'Worth losing sleep over!': Taylor Swift earns high praise for her new album Midnights by critics and her devoted fans as she makes a return to pop
Taylor Swift is already receiving high praise from fans and critics, alike, just hours after releasing her highly-anticipated album Midnights early Friday morning.
Variety's Chris Williams deemed Midnights something 'worth losing sleep over' as it's a triumphant return to the 32-year-old singer's pop era 'steeped in synthesizers and programmed beats.'
Deemed an evening of 'celebration,' fans of Swift flooded social media with their first impressions as they eagerly worked their way through the album's 13 infectious tracks.
'Midnights' is more romantic than not, as an album, even withstanding plenty of detours into a witty churlishness or affecting lonesomeness along the way,' pens Williams in a review published Friday.
'It's got to be a sign of something that 'Midnights' is the first of her 10 albums to both begin.'
Williams further praises Swift for being able to sustain 'intimacy over a whole album' instead of going down the past most traveled by: 'Chasing hit singles.
Billboard's Jason Lipshutz calls Midnights a 'focused, legacy-extending new project' for Swift, who has been an unstoppable force since bursting onto the music scene in 2006.
It was compared to the stylings of Swift's 2017 album Reputation and 2019's Lover, since Midnights is 'more sonically amorphous than the mainstream pop of 1989 or the indie-folk of Folklore and Evermore.'
Despite the resemblance, Midnights is more 'personal and focused' project' and offers fans another glimpse at 'the humanity that has made [Swift] such a beloved storyteller.'
'A dazzling bath of synths complementing lyrics caught between a love story and a revenge plot,' describes Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone.
Spanos adds that Midnights is where '1989, Reputation, and Lover' left off but this time she's 'unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting.'
While also leaning into a pop-synth sound that all too familiar to Swift, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis reminds listeners that 'something of Folklore and Evermore's understated nature hangs around Midnights.
'It's an album that steadfastly declines to deal in the kind of neon-hued bangers that pop stars usually return with, music brash enough to cut through the hubbub. The sound is misty, atmospheric and tastefully subdued,' he writes.
The Los Angeles Times' Mikael Wood refers to Swift as a 'pop-music mastermind' while calling the album a return 'to an earlier Swift mode in both sonic and lyrical terms.'
"'All of me changed like midnight," Taylor Swift confesses halfway through her latest album, the aptly named and moody 'Midnights,' pens Elise Ryan of the Associated Press.
Ryan continued: 'It's a moment on the electric "Midnight Rain" that finds lyricist Swift at her best, reminding you of her unparalleled ability to make any emotion feel universal.'
Midnights includes 13 songs, all of which are 'new work' from the singer, as well as three bonus tracks on varying platforms and editions of the album.
The 13 song names are: Lavender Haze, Maroon, Anti-Hero, Snow On The Beach (featuring Lana Del Rey), You're On Your Own, Kid, Midnight Rain, Questions...?, Vigilante Sh**, Bejeweled, Labyrinth, Karma, Sweet Nothing and Mastermind.
Meanwhile, Midnights: Lavender Edition - which is a Target exclusive - features one bonus song and two remixes: Hits Different, You're On Your Own, Kid (Strings Remix) and Sweet Nothing (Piano Remix).
Swifties - which is the singer's name for her devout fanbase - actually crashed the Spotify moments after the album hit the popular streaming platform.
They collectively celebrated the crash as an accomplishment before diving into the album and sharing their first impressions to Twitter.
'It's like an out of body experience and I'm only on track 1,' tweeted one super fan, while another joked that Swift's new music is 'giving us a reason to live.'
Many Swifties expressed their love for the album's lead single Anti-Hero and its relatability, with one fan feeling as though Swift 'looked into my brain' while penning the lyrics.
Another said that Anti-Hero is the 'anthem of my life.'
'The exciting thing about a new Taylor Swift album is not only new music but a new personality to annoy all my friends and family with,' joked one Twitter user, who was clearly digging Swift's pop resurgence.
Along with Anti-Hero, fans voiced their love for the tracks Karma and Sweet Nothing.
'Anyways, taylor swift never fails to release music that feels like it was written deliberately and personally for me,' tweeted one Swifty in regards to the album's intimacy.
Though criticism was few and far between, some fans were able to put their biases aside in order to give their honest reviews.
One wrote that they were 'so excited' for Swift's collab with singer Lana Del Rey but, unfortunately, it made them 'cry with disappointment' despite '[loving] the album as a whole.'
They were disappointed that Lana's vocals were not more prevalent throughout the track but another fan noted that the Blue Jeans hitmaker does in fact sing 'throughout most of the song.'
Ahead of Midnights' release, Swift opened up about the album's concept and what inspired the collection of new songs.
'The concept of the album Midnights is the extreme emotions you might be feeling in the middle of the night,' she told SiriusXM Hits 1. 'What keeps you up at night? And so, it's reflecting back on certain nights of my life of why I was awake in the middle of the night.'
Swift said the material covers a range of emotions 'from grief to sadness, to fear, to anger, to flirtation or daydreaming about someone, or falling in love or feeling overconfident.
She added: 'You know, it's, I think it's just a really intense time of day. So, I wanted to cover lots of different aspects of that.'
Swift said that good dance songs on the album include Karma, Lavender Haze and Vigilante S***.
Swift told fans that all of the material on the Midnights is new, saying it all 'New work.'
She added: 'Nothing is left over from a different album. It might have been, you know, ideas or concepts or things I've thought of maybe making in the past, but I didn't write anything until I was making this album.'
Swift said it is a 'fun thing' for her to reflect back on past work.
'That all does usually lead to something, but you know, if we're reflecting back on eras past and music that I've made in the past, I think you'll find that there's a really good reason for that,' she said. 'But it doesn't necessarily have to do with this album.'
Along with the album drop, Swift teased footage from a number of forthcoming music videos for unknown tracks off Midnights.
It was aired during Thursday Night Football.
One sequence showed swift transform into a classic showgirl that commanded attention in a dazzling diamond gown.
