This is a very long post that puts all the songs on Midnights in order of Taylor making them, with as many specific dates as possible. I’ve also included other songs she wrote while writing Midnights and quotes from Taylor and her collaborators talking about her process.
If you don't want to read the whole post, check out this playlist of the album in order or this playlist of her entire discography.
KEY:
Song Dates:
🟢: There is some type of official source for the date
🟡: There isn’t an official source, but everything points to that date
🟠: I’m pretty sure that this is when it was written, but I wouldn’t be shocked if I was wrong. Or the period of time is just too large to be a definite date
🔴: Unknown, year comes from copyright
Other:
✍️: Record of Taylor (possibly) writing a song
🎤: Record of Taylor (possibly) recording a song
📌: Misc. Album activity
🟢 March 7-15, 2021: Renegade (Big Red Machine)
Aaron: “I wrote the music [for Renegade] at some point after we finished [evermore], and sent it to her, because she was inspired by a lot of the Big Red Machine stuff we were working on. And she had already sung on Birch, a song that hasn’t come out yet but is one of the major ones on the record. And I think she wanted to write a song for Big Red Machine. She very much feels like part of this community to me. So I wrote Renegade, the music, and sent it to her. And not unlike a lot of the things we’ve done together, one day I woke up to a voice memo from her and she had written this incredible song about how anxiety and fear get in the way of loving or being loved. And she was clearly thinking about Big Red Machine. And then we recorded her vocals and everything the week of the Grammys, when I was there in LA, and it was really nice to have something to think about that wasn’t related to the Grammys - just to make music because you feel like making it.“ (transcript from @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes)
🟢 March 7-15, 2021: High Infidelity and Would've Could've Should've
Aaron: [Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve], we wrote that song together, and recorded it while we were together in LA for the folklore Grammys. It goes back that far. And the same with High Infidelity. Those songs, we actually recorded in her house, the vocals, we recorded them then. And I just kept making music, and it was kind, after we had made folklore and evermore, I started to have ideas which I would share. And eventually, she obviously made most of Midnights with Jack, and it became something different. But High Infidelity, and Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and The Great War, and we made Hits Different with Jack and Taylor and I also, and it was great to be part of that record in that way. (transcript from @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes)
🟠 Summer 2021: The Great War and Hits Different
In the above quote talking about his songs on Midnights, Aaron says "Eventually, she obviously made most of Midnights with Jack, and it became something different,” implying his stuff was written before the bulk of midnights in fall. He also says High Infidelity and Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve “[go] back that far,” which implies they were some of the earliest stuff on Midnights, so it’s safe to assume TGW and Hits Different come sometime afterwards.
📌 Summer 2021: Jack has a session with Sounwave, Sam Dew, and Zoe Kravitz, where the instrumentals for Lavender Haze and likely Glitch are written
Rolling Stone interview with Sounwave: Before Antonoff began to work on Swift’s tenth album, he was cooking up tracks with Spears, Dew, and Zoë Kravitz […] During a brainstorming session, the quartet put together a track that would eventually become “Lavender Haze.”
📌 November 3 2021: It was announced that Joe has been cast in Stars at Noon, alongside Margaret Qualley, Jack Antonoff’s then girlfriend now wife. Since Joe was parachuted into the film last minute, filming had already started, making it likely he left as soon as possible.
Taylor: We’d been toying with ideas and had written a few things we loved, but Midnights actually really coalesced and flowed out of us when our partners (both actors) did a film together in Panama. Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late and exploring old memories and midnights past.
📌 November 8: Jack gets back from touring with Bleachers. Let the games begin.
🟠 Fall 2021: Vigilante Shit
Vigilante Shit is the sole solo writing credit on the album, which implies it was written before her and Jack were holed up together 24/7. Also Scooter Braun and his wife divorced in July. Beyond that there’s no evidence this is early in the process, besides it making sense that Taylor wrote this alone, brought it to Jack, and then fell into a creative inferno.
🟠 Winter 2021: Maroon, Anti-Hero, You're On Your Own, Kid, Midnight Rain, Question...?, Bejeweled, Labyrinth, Mastermind, Paris, Dear Reader
I don’t have enough info on the making of any of these songs to give them each their own little blurb, but if anything pops up I will update this post and reblog it letting y’all know.
🟢 December 5, 2021: You're Losing Me
Jack Antonoff: “you’re losing me is out today. [...] written and recorded at home on 12/5/21”
📌 December 17, 2021: Filming wraps on Stars at Noon, and with it the bulk of recording for Midnights.
🟠 Early 2022: Lavender Haze
Sounwave: A few months [after Jack and Sounwave wrote the instrumentals], Antonoff reached out to Spears, Dew, and Kravitz to see if he could pitch [Lavender Haze] to Swift, who loved it immediately. She wrote lyrics inspired by a Mad Men scene, numerous tabloid rumors and online gossip about her relationship status, and “1950s expectations.” “When Jack brought us in the hear for the first time, all our mouths dropped. She took it to a whole new world and made it her own. She created different pockets we did not hear.”
Lavender Haze, Snow on the Beach, and Karma are the only songs to have Henson Recording Studios credited (I can’t find studio credits for the 3am tracks so there is possibly more on there). This could point to them all being recorded around the same time, or it could be in reference to Jack and Sounwave’s original recording sessions taking place at Hensen. I lean towards the former, since 1) it seems like the Winter 2021 sessions were mostly between Taylor and Jack, and the spring sessions have other collaborators, and 2) the tabloid rumors about Taylor and Joe getting engaged really started heating up in February 2022. On the other hand, Sounwave implies that there was a notable stretch of time between Lavender Haze and Karma, so I totally understand if you want to put it with the rest of the Winter 2021 sessions.
🟠 Early 2022: Glitch
Sounwave: “Glitch,” one of the bonus songs on the Midnights (3am) edition, was born from the same studio session as “Lavender Haze.”
I don’t know if this means the instrumentals to Lavender Haze and Glitch were done in the same session, Taylor wrote the lyrics in the same session, or both. For the same reason as Lavender Haze, I lean towards this coming later in the process, as well as Glitch mentioning being together for six years, and in November 2021 Taylor and Joe had been together for a little over 5 years. That being said, Taylor could’ve assume the album was going to come out in 2022, and that she would stay with Joe until then, and bump up that date a bit. It’s still very up in the air.
🟠 Early 2022: Sweet Nothing
Joe co-wrote Sweet Nothing, meaning they likely wrote it after he got back from filming. It also refers to their trip to Ireland in 2021 as "last July”, implying it was written in 2022.
In December 2023, Taylor liked this post on twitter, implying that at least the second verse is in reference to Paul and Linda McCartney. The quote is from his poem Blessed, which you can read in this interview (TWs for death and cancer)
🟠 March 2022: Bigger Than The Whole Sky
Claire Winter, a close friend of Taylor’s, posts on Instagram that she miscarried in early March.
🟡 April 2022: Snow On The Beach
On April 1, Lana Del Rey posts a video on Instagram of Jack in the studio with an unidentified female voice in the background. Two days later she posts this photo, which Taylor and Jack both include in posts about Midnights/Snow on the Beach.
Lana: "Well, first of all, I had no idea I was the only feature [on that song]. Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted. My job as a feature on a big artist’s album is to make sure I help add to the production of the song, so I was more focused on the production. She was very adamant that she wanted me to be on the album, and I really liked that song. I thought it was nice to be able to bridge that world, since Jack [Antonoff] and I work together and so do Jack and Taylor."
Taylor: "And with Snow On The Beach, which features the genius Lana Del Rey, very lucky to have collaborated with her on that. And Dylan [O’Brien] was actually in the studio with me and Jack, because a lot of the time we record at his place, and Dylan was just hanging out, drinking wine with us, and listening to stuff, and he was just trying out the drum kit there. He wasn’t serious. But we were drinking wine, and we were sort of like, ‘We haven’t recorded the drums for this one yet! See if you want to…’ and he played the drums on the song. Sometimes it just happens like that." (transcript once again from jaimie)
🟠 Spring 2022: Karma
Sounwave: The bubbly “Karma” came later [than Lavender Haze and Glitch], when Antonoff reached out to Spears for any other ideas he may have to contribute to the album and its synth-pop vision. “‘Karma’ was just a last-minute Hail Mary,” Spears says. “I remembered I was working with my guy Keanu [Beats] and had something that was too perfect not to send to her. As soon as I sent it, Jack was instantly like ‘This is the one. Playing it for Taylor now. We’re going in on it.’ The next day, I heard the final product with her vocals on it.”
📌April 19, 2022: Elle’s interview with the Conversations with Friends cast is released, and when Joe is “asked if he hopes to continue writing songs, Alwyn simply says, “It’s not a plan of mine, no.”” It’s possible this means Sweet Nothing was yet to be written, but I think it’s more likely Joe was just denying in order to not create hype around a song that wasn’t officially announced yet.
📌May 2022: Taylor teases Labyrinth lyrics in her NYU Commencement Speech and says m i d n i g h t very prominently on this instagram post, meaning by early summer she was likely confident in the album’s name and which songs would make the tracklist.
That's all for this album! You can check out my other timelines below.
sad girl tiktok is going crazy over this song right now and i don’t blame them because its so.
the everyday tragedy of being left behind, the pain of revisiting old wounds, old friendships that will never be the same, and the grief that comes with no longer being someone’s everything. all rolled into one. and the loneliness. THE LONELINESS.
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yousharknotpass
gummygunk
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
izzy806
theartofmadeline
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blakekathryn
