Sometimes, those old modes serve her well. Pandemic Records: In 2020, Swift released two new albums, “ Folklore” and “ Evermore.” In debuting a new sound, she turned to indie music.Īfter a handful of albums that felt like pivots ranging from soft to hard - bonkers pop on “1989” (relatively) edgy experimentation on “Reputation” earthy, pandemic isolation character studies on “Folklore” and “Evermore” - “Midnights” feels like a concession to an older, safer idea of Swift, full of songs that are capable and comfortable but often insufficient.Millennial Anti-Hero: On her latest album, Swift probes the realizations and reckonings of many 30-something women around relationships, motherhood and ambition.New LP: “Midnights,” the singer’s 10th studio album, is a return to the pop pipeline, with production from her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.Golden Tickets: After demand led to a Ticketmaster debacle, Taylor Swift’s most devoted online fans sprang into action to get each other into the Eras Tour at fair prices.The Cultural Impact of Taylor Swift’s Music “Tale as old as time.” At the hook, she returns again and again to the eye-rolled self-own, “I’m the problem, it’s me.” In the song’s video, Swift tosses back drinks with a more exuberantly unhinged version of herself, and a third giantess Swift hovers over the proceedings, bumbling and lightly melancholy. “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, like some kind of congressman?” Swift muses on “Anti-Hero,” an eerily shimmering Kate Bush-esque number that’s one of the album’s high points. It’s those songs that stand out on “Midnights,” her overly familiar sounding and spotty 10th studio album, which is in places a careful recitation of raw love, in others a flashback to past romantic indignities, but maybe most pointedly and effectively a commentary on what it feels like to live as a deeply observed figure, constantly narrativized by others. Swift sees the world seeing her, and rather than shut it out, she absorbs it, making those points of view her own, too. But she also thrives when writing about “Taylor Swift” - the idea, the metanarrative, the character. ![]() ![]() Or turn our tired thoughts to the always uncertain future, generating baseless fears.Taylor Swift has always been at her best when writing about Taylor Swift - she is diaristically pinpoint, a ruthless excavator of her own internal tugs of war. Circling round the concept "I", we can generate painful backwards-looking feelings like guilt or regret. Have you noticed the 3am thoughts are very self-focused? In the quiet dark, it's easy to slide unknowingly into a state of extreme egocentricity. Worry is identifying a problem, ruminating about the worst possible outcome and neglecting the resources we would bring to bear should the non-preferred outcome actually occur. We might think we are problem solving by mentally working over issues at this hour, but this isn't really problem solving it's problem solving's evil twin – worry. The truth is, our mind isn't really looking for a solution at 3am. We can't believe the solution of just ringing this person, postponing that thing, or checking such-and-such was overlooked in the wee hours. Once the Sun's up, we're listening to the radio, chewing our toast and pushing the cat off the bench, and our 3am problems are put in perspective. Remarkably, all this activity happens independent of cues from the environment such as dawn light – nature decided long ago that sunrise and sunset are so important that they must be predicted (hence the circadian system). In a normal night's sleep, our neurobiology reaches a turning point around 3 or 4am.Ĭore body temperature starts to rise, sleep drive is reducing (because we've had a chunk of sleep), secretion of melatonin (the sleep hormone) has peaked, and levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) are increasing as the body prepares to launch us into the day. Here's what the research says about what may be behind this common experience. ![]() ![]() I'm a psychology researcher with expertise in mood, sleep, and the circadian system (the internal clock regulating sleep). Strikingly, these concerns vaporize in the daylight, proving that the 3am thinking was completely irrational and unproductive. The thoughts are often distressing and punitive.
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