Some of you may know this about me, some of you many not, but I am a pretty big Taylor Swift fan. Probably not as crazy as those people who look for every Easter Egg in everything she publishes, but a big enough one to not be ashamed to admit it as a married man in his mid forties.
I'll also be the first to admit, I wasn't that much of a fan when she first popped on the country music scene. I thought she was too twangy (not that there's anything wrong with that), too immature sounding. It wasn't until I really started digging into her lyrics that I started to become really impressed with her skill.
You can like her, you can hate her, but the fact of the matter is, she can write a song. She can weave words and phrases together to tell a story quite unlike anything I have heard in a while. It's honestly a skill that you don't see as much anymore with sales being driven by all kinds of metrics outside actual talent.
If you have been following Swift's career, you probably know that her catalog of songs was purchased out from under her by a nefarious fellow looking to make a quick buck. After he rebuffed her attempts to purchase back the songs, she decided to go a different direction.
Instead of upping her offer, she decided to just re-record her past albums so she could own the rights to them this time instead of some random record company. Some might see this as lazy, I see it as brilliant. Yes, she is just recording the same songs she already made money on, but this allows her to produce new material that was just random thoughts in her younger days. It also gives her the opportunity to introduce a whole new generation of people to her early works.
Just think of it as a remaster decades before most artists release remasters.
Since Swift has been basically reworking already released content (for the most part), you can imagine it came as a pretty big deal when she announced she was releasing a new album with all original songs. I get emails with product alerts from the Taylor Swift mailing list, so when I saw that some special edition vinyl was going to be offered, I quickly pre-ordered a copy for myself.
I also ordered a copy for my niece who has recently started getting into collecting vinyl.
I picked this beautiful marbled green album for both of us. They had other colors and those other colors came with exclusive jackets, cover, and liner art. I am going to share the liner art from the green variety throughout this post.
After my first listen through it, I wasn't quite sure about the album. It was definitely different from what she released during the pandemic. More electronic, a little more edgy. It reminded me a lot of Reputation and 1989. The one thing it does share with the Covid era albums is the increase in swearing. As Taylor has grown, she is less adverse to dropping an "F" bomb here or there. In fact, I think on the standard album six of the thirteen songs are listed as having explicit content in Spotify.
As I listened to it the third, fourth, fifth time, I started to realize this album is kind of like an onion. It has so many layers that you just need to keep listening and peeling them back. It's deep, emotional, fun (at times), it seriously runs the gamut of emotions.
I honestly love it.
What does my opinion matter though? Like I said, I'm just some middle aged white guy from Michigan. Well, let's talk about that. I read the other day that this album has broken something like 73 records worldwide.
Here is a quick breakdown of some of them from five days ago
As the article above mentions, probably the biggest one is the fact that she is the first artist to take over the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That's right, of the 13 songs on the standard edition of "Midnights", ten of them filled the top ten spots on the Billboard chart.
Although I have the album on vinyl, most of my listening of "Midnights" has taken place on Spotify. I'm happy to say that I am one of the over 1 billion people that streamed the album in the first week. Yep, that's a record too.
Midnight's also sold more vinyl in one week than any other record in the history of Nielsen music records. Pretty good for a medium that was dying a while ago right?
Check out that site above for a more complete list of records this record has broken.
With any massive album launch, you have to figure a worldwide tour is going to accompany it. Well, you would be right. Taylor just announced last week that she is going to be hitting the road for the "Eras" tour. Right now it is just set to hit some major stadiums in the US, but I have no doubt it will eventually become a worldwide event.
In an effort to curb ticket scalping and botting, they had people pre-register for the pre-sale. I had to sit in queue for just about an hour just to say that I am interested in purchasing tickets when the opportunity arises. Now I sit and wait to see if I even get approved.
A lot of it will depend on whether or not my nieces want to go. I doubt just @mrsbozz and I would go to the concert, but if our two oldest nieces say they are game, then I will likely try and get tickets (again, if I am even approved). I have already booked a hotel room in Cincinnati for the night of the show, just in case we do end up getting tickets.
Pre-registration for tickets ends today and the pre-sale happens next week on the 15th for those who are approved.
Even if you can't make it to the show, the album is totally worth listening to. Listen to it a couple of times if it doesn't catch your ear the first time. Trust me, it will grow on you. Three of my favorite songs from the album are Bejeweled, Maroon, and Mastermind. For sure check those three out.
It's not often that I dedicate a full post to a single album. In this case, it is well deserving of the attention.
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