By: MARI RIVERA / STAFF REPORTER
…Are you ready for it?
Mega-star Taylor Swift has announced a new album titled Midnights which is set to be released on Oct. 21.
It’s not a re-recorded album, but it’s also not a single. No one would have predicted Taylor Swift would announce her tenth studio album a little over a month ago at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28th.
Swift describes the newest album as “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.” Given that, there is no doubt that the album will be both emotional and vulnerable.
Until then, Swift has taken to announcing each of the album’s thirteen track titles on Tiktok and Instagram in a game she calls “Midnight Mayhem With Me.”
She announced the first video a month before the album release. The rules: "[She’s] going to be using this technologically advanced device to help [her] allow fate to decide exactly what track titles [she’s] going to be announcing, and in what order."
The first track number to be announced was track 13, which is quite the coincidence since all Swifities know that 13 is her lucky number.
Without further ado, here is the full list of track titles:
Side A
Lavender Haze
Maroon
Anti-Hero
Snow on the Beach
Midnight Rain
You're On Your Own Kid
Side B
Question..?
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Labyrinth
Karma
Sweet Nothing
Mastermind
Swift talks a bit about the behind the scenes of some of the songs on Instagram, but song lyrics, song lengths, and music videos are still a mystery.
Midnight theories:
Swifties are quick to analyze and over-analyze every detail that can be considered a clue. Given Swift’s cryptic and clever nature, their analyses are usually not in vain. Since the announcement of the album’s release, fans have shared some of their speculations on social media.
One major theory is that Midnights will serve as a sister album to Lover, which released in 2019. The evidence to support this claim is that when Lover first came out, there was a popular theory that the album had a B Side which would be blue, and since that didn’t happen fans speculate that this “B Side” is Midnights.
While “Daylight,” a track from Lover, was quite bubbly and positive, Midnights might be the opposite. In an interview Jimmy Fallon, Swift questioned: “How far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance?” the time between “Daylight” and Midnights matches up.
Another theory is that each of the track titles would be dates or even times of each of the sleepless nights when Swift wrote or recorded the songs. While the past few weeks have disproved this in a way, there is still a chance that a few of the remaining tracks could be titled with a date or time.
An additional theory suggests that Midnight may tell a story in two parts. We know that the album is already divided into two sides: tracks 1 to 6 are on side A and tracks 7 to 13 are on side B.
According to some fans, side A would be pop similar to her previous albums 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017) and side B would have a soft and indie vibe, much like her later albums folklore and evermore
(2020).
This is because Midnight itself has two sides, where people are relating to partying or going out with friends, ending with an emotional sleepless night.
Lastly, some fans speculate that Swift’s tenth album will be her last, since midnight is symbolic of the day’s end and since the album has songs about nights scattered throughout her life, the album could serve as a conclusion to her discography, not including the re-recordings.
Of course, these are all fan theories and have not been confirmed by Taylor Swift.
Pre-orders are available for limited edition CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyls of the upcoming album. They come in four colors: the jade green edition, moonstone blue edition, mahogany edition, and the blood moon edition. The CDs and vinyls also include a photo and lyric booklet.The vinyl sleeves and CD cases all feature part of an analog clock, and when arranged in order with all four vinyls creating a complete clock.
You can pre-order all album merchandise from Taylor Swift’s official website.
Fans will have to continue to wait until the middle of the night for more track title announcements as they countdown to Oct. 21.
Don’t forget to have some coffee at midnight, you won’t want to miss this.