4/5
The Midnight Hour.
"Midnight/You come and pick me up, no headlights", Taylor Swift sang on her sublime hit 'Style' off the album of her career, '1989'. In a video of sweet stylish aesthetic that spearheaded a tunnel of 'Lover' like vision run and new style of reissuing 'Taylor's Versions' of her classic albums. Something that will never go out of fashion. Like 'Folklore'/'Evermore'. The most successful singer/songwriter in the industry is the hardest working one, like the boss, Springsteen. Forget what Damon Albarn says. It's all been a blur, but burning the midnight oil, after 'Evermore' comes even more. 13 tracks, lucky for you, this fall Friday in October for an artist that now owns that season like red leaves. Your Hanks sleepless nights just got some solidarity in company. Whether you're looking out from a window that needles Seattle, or a Nashville skyline like Dylan. The songbook just added another chorus and chapter.
0.00 sharp. That's when 'Midnights' comes to pick you up, all bright lights in this lonely neon. How fitting. Like forlorn yearning for the one who kept you warm on these cold, cold nights. And in a 24-hour cycle of this modern love and life that feels like a fever dream, we didn't even make it to the stroke of the next midnight before Taylor Swift's brand-new album broke records as Spotify's most streamed of all-time. Co-produced and wrote by Jack Antonoff and Catwoman herself, Zoë Kravitz, as if that wasn't enough already, a few hours later Swift released the '3AM Edition' with more bang for your buck and tracks for your playlist.
Meet her at midnight for those 13 sleepless nights, scattered among even more that helped her get there from the cutting room floor. Because we don't have to be Haim on an epic collaboration to know that '3AM' is the new midnight. When oil becomes gasoline. No body, no crime like the remix. And if you want to talk about huge 'Women In Music' collaborations, then how about the 'Blue Bannisters' of the other hardest working artist in the industry, Lana Del Rey? Seamlessly sounding like each other in chorus with the 'Snow On The Beach' that Janet Jackson approves of on Twitter to the lyric, "I can't speak afraid to jinx it/I don't even dare to wish it/But your eyes are flying saucers/From another planet/Now I'm all for you like Janet/Can this be a real thing?/Can it?" Like Obama, yes it can.
But for this 'Anti-Hero' whose Twitter bio reads, "I'm the problem, it's me", the lead-single features her alter-ego at midnight in the decor of this road-stop like motel for your nocturnal concept. And even an attack of a 100-foot Taylor by the rooftops, like Lana in LA 'Doin' Time'. For us, it's the infectious lead track 'Lavender Haze' that really hits, however, as these 'Midnights' come to full moon bloom. Contemplate that, or 'Maroon' like 5, that is "so f#####g hot"! Truly unreal. Like it blows my mind. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Now, if you didn't think Taylor could usher in more, watch this.
1970's art and fashion aesthetics fit this storybook album like a movie. Just like the title, 'You're On Your Own, Kid'. Loving lamented lyrics lace this track like, "Summer went away, still the yearning stays/I play it cool with the best of them/I wait patiently, he's gonna notice me/It's okay, we're the best of friends/Anyway/I hear it in your voice, you're smokin' with your boys/I touch my phone as if it's your face." Tender like the ghosted nerve of lost love. But it's the 'Midnight Rain' this evening, where the Queen really precipitates. Like the anticipated 'Questions' that could give 50 Cents '21' a run for their money over this album of hip-hop beats, rhythms and synth. "Can I ask you a question?/Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?/And every single one of your friends was making fun of you (You)/But fifteen seconds later they were clapping, too?" Are you beginning to understand what it feels like to be in her shoes?
'Vigilante S###' keeps the 2017 'Reputation' energy going as the beat goes on. From folk to the electronica of a chilled dream-pop fever. Matching the restrained passion of the compellingly candid, conflicted confessionals in the booth. Such is the heart of life. Insecurity in insomnia. Self-critical in reflection. This is the water of Taylor Swift's deepest album yet. And by far one of the top of the ten.
Midnights mayhem with her like TikTok. These 'Bejewelled' tracks belong in her crown with bewitching magic. A 'Labyrinth' like Bowie or lipstick marking turned over stones, singing "Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out/I'll be getting over you my whole life", for anyone who loves from ashes to dust (hands up). Hey 'Ye, it's 'Karma' to the haters, critically speaking, "You talkin' s### for the hell of it/Addicted to betrayal, but you're relevant/You're terrified to look down/'Cause if you dare, you'll see the glare/Of everyone you burned just to get there/It's coming back around." These sentiments are not 'Sweet Nothing's', but everything like that exact track. The work of a 'Mastermind' in closing. Everything planned out perfect like Nas.
But then, at three hours past midnight, came the contingency. All for 'The Great War' that is love. Nothing hits harder than, "My knuckles were bruised like violets/Sucker punching walls/Cursed you as I sleep talked/Spineless in my tomb of silence/Tore your banners down/Took the battle underground/And maybe it was egos swinging/Maybe it was her/Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur." Until these seven seals that helped her get to the 13 sleepless 'Midnights' are more than a deluxe edition this Friday, like Norah Jones dreaming of Christmas again for a new package. This is 'Bigger Than The Whole Sky' for the master of her own craft, like the re-recordings of her own body of work. Welcoming you to 'Paris' like she did you New York ("Stumbled down pretend alleyways/Cheap wine, make believe it's champagne/I was taken by the view/Like we were in Paris."). The 'High Infidelity' of more concepts for your Cusack (or Kravitz) record shop ("Lock broken/Slur spoken/Wound open/Game token/I didn't know you were keeping count/Rain soaking/Blind hoping").
There is no 'Glitch' in this Matrix. Or the reloaded revolution of the midnight oil burning at 3AM like 'Would've, Could've, Should've'. Don't fall into that trap, 'Dear Reader', as Swift has some Taylor made advice in closing with the darkness, all before a brand-new day. "Dear reader/Bend when you can/Snap when you have to/Dear reader/You don't have to answer/Just 'cause they asked you/Dear reader/The greatest of luxuries is your secrets/Dear reader/When you aim at the devil/Make sure you don't miss/ Never take advice from someone who's falling apart." Word.
"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 cages and pray that we aren't-right this minute-about to make some fateful life-altering mistake", Taylor told us to prelude her midnight run of songs "written in the middle of the night", where more than the bed bugs bite, trying to get over that itch, or stitch in time. "A journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face." For her and all who have "tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching." In vain hope that "when the clock strikes twelve...we'll meet ourselves." And not our carriage as a pumpkin.
This Halloween it's close to midnight, but for this GOAT like Michael making records with Quincy, nothing comes close to the thriller that is 'Midnights' and the way it strikes. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Lavender Haze', 'Snow On The Beach (Feat. Lana Del Rey)', 'Midnight Rain'.
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