Bonus tracks, new video, a Spotify crash: Swift’s ‘Midnights’ is full of surprises
‘Midnights’ is a slow burn that’s more than a little eerie.
Swift made a name for herself on the country-rap scene before the new album was released. Now it’s her turn to take a big-screen turn as the singer plays an abused and bewildered woman who stumbles into a life of crime while dealing with the ghost of her dead husband.
“This album is a record of transformation of sorts, for all of us,” Swift says during this week’s interview, which also includes a conversation with comedian and longtime friend Amy Schumer. “I don’t just mean it in the way many people who are associated with this album are saying it, because that’s not my sense. … I think this album is really a record of change. Of moving forward. Of new beginnings and so forth.”
In an era when country stars have made big career moves, Swift is following a new path. Since she’s released her first album of original material, she’s recorded a second, and a third — Swift’s eighth full-length disc and third album of the post-Swift era, following last year’s Lover and self-titled follow-up. Each has been critically acclaimed, but sales have been more modest.
But Swift, one of the most influential figures on the music business in terms of promoting the genre, has earned a following by offering a different take on the genre that’s also very personal.
Her latest “Midnights” album is full of sonic moods and aching emotions, but the album is also imbued with a sense of mystery. Swift, who won a Grammy last month for her music, says that Midnights is a reflection of a life and a woman and that the album has a story that “took shape and grew” while she was writing it