Taylor Swift’s “3 AM” Bonus Tracks: Excerpts from Exploring Romances of the Past

When Taylor Swift heads out to release additional tracks for an album—whether it be the next day or, if re-recorded to the Big Machine, a decade and a half later—it’s usually clear that she’s practiced audio editing judging what should be left out the first time, but absorbing the outputs be alone. There have been exceptions along the way: It’s hard to think that “The New Romantics” aren’t an essential part of “1989,” for example. The two extra tracks “Ev Save”, “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time to Go,” were as good as anything on the record release and closed off a proper album. But like many good writers, she also knows what she’s doing as a self-editor.

This proves to be the case with the additional seven tracks in the “3 AM” deluxe edition of “Midnights,” which expands the standard edition by nearly 50% — and appeared just three hours after audiences first heard the abridged version. None of them feel like they have been unnecessarily kicked out of the 13-track running arrangement. But fans have reason to be happy that she put them in the lavender ether. There are two very powerful and acoustically compelling tracks that would have been perfectly fine additions if she expanded the playlist from 13 to 15 less fortunate: “Glitch” and “Dear Reader”. And two more genres that will be essential to anyone looking for a window into their past relationships IRL: “High Betrayal” and “Could it have been, it should have been.” That’s more than enough reason to switch “three in the morning” to a daytime recording supplement.

The credits alone reveal something interesting about the creation of “Midnight,” which she hasn’t adapted for any substantial interviews about. As it turns out, Jack Antonoff wasn’t always destined to be her only creative assistant across the entire album. Aaron Desner, who co-produced all but one of the soundtracks on her latest all-new album, “Evermore”, and swears errands with Antonov on the previous “Folklore”, I was She was involved in the process, before she ended up going with Antonoff across the board for the final album. Three of the seven reward pathways have the National Co-Leadership Member.

That’s impressive: “Evermore” may well be the musically richest album of Swift’s career, and a lot of that is certainly due to the unusual variety of vocal family Desner designed for its tunes and lyrics. But none of Dessner’s three paths here is far from this pattern. It seems as if he was given the same summary as Antonov, to go back to a pre-“folklore” style based primarily on synths and programming. But, though tolerable, none of his three paths seem particularly inspiring; They look like more spacious versions of what the other product excels at. Let’s hope you keep working with him, but maybe in the music scene where he shines brightest, rather than trying to adapt to this.

The musical standout among the rewards is the song “Glitch,” in which Antonov is joined as a producer by frequent collaborator Kendrick Lamar Sounwave, who also appears for assists on two of the best tracks on the core “Midnights”, “Lavender Haze” and “Vine.” . In “Glitch,” things get highly conceptual, but not overly distracting, as Swift sings about how falling madly in love with her current lover for many years has been an obstacle in her plan to stay friends (because every woman longs to be fair mates with Joe Alwyn) or to maintain a casual emerging relationship. “Glitch” music matches the theme by making only 3% of the buggy sound.

The other highlight from the musical angle, and also one of the album’s best extended lyrics collections, is the slow and racy “Dear Reader,” which borrows a phrase from Emily Bronte — not for Swift’s ouevre first — but more as a warning to Swift fans than as a welcome invitation. . “Never take advice from someone who breaks down,” she tells Swifties, as responsible for the error. (Elsewhere in “Midnight,” Swift actually quotes her own speech marking the commencement of New York City earlier this year, but that heedless warning is clearly no such quote.) She was talking “—well, here’s a little ‘Anti-Hero’ idea you’re sneaking up on.” You should find another guiding light,” she sings, before adding the sweet sentence: “But I shine so bright. “

Lyrically though, “Betrayal” and “Could it have been, should have” sucks up all the oxygen in the room at the moment, surprisingly enough, because it seems like it’s clearly calling out On Good Swift- He announced his past celebrity relationships, with Calvin Harris and John Mayer, respectively. That’s something she seriously avoids in the base version of “Midnights,” and didn’t get too bogged down on the albums that came before her, either – she tended to get closer to the present, when you’re on memoirs – so it’s surprising that she’s gone there. And bonus, for fans who might reasonably believe they’ll learn more about what really happened behind the scenes in these two cases of tabloid fodder. For all her statements about protecting the privacy of the current scenario, she doesn’t seem averse to shedding more light on the darker corners of her history.

“It Could, It Could, Should” is essentially an iteration of the song “Dear John,” the torn track from her third album, “Speak Now,” which demonstrated just how a tattered confession could turn out to be a future Swift writer, taking advantage of Another 12 years of hindsight. She leaves no doubt that she still feels hurt to this day: If she knew better, Swift sings, “I’m sure I’d never dance with the devil at age 19 / And God’s honest truth is that pain was heaven / Now that I’m grown up I’m afraid of ghosts.” The theme that she was too young continues from the previous song to its sequel, where Swift sings, “Give me my childhood back, it was mine first” and admits, “The wound won’t close…/I’m sorry for you all the time.”

It’s eye-catching…and forcing him to repeatedly rank up his most hilarious “midnight” song, mostly nowadays, would have been the wrong thing, even if we’re talking about the concept of the album, these regrets sounding just like the stuff of insomnia is made of.

Conversely, in “High Fidelity”, Swift seems to be responsible for some wrongdoing in another famous relationship… and feels no more guilty about checking out an affair than she did when she was writing about the same circumstances, or at least a similar scenario, In “Reputation” “Getaway Car”. The exact reason fans have associated her with her relationship with Harris is the exact date she put into the song – “Do you really want to know where you were on April 29?” — which happens to the check date of the release date of a single that I co-wrote with Harris,”

Conversely, in “High Fidelity”, Swift seems to be responsible for some wrongdoing in another famous relationship… and feels no more guilty about checking out an affair than she did when she was writing about the same circumstances, or at least a similar scenario, In “Reputation” “Getaway Car”. The exact reason fans have associated her with her relationship with Harris is the exact date she put into the song – “Do you really want to know where you were on April 29?” — which happens to check the release date of the 2016 single she co-wrote with Harris, “This Is What I Came For,” which was released shortly before they’re known to be parting ways. “Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?” She says about the character who seems to have rescued her from the alliance in question. Sorry, she’s had a few, but a break from this particular romance might not be one of them.

Universality comes into the picture, amid all these subtleties, as Swift warns: “You know there are so many different ways you can kill the person you love/The slowest way is to never love them enough.” This may be one of the most lyrical prose passages in Taylor Swift’s sayings book, but sometimes simple speaking has something to say, amidst the most clever wordplay you’re good at. At three in the morning, perhaps, extreme intelligence is not as important as a cold, harsh truth.



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