On Your Own, Kid”
Taylor Swift’s Track 5 is always a big deal on every album. Midnights Track 5 is “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” The song references Swift’s mental health struggles, including an eating disorder she previously revealed in her Taylor Swift: Miss Americana documentary.
6. “Midnight Rain”
“Midnight Rain” continues Swift’s use of the rain trope for Midnights. Rain is a recurring theme in a lot of Swift lyrics. She mentions it in “Come In With the Rain,” “Cold As You,” “Forever and Always,” “Tied Together With a Smile,” “Clean,” “The Way I Loved You,” “The Other Side of the Door,” “Fearless,” “Hey Stephen,” “Dear John,” “Sparks Fly,” “Last Kiss,” “Everything Has Changed,” “If This Was a Movie,” “Sweeter Than Fiction” and “How You Get the Girl.”
7. “Question…?”
Appropriately, “Question…?” was cloaked in mystery since its announcement, but featured some lyrics Swift had advertised on billboards promoting Midnights. In the tune, an insecure protagonist asks a suitor about a girl with whom he was previously involved.
8. “Vigilante S**t”
Swifties speculate that “Vigilante S**t” will be the second music video Swift releases from Midnights because she held her phone upside down when announcing the track name—and the only other song she did that for was “Anti-Hero,” which is the first song on the album to get a visual treatment. The song is revenge-themed, which we all know Swift loves.
9. “Bejeweled”
“Bejeweled” is about a woman losing her sparkle when a man doesn’t value her. Swift may have hinted at the title of her ninth Midnights track when she announced the album at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards in August. Though she didn’t mention the specific phrase “Bejeweled,” her outfit spoke a thousand words. Further, Swifties noticed that when Swift announced “Bejeweled,” she wore the same sweater that Sadie Sink rocked in her short film for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version).” That song includes the lyrics “The idea you had of me, who was she? / A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel / Whose shine reflects on you.” Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
10. “Labyrinth”
“Labyrinth” has lyrics from a Swift billboard as well as from her NYU commencement speech: “Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out.”
11. “Karma”
Zoë Kravitz has another writing credit on “Karma” with Swift, Antonoff, Mark A. Spears, Keanu Torres and Jahaan Sweet. Swifties are pretty convinced that “Karma” is a song about Swift’s longstanding beef with Kanye West. Some cited that the song title being announced Oct. 6, 2022, was deliberate because his song “Famous,” in which he claimed to have made Swift famous, debuted on Oct. 6, 2016. It’s also possible that it’s a nod to “Look What You Made Me Do,” which was largely about her feud with West and contained the lyrics “All I think about is karma.” Another song about West, “Innocent,” was track 11 on Swift’s album Speak Now. “Karma” may also have been an Easter egg in her video for “The Man,” as seen below. The song may also be about Scooter Braun, with whom Swift has beefed consistently since he purchased her masters.
12. “Sweet Nothing”
Swift co-wrote “Sweet Nothing” with William Bowery—a.k.a. her real-life love Joe Alwyn. She previously revealed that their collaborations on folklore and evermore tended to work best with sad songs, which is obviously ironic considering they’ve been blissfully happy for six years together. The song is a sweet ode to the one person in her life she feels doesn’t ask her for anything.
13. “Mastermind”
Swift pokes fun at herself with “Mastermind,” singing about how she had a grand scheme to snag Alwyn:
What is Taylor Swift’s Midnights track 5?
Every Swift album’s fifth song is almost always her most gut-wrenching and emotional lyrically. Her past “track 5s” have included “Cold As You” from her self-titled debut; “White Horse” from Fearless; the vicious, John Mayer-inspired “Dear John” from Speak Now; fan-favorite and likely Jake Gyllenhaal-migraine-inducer “All Too Well” from Red; “All You Had to Do Was Stay” from 1989, “Delicate” from reputation, “The Archer” from Lover; the vicious “my tears ricochet” from folklore; and “tolerate it” from evermore. Midnights Track 5 is “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” She sings about her mental health struggles, difficulties of fame and insecurity, and even her eating disorder.
Is Taylor Swift working with Jack Antonoff on Midnights?
Swift’s longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff is back for Midnights after having contributed tracks to 1989, Reputation, Lover, folklore, and evermore. She confirmed his work on the project in an Instagram video set to the song “Life You Lead” by Niceboy Ed—who just happens to be a pal of her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
Is Taylor Swift releasing a new album in 2022?
It’s here! Midnights dropped at midnight on Oct. 21, 2022.
What is Taylor Swift’s new song 2022?
Swift has 13 new songs in 2022 from Midnights, plus extra bonus tracks on her Target deluxe editions. Her first single is “Anti-Hero.”
Can I preorder Midnights by Taylor Swift?
Preorders are dunzo since the album is out, but you can still order Midnights on vinyl, CD, cassette (seriously!), or digital album versions. Next, get up to speed on Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s low-key love story.
