Midnights[Moonstone Blue Edition]

Taylor Swift and her people know how to put together an enjoyable pop album of good quality. "1989", "Reputation" and "Lover" were all well-produced and well-executed, and so is "Midnights". The recorded sound is excellent. The vocals and song structure don't differ too much from the previous albums, although I would say in general this one is more low-key. As with the previous albums, there is often an intricate interplay between the lead and background vocals, which contributes to the "ear candy" quality. The overall production is limited and relaxed, nothing very loud or intense in an obvious way, but there are undercurrents provided by subtle synth arrangements. The production is tight. No wasted space. Only 2 tracks end in fadeouts, and some end rather abruptly. One thing missing is a rocking dance-pop track with the rousing enthusiasm of "Shake It Off" or "ME!". The feeling is mostly moody and reflective, in support of the themes in the lyrics. "Snow On The Beach" stands out by being a collaboration with Lana Del Rey; but when you think about it, Lana's sound and Taylor's are not so different.In the album's photos, Taylor reminds me of chanteuse Marianne Faithfull as she looked in the 60's. Perhaps some of Marianne's later tell-all candor rubbed off on Taylor, because she certainly does open up on this album. In the notes, Taylor asks, "What keeps you up at night?" and then answers her own question: "...a momentary glimmer of distraction. The tiniest notion of reminiscent thought that wanders off into wondering...". The first track, "Lavender Haze", illustrates this sometimes uncontrolled thought-streaming by placing the foreground lead vocals against a background of nebulous voices that flit to and fro without solid meaning. In this song she declares independence from "The 1950's #### they want from me", meaning a conventional life as a conventional wife. Then she's thinking about fun she had the night before, as she asks in "Maroon", "How'd we end up on the floor anyway?", and it turns out that it was from some "cheap-___ screw top rosé". In "Anti-Hero" she has this cynical thought: "Did you hear my covert narcissism/I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman." The songs go on to describe a memorable night that was "like snow on the beach/Weird but ******' beautiful", a disappointment ("I picked the petals, he loves me not"), her hometown ("a wasteland full of cages, full of fences/Pageant queens and big pretenders"), a feeling of confidence ("Best believe I'm still bejeweled/When I walk in the room/I can still make the whole place shimmer"), a feeling of distress ("I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back, just like that"), revenge ("Karma's gonna track you down/Step by step from town to town"), and a safe harbor ("They said the end is coming...I find myself running home to your sweet nothings.") Taylor sums it all up in the notes as "a journey through terrors and sweet dreams."

As a Grandfather of granddaughters, I love being able to communicate with Taylor Swift’s lyrics (most) with them. Plus I get to play acoustic guitar along with most of her music. Used to always search for something to play acoustic, now I have a library full of TS music to play along. And granddaughters that think I’m a cool old guy! lol.Good music. Good person. Role model for the girls. One heck of a lyricist. Maybe even a “Tortured Poet.” My favorite album of hers being FOLKLORE.She reminds me of Stevie Nicks (Bella Donna 1982 & my Cobra Helicopter [Crewchief] I named after that album, Tail # 81-534, U.S. Army) in the ERAS Tour during Folklore. Running across stage in her long white dress was absolutely… darling. Good for you Taylor Swift. Peace to all. ✌️

This order was shipped quickly, but not everything in it arrived safely. One CD case was crushed into many pieces and the CD would not play. This CD, however, arrived safely and I am currently enjoying the music.

Me encanta

I got this CD because I haven’t driven a car in 5 years due to a disease I have.. So I have really bad anxiety in the car now. But if I’m distracted by music, it really really helps. And leave it to Taylor Swift to make such incredible music that all my fears just slip away. I’d even say at times I’m “Fearless” (lmao I had to). She will absolutely never see this, but thank you so much from the bottom of my heart because to some it may be a CD but to me it means more freedom🩷🪩

Great musically. The jewel CD case arrived broken and unusable.

Excellent

This was a perfect gift for my tween girl for Christmas. I wanted to get her real CDs because I want her to be able to play them in her CD player with earphones and sing along. I showed my daughter how when you open the CD case you can pull out the paper and they have all of the lyrics on the paper. This is something I used to do when I was younger and wanted to share that with her so I decided to do CDs instead of downloading music.