The new Taylor Swift album "Midnights" is an uneven mix of pop songs that falls short of the expectations.
The longer "3am Edition" of the album, however, has one of Swift's most impactful songs to date.
Soft rock triumph "Would've, Could've, Should've" is rife with empathy, struggle, and catharsis.
Last Friday saw the release of Taylor Swift's 10th studio album, to astounding commercial success, but with a muted response from Insider's music team.
The 13 tracks on Swift's lite-pop album "Midnights" revisit Swift's earlier works, as we noted in our review.
Nearly too polished and glossy is Jack Antonoff's creation. Swift's vocals are free of any roughness and are steady and clear. Her lyrics veer between being vibrant and artificial. Several songs, including "Mastermind" and "Snow on the Beach," are catchy and competent but end up drifting without providing any genuine catharsis.
In conclusion, "Midnights" left me wanting more, especially given that it was marketed as Swift's angstiest and most contemplative album to date. Despite the album's mix of diamonds ("Maroon," "Sweet Nothing") and duds ("Midnight Rain," "Bejeweled"), none of the songs were able to live up to the high emotional bar that Swift herself set.
They didn't, up to the hour of three in the morning.
Swift introduced seven additional songs, dubbed "3am tracks," three hours after the main album was made available. She clarified that these were further glimpses into her creative process rather than being a part of her "full concept album."
"Midnights (3am Edition)" explores whole new territory and takes some intriguing detours: "High Infidelity" functions as a resentful counterpoint to "Renegade," a two-part investigation on how to murder the person you love.
Swift flirts with her buddy under a blood-red moon in "Glitch," which revels in its own frenetic craziness. "The Great War" is a battle cry in the cause of violet-bruised, bloodstained passion.
I find it totally incomprehensible that Swift would refer to the "3am tracks" as extra rather than important, especially given that they contain "Would've, Could've, Should've," by far the best song on "Midnights.
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