Taylor Swift let the “Midnights” oil burn later than usual late Thursday night and early Friday morning, not only revealing the name of a song at midnight, as was her custom in preparation for the release of the October 21 album, but the remaining five of the mystery track titles, one per hour, until she finally reached a grand finale at 4 a.m. ET.
This latest track reveal brought – as she promised in a caption – “the WHOLE twist of an ending”, with Lana Del Rey revealed as making the only featured appearance on the album. Del Rey will appear on a song called “Snow on the Beach”, which will be track 4 of “Midnights”.
The other four tracks whose titles were revealed in the wee hours of the morning as darkness fell in the morning were “Lavender Haze,” which was to be the album’s first track; “You Are Alone”, Track 5; “Labyrinth”, track 10; and “Sweet Nothing”, track 12.
Perhaps Swift and Del Rey’s first collaboration shouldn’t be as shocking as it first seemed to lull onlookers when she broke the news at 4 a.m., as the two pop superstars share a fairly consistent co-producer/co-writer Jack Antonoff.
As the clock struck 12 on the East Coast, Swift first revealed “Lavender Haze” and left a video message explaining the song’s meaning on Instagram – something she didn’t do for any of the other songs revealed early Friday, and something she had previously only done for another upcoming song, “Anti-Hero,” a few days ago.
“‘Lavender Haze’ is track 1 of ‘Midnights’,” she said in the video, “and I came across the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching ‘Mad Men’. And I watched because I thought it was cool, and it turns out it’s a common phrase used in the 50s where they just described being in love, for example, if you were in the lavender mist, that meant you were in that all-encompassing glow of love – and I thought that was really beautiful. And I guess theoretically when you’re in the lavender mist, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let the people to knock you off that cloud. And I think a lot of people have to deal with that now, not just as “public figures”, because we live in the age of social media, and if the world finds out that you are in love with someone, he will be going to weigh in. Like my relationship for six years: we had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore them. And so this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff. I hope you guys liked it.”
In her earlier explanation for a new song, Swift spoke about “Anti-Hero” on Monday, calling the track “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.” I really don’t think I’ve delved into my insecurities into this detail before. You know, I’m having a really hard time with the idea that my life has become unmanageable, and that I, you know… not seeming too gloomy, but, like, I’m having a hard time with the idea of not me feel like a person. But don’t feel bad for me. You don’t need it. But this song is a real guided tour through all the things I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves, and it’s all those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to accept if we want to be that person. So yeah, I really like ‘Anti-Hero’ because I think it’s really honest.
Other song titles that Swift previously revealed besides “Anti-Hero” (which is track 3 of the album) were “Maroon” (track 2), “Midnight Rain” (track 6), “Question… ?” (track 7), “Vigilante Shit” (track 8) and “Mastermind” (closing track, 13).
Beyond the base 13 songs, a Target deluxe edition will include an original 14th song — that title still remains a mystery — along with two remixes.
Production credits for “Midnights” haven’t been revealed — or anything about the musical style, for that matter — but a making-of video montage that Swift uploaded weeks ago only depicted Antonoff joining her. in the studio, leading many fans to believe he may be the singer’s sole producing partner on the new album.
No single or even song snippets have been revealed from the album so far. At this point, it looks like Swift may be heading into the album’s October 21 release without previewing a single second of new music or even describing what it might sound like, though all are subject to surprises from the latest. minute in Swift-world, as Del Rey’s revelation proved.