POP/ROCK
Taylor Swift, "Midnights" (Republic)
Swift's pin-sharp new album closes with a song in which the pop superstar patiently explains to someone — perhaps millions of someones — that their intimate relationship wasn't a product of kismet but of design.
"I laid the groundwork," she sings, "and then just like clockwork the dominoes cascaded in a line." The tune is called "Mastermind." You can think she's describing a romance, but the song is also about Swift's one-of-a-kind career. Pondering the delights and the anxieties of her own celebrity has been a hallmark of her work for years.
"Midnights," her 10th studio full-length, returns to an earlier Swift mode in both sonic and lyrical terms: This 13-track set, which she produced with Jack Antonoff, feels like it picks up where 2014's "1989" and 2017's "Reputation" left off, with slick, beat-heavy arrangements and with lyrics peppered with juicy allusions to Swift's various feuds and love affairs.
Swift's storytelling impulse isn't dead on "Midnights," which she's said grew out of her bent toward wee-hours contemplation. "Midnight Rain" narrates a tale of a guy and a girl with differing life goals, neither of whom appear to be Swift or boyfriend Joe Alwyn; ditto "Maroon," in which the guy and girl get drunk off her roommate's "cheap-ass screw-top rosé."
The songwriting and the vocal performances here are so strong — she's playing with cadence and emphasizing the grain of her voice like never before — that eventually you stop caring what's drawn directly from Swift's real life and what's not. It's just a pleasure to get lost in tunes like "Labyrinth," in which the singer explores her fear of falling in love again, and "Snow on the Beach," a gorgeous duet with Lana Del Rey with affecting imagery.
She paints another indelible picture in "Mastermind." "All the wisest women had to do it this way 'cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover's game," she sings. Then she takes a breath and adds: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Only Swift could make a self-help slogan sound like a fairy tale.
