There’s a lot to catch up on after the packed release of Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' ⬇️ (via pitchfork)
is positioned as a return to first-person narration. But she brings her newfound wisdom about her own shortcomings and skepticism about love with her. On this album, she achieves perspective via temporal distance rather than character writing. These are the stories of her midnights past, so she is usually looking back, advising and reassuring her younger self that the pain from a breakup will dissipate or will make sense in time.
And, while there’s a sense of resolution and distance to the breakup songs on the original 13 tracks, most of these outtakes are deeply distraught. It’s fitting that the National’s Aaron Dessener, whose intricate, fingerpicked guitar work and expansive production imbuedwith an enchanting melancholy, returns to the project to work on “The Great War,” “High Infidelity,” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” as a producer, composer, and lyricist.