When Taylor Swift first announced her fast approaching 10th studio album Midnights, she shared that her songs were based on “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” But what exactly made the pop star twirl and spin?
In an exclusive series filmed in partnership with Spotify, she revealed exactly that. Two short videos filmed by Swift appeared earlier this week on the streaming service Midnights pre-save page, and since Wednesday, October 19, the “All Too Well” singer has added two more. In each of the four videos, she shares a concept she settled on during her middle-of-the-night songwriting sessions that culminated in her new album due October 21.
“The third thing that kept me up at night…” she says in one of two new Spotify videos. “I wonder what could have been.”
In the second new video, Swift – wearing a colorful striped shirt and pale red lipstick – can’t help but smile a little as she reveals “the fourth thing that kept me up at night the night”. “Falling in love,” she says simply.
At the start of the intimate Spotify series, the 11-time Grammy winner promised there would be five videos in total, which means the Swifties have one more to look forward to. The first two found Swift slyly admitting that “self-loathing” and “revenge fantasy” inspired some tracks on Midnights.
Additionally, as part of its Spotify partnership, Swift has spent the week staging illuminated billboards in different cities around the world – New York, London, São Paulo and Nashville so far – which are each scheduled to display an unreleased lyric from their new album at the stroke of midnight local time. Billboards don’t say which songs the lyrics are from, leaving it to the imagination of the singer’s fans for now.
“Like clockwork, the dominoes are chained in cascade”, reads the one located in Brazil. And in Times Square, another reading revealed “I shouldn’t be left to my own devices.”
Watch Taylor Swift talk about the inspirations behind Midnights on Spotify mobile here.
