Soledad Lee
Business Manager
Taylor Swift released “Midnights,” her new album on Friday, Oct. 21, at midnight.
Fans, known as ¨Swifties,¨ patiently waited, as Taylor Swift announced the album at the MTV Video Music Awards during her acceptance speech for an award for the ¨All Too Well¨ short film, on Aug. 28.
Listeners might have noticed how different this album is. It is not like anything Swift has done before all together. Maybe the album isn’t a big step forward into who she is, but it does bring a new mindset from Swift. As a whole the album is creatively abstract with what songs are on it. Although listeners still will find those painful tracks about love and even reputation style tracks.
English teacher Steve Leftridge reflected on this: “I think for Taylor it feels like, to me the whole album feels like a holding pattern for her. She’s taking a little bit of a step backward where she’s trying to find this middle ground, between her big pop self like the reputation style Taylor Swift and the more fuzzy sweater, cabin in the woods, folklore, Taylor.”
When Taylor comes out with new music, fans are bound to find connections through her old music as well.
“‘Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve,’ was very fun to listen to, cause I love ‘Dear John,’ and I was happy to see her bash him (John Mayer) again,¨ junior Audrey Culver said.
The album has 13 tracks, excluding the other seven tracks in the “Midnights (3 a.m. Edition).” The 13 tracks were revealed to Swifties, slowly through a series on TikTok created by Swift called ¨Midnights Mayhem With Me.¨ It was written and produced by Swift, along with a big collaboration with Jack Antonoff.
“I think Jack Antonoff makes really terrific records, so it’s a cool sounding album,” Leftridge said.
Other fans disagree.“He’s (Antonoff) making all the indie girls sound similar to him and he needs to lay back a bit, release the reins, so they can do what they do best,” junior Frances Baken said.
“Some fans are missing Swift’s old style of music.
“‘Midnights,’ it’s good. It was not necessarily my favorite, but it definitely had all different aspects from her old albums, which I liked, but OG Taylor will always be my favorite Taylor,” junior Ellie Jacobsmeyer said.
Swift has been put into controversy for years in the industry. Just as expected with her new release of “Midnights” and her music video for “Anti-Hero,” one of the 13 tracks on the album.
“I think people are giving her a lot of backlash, for opening about issues she’s had, like the whole music video thing, that was a little annoying cause she was getting a bunch of backlash for being vulnerable, and I think it’s a repeat of past album issues,” junior Audrey Culver said.
“I yearn for ‘Teardrops On My Guitar,’” Latin teacher Jeff Smith said.
Smith is a OG Taylor Swift fan, as he refers to Swift’s song, “Teardrops On My Guitar,” from her first album, “Taylor Swift.”
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Soledad Lee – Business ManagerThis will be Soledad Lee’s first year on ECHO Staff. She also made several contributions while taking journalism class her sophomore year. |
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