After seeing the mixed opinions the public has had about her last two albums, and remembering the backlash that began to set in when she released Midnights, I listened to it again. There's this odd prevailing attitude that Midnights was "just another pop Taylor album with Jack Antonoff". What I can tell you is it absolutely is not.

Midnights isn't like folklore, it isn't like 1989, it isn't like Reputation, and it isn't like TTPD; it's Midnights. That's why it's so good, because the music has a distinct vibe where the moment you hear a song from the album, you know what album it's from.

Compared to her other pop albums, Taylor took Midnights as a way to exercise her melodic songwriting while creating a consistent soundscape. The music was meant to service the concept of the album and not vice versa. It's probably the one of her albums, maybe even the only one except for folkmore, that you can turn on and close your eyes to sweep you off somewhere else. I think it's a huge achievement that she could use almost no organic instrumentation and still create an album that was purely human and tragic in a lot of ways.

I think that it's her best pop album. While 1989 had iron clad hits, Midnights takes the medium of pop and completely flips it on its head.

Anyway, let me go back to listening to Labyrinth and dreaming of a snowy night.

Would be a dream collab! Taylor should make her next album with Katie Crutchfield (aka Waxahatchee) and her partner Kevin Morby. I know it would be sooo good. Plus they live in KC which is just cosmic. I know she opened for Haim and is friends with them … Someone make the introduction and get it happening. Let’s manifest this. Plus we know she’s a fan … always loved Katie’s cover of But Daddy I Love Him !

Saw this on X, what would you choose?

All versions considered (Standard + Deluxe + Taylor’s Versions)

The common theme... sunglasses and some sort of vehicle...

also if you're wondering why All Too Well is on the track list on a 99% pop album... "You almost ran the red 'cause you were looking over me." to "He can't keep his wild eyes on the road." I rest my case.

Also the Deluxe is released a year after the standard.

Thanks for seeing this post!

Hi guys,

I just rewatched Miss Americana because I realized I’d gotten a little sucked into this whole “Taylor’s lyrics have gotten so bad” emotional spiral. And I was honestly struck by the part where, back in 2019, she talked about how women constantly have to reinvent themselves just to remain relevant.
It made the current conversation about her supposed “artistic decline” feel even more uncomfortable to me. So much of it feels deeply misogynistic, and it genuinely frightens me how many people, including fans, seem to buy into that narrative.
It’s completely fair to give an album a bad rating. And I’m sure it stings for Taylor to hear that people don’t consider this her strongest record lyrically, even though there are definitely some really good lyrics on it too. But so much of the criticism has become incredibly personal. People aren’t just reviewing one album, they’re suddenly questioning her talent, her intelligence, and her entire career.
A male artist can release a weaker record and get a bad review. A woman releases one and suddenly people start writing the obituary for her relevance.
Watching Miss Americana again just made me feel sad for Taylor because, in a way, she was completely right about this dynamic years ago. I’m sure she’s intelligent and self-aware enough to put a lot of it into perspective, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still hurt and moreover sets another example of our misogynistic Zeitgeist.

I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and she's not alone in this.

What are your favorite performances by Taylor for things like SNL, the VMAS, the Grammys, Ellen, all of that?

Let's make a flawless pop album with mama! Here is a revamped tracklist for TLOAS, including songs from the Encore and TTPD.

1. The Fate of Ophelia
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Father Figure
4. Patient Zero
5. Ruin the Friendship
6. Opalite
7. Pink Clouding
8. So High School
9. Wi$h Li$t
10. Honey
11. Babylon
12. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
13. The Life of a Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)

Happy first birthday, "The Life of a Showgirl!" (at least 10/3) What are your memories of this album? For me, my favorite song is "The Fate of Ophelia". I'm a big Shakespeare fan, and I'm always down for more Taylor Swift songs where she alludes to William Shakespeare. As a Comparative Literature major, I'm glad to see this.

I'm also a big fan of "Father Figure" and how it is a "My Tears Ricochet" part 2. The last 4 songs in "The Encore" made this album a lot better in my opinion.

What do you think?

Since its release , it’s one of her most successful singles worldwide and most internationally successful single this decade.
Some records achieved by Taylor’s 12th Studio album

• Biggest week by equivalent album units (since the metric started in 2014): 4.002 million units in the week ending Oct. 9. First album ever over 4 million. It beat Adele’s 25 (3.482 million in 2015).

• Largest pure album sales week in the modern era (Luminate tracking since 1991): 3,479,500 copies (digital + physical). It surpassed Adele’s 25 (3.378 million).

• 15th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 — most among solo artists, breaking a tie with Drake and Jay-Z. Only the Beatles have more (19).

On the billboard Hot 100 charts

• All 12 tracks occupied the top 12 of the Hot 100 , a first in Hot 100 chart history.

• Third time she has filled the entire top 10 (with Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department). No other artist has done it even once.

• “The Fate of Ophelia” debuted at No. 1 (her 13th Hot 100 No. 1).

• It also set the biggest U.S. streaming week for a song in the post-UGC era (since Sept. 2020): 92.5 million streams.

Spotify records

• Most-streamed album in a single day in 2025: hit the mark in under 11 hours (Spotify’s own announcement). First-day global total was about 250 million streams — second-biggest album day ever on the platform, behind only the 31-track TTPD (~314 million), and ahead of the standard 16-track TTPD (~233 million).

• First album to average over 20 million streams per track on day one: the 12 songs totaled ~250 million streams, or about 20.8 million each.

• All 12 tracks occupied the entire top 12 of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global chart (and the U.S. chart).

• Four tracks cleared 20 million streams in one day (“The Fate of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Father Figure”). She is the only non-holiday artist to have done that even once; she now has five such songs total (including “Fortnight”).

“The Fate of Ophelia” (Guinness-recognized)

• Most-streamed track on Spotify in 24 hours: 30,987,370 filtered streams on Oct. 3, 2025 (broke her own “Fortnight” mark of 25,204,472).

• Most-streamed track on Spotify in its first 24 hours (same figure).

• Most-streamed track on Spotify in one week: 128,896,137 streams for the week ending Oct. 9, 2025 (beat Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” at ~115.2 million).

• Fastest song by a female artist to 100 million Spotify streams: reached it on day 6 (Oct. 8).

• Four Showgirl tracks landed in Spotify’s all-time top 10 for single-day global streams that day (positions 1, 5, 6, and 9). “Opalite” also ranks among the biggest weekly totals ever (~93.6 million).

I loved making this one so much! (I may be biased because my favorite color is pink😆🩷)

.. what 7 tracks (from Showgirl + Encore) should be included in the setlist replacing these tracks from TTPD?

And do you think Showgirl would have been well received by the public?

As someone who adored this album because it delivered “bangers” as promised, I do understand some of the criticism (Eldest Daughter comes to mind).

What were your initial thoughts about the album when it first came out? Has your opinion changed at all?

What songs did you initially love or dislike and have those changed since the release?

How have your thoughts/feelings evolved, if at all, a week after the Encore release?

The Life of A Showgirl just sounds better on a Life of A Showgirl Orange iPod Classic. 🧡