It’s unseasonal Christmas all over again for Taylor Swift fans, as the pop idol bakes another batch of 13 wistful tunes.
The album, Midnights, is set to release on October 21st, harbouring “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [Swift’s] life”, Swift said.
Midnights comes as the singer’s 10th studio album, in Swift succession from her folklore and evermore releases in 2020, and Fearless and Red re-releases in 2021.
Despite the Easter egg obsession Swift’s fan base have with her subliminal messaging and double entendres, the announcement came as a shock to all when the artist broke the news to all 3.9 million VMA viewers on Sunday, August 28.
Labelling it an act of reciprocity, Swift wanted to reward her “generous” fans for backing her vision for the All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) 10-minute music video that landed her three VMA awards for: Video of the Year, Best Long-Form Video and Best Direction.
That same night, the 32-year-old pop star went on to reveal the album cover art and unnamed track list on social media at exactly midnight.
The Pennsylvanian lyricist hopes to take listeners on a journey of introspection and reflection, through 13 tracks and a mystery-filled coax to “Meet [her] at midnight”.
Recently, wordsmithing and the creation of other worlds has become synonymous with the Swift brand with her 2020 releases of folklore and evermore. The singer has changed the landscape of songwriting with her golden web of interwoven stories centering on the lives and loves of fictitious characters like ‘Betty’.
It looks like Midnights won’t stray far from the artist’s avant-garde storytelling, as each song will twist and turn through a “journey through terrors and sweet dreams”, Swift said.
Despite her ivy-encrusted lyrical carvings, Swift will look to keep on selling records and simultaneously smashing others in light of her recent triumph over the Beatles as the fastest amassment of three No 1 albums in the UK (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), folklore and evermore) in just 259 days.
Swifties are now on tender hooks for more reveals of midnight moons and late-night ponderings that the artist is willing to give before October 24 strikes 12.