Hi all,

Was listening to midnights on repeat (like everyone else on here I imagine) and randomly remembered that Tay Tay dated Calvin Harris for a substantial period.

Does anyone suspect any songs about him on this album? From what I can tell, the songs are mainly about the usual suspects (Harry Styles, John Mayer, Tom Huddleston).

Any other songs about him on other albums?

I literally forgot that he existed 😂

I never hear much about Calvin Harris on these threads...tons about Harry, Jake, John, even Tom, but never Calvin. I wasn't a massive Swifty at the time, but I do remember it being pretty serious...What happened there? Did she write any songs about him? How come he faded away like other relationships haven't?

Fight amongst yourselves but I'm right. Also a song having similar production to an old song doesn't mean they're linked at all, it means she's been working with Jack Antonoff for a decade.

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Lavender Haze - Takes place both earlier in her relationship with Joe, probably when they were first found out, and in present time. She simply wants to live in the moment with him and stay in their love bubble without answering any questions or worrying about outside commentary. Similar in theme to Dancing with Our Hands Tied and Paris.

Maroon - Remember she wore the Red ring to announce this song title. It is track 2 just like Red. It also builds a theme around all the different shades of red. I'm surprised anyone could doubt who this is about. The album thesis is about reflecting on the past and she just had a HUGE era where the entire narrative around Red was changed forever (and in her favour this time). She began this album with Jack right around the time Red TV dropped. Maroon shows how the memories change with time and perspective, which she'll also later do with Would've Could've Should've. But similar to how All Too Well differs to Dear John, Maroon doesn't seek to slam Mr Gyllenhaal into the ground, it just laments on what was and what ultimately never was. The 2nd verse is very similar in imagery to "the breaking point" portion of the All Too Well short film. Ultimately she lost him, but he lingered ("I wake with your memory over me, that's a real fuckin' legacy to leave" - she also sounds bitter or even sarcastic here like "thanks for haunting me dude").

Anti Hero - Her darkest fears come alive at midnight. She worries about exes (1st verse), her appearance (2nd verse) and how her legacy will be handled (bridge/third verse). I think what's most interesting is how this either continues or concludes the real Taylor/bad Taylor imagery we've seen in so many of her videos (You Belong With Me, Ready For It etc). We'll see if that ever pops up again in a future video.

Snow On The Beach - Realising she's falling in love and Joe is too. Should be next to Labyrinth on the tracklist!!

You're On Your Own Kid - She liked a tik tok that specified it documents her life/career from teens to now. First verse is about an early boyfriend she might've stayed for but in the second verse she discovers her passion for music and moves toward that. Which she then reflects on again in Midnight Rain. Bridge/last verse documents from Debut era to Now.

Midnight Rain - Reflects on a boyfriend from before fame (no, not Taylor Launtner) and how different their lives are now. I believe it's also a neat reminder of the album thesis because just as you're wondering why the loved up Taylor is fixating on some guy, she says "I never think of him except on midnights like this". It's just one of those "what if" moments. It's not about any of her fame exes.

Question - It could literally be asking Harry "are we out of the woods yet?" or it could be asking Harry for some clarification as to why he just bounced the way he did (at first). I have a feeling the kiss in the crowded room was either the karaoke party she had with 1D and Ed Sheeran in 2012 or the NYE kiss in front of tons of people. Because either way those moments happened in plain sight of people who didn't know how to react (people shipped them but also haaated her for dating him). Unpopular opinion I don't think this song is very well written or the point she's making would only make sense to him which isn't usually how she writes.

Vigilante Shit - It's important to remember the midnights/keep you up at night theme here. I've come to believe nothing in this song actually happened, she's just madly fantasising about what she wishes she could do to Scooter. It's not about getting Kim on side because Kim orchestrated the snake stuff so why would she plot with her? But similarly Yael Braun said awful things about Taylor too. So I don't think she'd care to get either of these women on side just to get back at the shitty men they married. I think she's just "living for the thrill of hitting them where it hurts". Her revenge is her continued relevance and success, and the happiness she's found in spite of them (which she'll talk about on Karma).

Bejeweled - She is talking to Calvin about how he neglects her and expects her to just wait around at home for him (visualised in the video with the Cinderella theme). I have a feeling it could be referencing the 2016 Met Gala, especially since the dress would've had a shimmer reflection coming off it. I also like how "I made you my world. Have you heard? I can reclaim the land" is both about reprioritising herself and about the re-records (since the video is basically one big Speak Now tv hint). She says "I miss you but I miss sparkling" to mean "Sure we were good once but you've dulled my shine so...here I go getting it back". The bridge without all the metaphors is "I cry a lot now but since I've gone out I've already got guys complimenting me so clearly you're cramping my style and making me feel bad soooo I might stay out all night and you can't make me come home". It actually reminds me of Gorgeous a lot, in that she clearly felt trapped in a dead relationship but isn't entirely single obv, so she goes out but can't really go there with the guys giving her attention. She knows her worth but being stuck with this dude is also making her act out. It's messy. And this song covers almost the same themes/storyline as High Infidelity (but that one is more blunt).

Labyrinth - As I said, it's essentially the same as Snow on the Beach but with more cynicism and depression mixed in. I think it's very similar to Delicate thematically, too. She's said it a million times now, she was a wreck when Joe became part of her life and over time he became the best thing in her life.

Karma - For her, karma is the way she wins again and again over her nemeses. She does have a record of coming out on top against whoever tried to bring her down so why wouldn't she feel this way? But in particular finding the love she was always looking for right when everything else imploded is the true meaning of karma for her. Karma is Joe because he was there at what could've been the end of her career and legacy as she knew it.

Sweet Nothing - Taylor was in Wicklow, Ireland with Joe last year while he filmed Conversations with Friends so the first few lines are about a pebble they found there (that makes me think this is the part he wrote lol). Again the "midnights" theme here is the observations they make throughout are the cute little nothings partners share with each other just as they're falling asleep.

Mastermind - She stretches out "he looks up grinning like a devil" into a whole song. She is insecure because she feels she has to work to make people like her (that anti-hero insecurity coming up again...) and while she's laying the groundwork Joe is just...letting her. Because he already knows how he feels about her and might've come to admire the effort she put in lol and then something she thought was a character flaw about her that she needs to justify is something he just responds to with a smile and "What a mind".

The Great War - The fight she had with Joe that she refers to in Afterglow, Me!, the Lover music video, and Cornelia Street (maybe False God too). Since it doesn't seem to show up on Reputation I'm guessing it happened in between those albums. Obviously it was a big one to be referenced in so many songs and to be dubbed "the great war". Going by the Lover video it does seem like she perhaps misinterpreted his interactions with another woman as flirting and that set her off. He stuck by her where maybe others didn't, and she realised him still being there at the end of it all was the biggest sign that he was loyal and she had overreacted.

Bigger Than The Whole Sky - I'm doubtful this is about a break up because "I'm never going to meet what would've been, could've been, what should've been you" doesn't make sense for an ex or almost lover. So I think its about grief.

Paris - The first verse is someone talking to Taylor about gossip they think she'll be interested in and she's like nah I'm good. Basically the same theme as Lavender Haze. It's pretty amazing how she can write the same songs multiple times over but make them all vastly different personalities and soundscapes.

High Infidelity - Case in point, this is much the same as Bejeweled. Pretty sure "I bent the truth too far, I was dancing around, dancing around it" is the 2016 Met Gala ("the ties were black, the lies were white"). Clever wordplay is "dancing around...dancing around it" because she literally was dancing but she was also dancing around the truth (she was not single but acting like she was). "Your picket fence is sharp as knives" indicates Calvin either proposed or talked of marriage and Taylor did not want that. Literally namedropping the date she met Joe is blunt as hell but as she said "the slowest way to kill someone you love is never loving them enough". I'm constantly reminded of the original Gorgeous lyric "I've got a boyfriend he's older than us, I haven't seen him in a couple of months". How long can one sit around alone pretending to be in a relationship?

Glitch - Taylor goes to horny jail for Joe.

Would've Could've Should've - As I said before, the Jake and John relationships get compared a lot because they happened close together and they were both too old for her. But she approaches the Jake songs with nostalgia, she's heartbroken it didn't work out. The age gap was a roadblock he should've known better about, but I don't think Jake exploited it as such. But with John, lyrically it was and still is "You goddamn creep" which at least implies he pursued her because of her youth (vomit). I also don't think it's any coincidence that after the scarf theories, she essentially clarified with this song who was actually the, um, scarf...taker... I think this song was necessary for her to write for a bunch of reasons, it obviously came after re-recording Dear John, it might've been something she always planned to write at 32, but I also think after seeing the conversation change so drastically against Jake with Red TV, she felt like this was the only time and space she had to really just get everything she felt about John out of her system, especially before Speak Now TV. I also think this is a way for her to "perform" Dear John again (because as recent as Rep Tour she said she couldn't) - by writing it from her far more empowered, wiser, older and healthier perspective. I would almost certainly bet this will be performed on tour, specifically so she doesn't have to perform Dear John (or isn't asked to).

Dear Reader - Similar to anti hero in that she's falling apart but still dishing out bad advice because...well people keep asking for it (same way people keep rooting for her despite how exhausting she thinks it must be). I think this might take place right before Joe showed up.