Taylor Swift’s “Very Chaotic Surprise” Was 7 More Songs on “Midnights (3 AM Version)”

Taylor Swift is an icon, she's a legend, and she is the moment. She made a surprise appearance at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards and made history with her three wins for "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version)." Not only was the short film the longest music video ever to win Video of the Year — she became the first artist to win for a self-directed video without the help of a collaborator. If those weren't enough records to break, Taylor also became the first three-time Video of the Year winner in VMAs history ("All Too Well" in 2022, "You Need to Calm Down" in 2019, and "Bad Blood" in 2015).

While she accepted her monumental moon person alongside the short film's star, Dylan O'Brien, and cinematographer Rina Yang, Taylor dropped a major bomb and announced her tenth studio album — and no, it's not a re-record.

"I know with every second of this moment that we wouldn’t have been able to make this short film if it weren’t for you, the fans," Taylor said during her speech. "Because I wouldn’t be able to re-record my albums if it weren't for you. You embolden me to do that. I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this, I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out October 21. And I will tell you more at midnight."

Once midnight came around, Taylor took to her official website and all social media platforms to announce her upcoming album, Midnights. In true Swiftian fashion, the tracklist is composed of 13 songs, and the cover art shows Tay rocking glittery blue eyeshadow in front of a flame (erm, so were "I want your midnights" and "Did the twin flame bruise paint you blue?" Easter eggs this whole time? 😳).

"We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t — right this minute — about to make some fateful life-altering mistake," Taylor wrote in a message to fans for her album reveal. "This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching— hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve…we'll meet ourselves."

Are there any theories about Midnights?

Before you get lost down the rabbit hole of TikTok and Twitter theories about her newest album, there's one theory that Taylor herself (!!) recently liked.

In her music video for the song "Lover," Taylor and her partner dance through a house filled with different rooms that fans theorized represented each of her seven albums. Once her eighth and ninth albums folklore and evermore were released, fans realized that they were color-coded to match the two staircases in the "Lover" house. Now with the new announcement of Taylor's 10th album, TikTok fan @thethriftyswiftie posted a video postulating that the dark navy blue sky surrounding the house represented Midnights. Taylor liked that TikTok, meaning that she could be confirming this fan theory about the "Lover" house being finished.

"My worst fear with the "Lover" house being complete is that this means Taylor is done with music...this is my worst fear, but I do not think it's true. [...] It makes me think she's telling us that in a way, this era is over," @thethriftyswiftie muses.

What is Taylor Swift's full Midnights tracklist?

Taylor took to TikTok to slowly unravel each track's title, which she would randomly select from a bingo cage, in a new series called "Midnights Mayhem With Me."

"I know that I have a habit of dropping cryptic Easter eggs when giving you information about new music and I am not here to deny that," she deadpanned, with elevator jazz playing in the background. "But I am here to defy that. Welcome to a new series I'm calling Midnights Mayhem With Me." Allowing fate to decide which track title would be revealed, Taylor randomly drew a ball with the number 13 (because of course it was #13), and announced that track #13 will be titled "Mastermind."

Since the first installment of "Midnight Mayhems With Me," Taylor has revealed the entire Midnights tracklist including track 11, "Karma," which sent Swifties in a frenzy as it's the same title as her rumored lost album that was allegedly set to be released instead of Reputation. Taylor nor her team have confirmed whether the rumor is true, but the Midnights track being identical may be all the proof we need.

The latest installment of Tay's TikTok series also revealed a long-awaited (!) collaboration with Lana Del Rey, "Snow on the Beach." Since Lana also worked with Taylor's friend and frequent producer, Jack Antonoff, in 2019, rumors of a #Taylana collab started swirling online, and now, we no longer have to wonder when our ears will be blessed with that in our lifetimes.

The full Midnights tracklist is as follows:

1. Lavender Haze

2. Maroon

3. Anti-Hero

4. Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey)

5. You're on Your Own, Kid

6. Midnight Rain

7. Question...?

8. Vigilante Sh*t

9. Bejeweled

10. Labyrinth

11. Karma

12. Sweet Nothing

13. Mastermind

The songwriters on the album were also revealed on Tuesday, October 18, via fan account The Swift Society on Twitter. Writers include Taylor, her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Zoë Kravitz, and William Bowery — a.k.a her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.

Have any lyrics from Taylor Swift's Midnights been revealed?

All signs (quite literally) point to yes. On Monday, October 17, a massive billboard in Times Square, New York City, revealed lyrics from T's upcoming album at — you guessed it — midnight. "I should not be left to my own devices," the Times Square billboard reads, per Spotify's Instagram Reel.

That same night, a London billboard revealed another set of lyrics at midnight their time. "I polish up real nice," the billboard, which is located in the UK, read.

The music streamer also updated its Midnights pre-save page, which includes a clip of Taylor explaining what "kept [her] up at night" and inspired the album. "Fantasizing about revenge," she said with a smirk.

During the #CountdownToMidnighTS, Taylor Nation announced several things to look forward to including two music videos, a "special very chaotic surprise," and two talk show appearances at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Graham Norton Show.

That "very chaotic surprise" was revealed three hours after the release of her 10th album midnight PST/3AM EST October 21st — in true T. Swift fashion, the singer dropped seven additional, unannounced Midnight tracks in a special edition called Midnights (3am Edition).

"Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour," Taylor wrote. She continued, "However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now. 🌌"

The 3am tracks include "The Great War,” “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve," and "Dear Reader."

Where can I listen to Taylor Swift's Midnights?

Taylor Swift's Midnights is available for streaming on major platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, and more. Physical CDs, vinyl, and cassette tapes are also available through Taylor's official website and retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target.

Well, if you'll excuse us, we'll be setting our phones to "Do Not Disturb" and listening to Midnights on repeat.

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