Overall rating 3.7/10
Every time I listen to a new Taylor record, I have the same hopeful ritual. I open my music app, press the play button full of optimism, expecting this to be “The One”, her Californication moment. Where she provides a masterpiece that will serve as a proper pivot and a framework for the next 20 years of her career. Each and every time, as I skip through the record, I am slowly deflated by the same grim realization that we are not in 1989 anymore.
I must resign myself to the new reality of sad Taylor, a seemingly depressed songwriter that struggles to find her voice as she records over beats that sound like music from the GAP with lyrics that fail to connect on an emotional level. From here on out I will refer to this electronic, atmospheric version of her work as New-Taylor.
Midnights
The Album is a unique concept, entitled, Midnights. Each track represents a sleepless night in Taylor’s life. For me, a representation of an artist’s anxiety ridden, midnight thought spiral, is not my idea of a good time.
Lavender Haze- An atmospheric track featuring the iconic new Taylor sound, a low bassline and a rhythmic lyric pattern. The lyrics seem like the self-conscious thoughts of an overactive mind. In my opinion, it is atmospheric buzzing, not real art.
Maroon- If there is a bright spot on this record, I enjoyed the story and lyrics on this track, it is true poetry. “The burgundy on my t- shirt when you splashed your wine onto me” tells a heavy love story packed with metaphors. I dig the passion when she sings “I wake with your memory over me, that’s a real fuckin’ legacy”. That is badass verse, almost a Rage Against the Machine style breakdown. I feel like these strong lyrics are wasted on a cliché new Taylor bassline and believe that they could have done more with the track.
Anti-Hero- Again we are greeted with a similar bassline as we enter, all songs sound the same territory. With lyric, “My depression works the Graveyard shift” she states what I have long suspected, she certainly seems to be struggling and I do respect her calling it out publicly. She is using her voice as an instrument on this track and rhyming every last word on the verse, “I should not be left to my own devices, they come with prices and vices and I and up in crises. It’s a clever track, I just can’t think of a time or a situation where I would ever want to listen to this again.
Snow on the Beach- Another choppy vocal styling, this one almost smacks of seasonal depression. This tortured love story manages to put me in a worse mood than I was in before.
You’re on your own, Kid- Finally, the played-out techno beat is retired for a something a bit more mature although the lyrics do not match. This sounds like another scorned love letter for a relationship that I just can’t get emotionally invested in. The lyrics “ From sprinkler splashes to fire place ashes” fail to captivate and I can’t hit the skip button fast enough.
Midnight Rain- The new Taylor electronica beat returns. It’s a reimagining of the same old song. I just can’t.
Question…?- This song has potential. I enjoy the lyrics, the story telling is solid (albeit basic), I just can’t get behind the track itself. It just doesn’t connect.
Vigilante Shit- Oh shit, on this chilling revenge fantasy, she tells a story of a tryst with a married man and how she systematically ruins his life. Starting with blowing up his marriage, then informing the FBI of his misdeeds.
Bejeweled- That same electronic beat returns for one of the more positive tracks on the record. It starts off as the familiar jaded love song that takes a turn to a celebration of being newly single. Lemonade from lemons if you will.
Labyrinth- A very generic track about falling in love. It sounds like it could have been on any of her post 1989 albums.
Karma- Karma is her boyfriend and groundhogs day continues… a new Taylor beat meets a scorned new Taylor rhythmic vocal pattern, rinse and repeat.
Sweet Nothing- The first 20 seconds of Sweet Nothing seems very promising. The music comes in with a soft and inviting electric piano riff, then the vocals start and you are reminded this is not going to be a good song. The breathy rhythmic verse kicks off a moves to a very bubblegum pop meets mumble rap cadence. I am strongly compelled to press the skip button but if you don’t it actually turns into a reasonably salvageable track.
Mastermind- I thought mastermind was entertaining when I first heard it, not in a good way. She seems to try to craft this type of spy thriller where the “the planets and the fates and the stars aligned, and you and I end up in the same room at the same time” she then goes on to set up the fact that she had been the “mastermind” of this chance encounter that had been planned the whole time. The problem is, the story just isn’t that interesting and the music is seemingly the same as most of her other recent music. It fails to draw me in and makes me homesick for a track like Ours, or White Horse.
AM I just missing it?
When it comes to new Taylor, I often wonder if I am guilty of being like an early 60’s Beatles fan. Someone who is stuck on their earlier music and resents the progression that the artist takes as a part of the musical maturation process. I challenge myself to make sure that this isn’t great art and I am just missing it. With that in mind, you really can’t compare Reputation to the White Album. Sometimes artists take their fans on musical journeys that they are not ready for and they feel enlightened when the finally get it. This isn’t one of those times. I feel like the post 1989 Taylor records have been about the struggle of a talented performer working to find a way to be her own artist. This has clearly been a painful and public journey of growing up both personally and musically. Despite the harsh criticism I am rooting for her to succeed and know that she can do more.
I think that there is some meaningful progress on this record but it has not been elevated above the status of disposable pop. I know that she is going to get it right one of these days. I can only hope that she gets in the studio with someone like Rick Rubin, Dr Dre or Pharell to catch lightning in a bottle one more time. The world needs her!
