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wavesoutbeingtossed · 1 month ago

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I'd actually love a midnights storytelling Timeline playlist? Like what order you'd place them to tell the complete story of the album. I love the idea of Dear Reader as track 1

OK so, one caveat is that generally I think Taylor's tracklisting works really well and often tells a story of its own (e.g. TTPD), so I'm a little reticent to mess with that. And next thing is that like, we don't always have firm dates about when songs were written/what events they refer to/even who they were about depending on the album, so like, you can't really pinpoint a timeline *chronologically* of events as they transpire most of the time, certainly on Midnights. And also writing/processing isn't linear. @likeadevils does however have excellent posts about album timelines and places the songs in order of creation if that's what you're after.

Now that that's out of the way...

There are a few different ways I could see organizing Midnights thematically, and I'm approaching here kind of, emotionally-speaking rather than chronologically, although there's kind of a weaving of the two. I've split them into "chapters" à la folklore playlists on Spotify.

Prologue: To a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there

Dear Reader

Act 1: A real fucking legacy

Midnight Rain Would've, Could've, Should've Maroon Question…? High Infidelity

Act 2: Love blackout

Labyrinth Snow on the Beach Lavender Haze Paris Glitch Mastermind Karma Sweet Nothing

Act 3: Sweet dream was over

The Great War Bigger Than The Whole Sky Vigilante Shit Bejeweled Anti-Hero Hits Different You're Losing Me

Epilogue: Yeah, you can face this

You're On Your Own, Kid

So this is how I see the chapters:

Prologue:

This is the introduction to the themes of the album, very much the same way that Fortnight does for TTPD. (I love me a "Two households, both alike in dignity / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene" setup.) Dear Reader does this really well, she's speaking directly to the listener, but also to herself, and touches upon the themes throughout the album: anger, loss, fear, self-loathing, self-destruction, but also the recognition that she "shines so bright." It's the push-pull between her private and public life, her personal and professional ambitions, and that is ALL over the album and each side informs the other.

I could also argue adding Anti-Hero and Midnight Rain into this chapter and nearly did. Anti-Hero because again, it touches the public image vs. internal struggle/self-loathing of it all, which she is ruminating on on this sleepless night. And Midnight Rain because "I never think of him except on midnights like this" because well, that is the entire conceit of the album.

Act 1: A real fucking legacy

Like I said above, I nearly put Midnight Rain in the Prologue, but it also serves well as an introduction to the theme in these songs. Because "I never think of him except on midnights like this" covers these relationships from the past that are haunting her in this dark night of the soul exercise. Remember what we said about the push and pull between her personal life and her career? The crux of the song isn't her pining for this former lover, it's that she's wondering if her pursuing her ambition relentlessly and joyously is diametrically opposed to the idea he represents. It's the spark that lights the flame of the pining we see later on. Which leads to the other Hes who have marked her life and set her on the path she's on now.

So in contrast to the bittersweet nostalgia, we have the darker side of that rumination. There's WCS about the trauma that continues to haunt her, and Maroon about a relationship breakdown that broke her. Question...? Kinda is just there for laughs as comic relief-- but in all seriousness is like, "you were a dumbass and do you ever wonder if you hadn't been such a dumbass if we could have made it work?" About something that never got off the ground. And then High Infidelity ends the chapter on another darker note about the threat within a relationship, but the "Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?" is the segue for our next chapter...

Act 2: Love blackout

This is where we get a sense of the core relationship she's dancing around in the album-- the one that is driving all this rumination, because it's so intricately tied with the path her life took as a result. The "Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?" to "I thought the plane was going down, how'd you turn it right around?" emotional parallel hits the ground running and tells you why this relationship and this phase is such a lifeline. SOTB is the honeymoon phase of the relationship, where everything is wondrous and exhilarating, and pairs well IMO with Lavender Haze in that the rush of new love is intoxicating, and she wants to stay on that high and block everything out to chase it.

The rest of the songs I put here kind of meander, but there was a method to my madness. Paris feels like the memories of a special time, with the emphasis of it being them alone, shutting the world out, which is a continuation of LH. Glitch is her continued disbelief that they've made it this far, but suddenly it's six years later and she's still yearning that high (... in spite of everything telling her this wasn't supposed to happen). Mastermind could have arguably gone earlier in the list, but I put it here because again, she's planning and scheming and doing all the work to keep this thing going against all odds. Karma feels very "happily ever after"-esque in that it's, "I went through all this shit, but it's totally fine because I got what I wanted in the end!" without giving away that it's a veneer, and finally we end with Sweet Nothing because it's the sweetest fantasy of running home to your lover and feeling content and complete. Which brings us to...

Act 3: Sweet dream was over

Our last full act, which is all about loss and the ways in which one reacts and deals with it. The Great War is the bubble bursting that Sweet Nothing dreamed up. It's a crisis point in the relationship, an entire life built that is potentially going up in flames; it hints at the conflicts that would prove to be their undoing. BTTWS is a raw depiction of grief in the wake of loss, and the questioning and despair that goes along with that, sinking someone into the pits of depression and loneliness. Vigilante Shit is another reaction to loss-- this time unadulterated anger in the form of a revenge fantasy. (It's fantasizing about agency in a situation where there is little of it because like BTTWS, in many ways it's out of her hands.)

Bejeweled is a bit of the odd duck because I kind of wanted to put it near-last because I think it's the best transition into YLM, but thematically it's not quite ready for prime time yet-- although the same conundrum applies to Anti-Hero here. But Bejeweled is part of this chapter because it's her grappling with her sadness and despair and wanting to break out of it. She wants to shine again, and it's a warning to the person that she won't stick around if they don't see that. (Broadly speaking, I know there's more there.) Anti-Hero is kind of clunky here, which is why I'm very tempted to put it in the intro instead, but my thinking is: she's in this pit of self-loathing, wondering why she keeps making the same choices and same mistakes and drives everyone away. She's the problem. And it's her persona, her big life, that's driving her to this madness-- or is it? (But also: one day I’ll watch as you’re leaving and life will lose all its meaning for the last time.)

Which finally brings us to Hits Different and YLM. Honestly, these two could also swap positions, and I went back and forth on them. I think "chronologically" HD makes more sense at the last song in this chapter, but "emotionally" YLM is SUCH a fitting end, so there we go. HD makes good on the threat of the break in The Great War, and a lot of the themes we've seen throughout the playlist here but specifically this section are present. The self-destruction and self-loathing of AH, the anger and lashing out in TGW and VS (in a very different form), the depression in BTTWS and even a tinge of the self-worth in Bejeweled.

But YLM is the true denouement of this all and reflects all those same vignettes in far more devastating fashion. There's breakdown, loss, anger, spite, self-destruction and standing up for herself too, however briefly. I think it really feels like the true crossroad of the album: Do I throw out everything we built or keep it? We've just spent a whole album wading through all of it, and now she's left to decide which path to take. Does she stay and fight, perhaps wondering what she has to give up int he process, or does she leave and risk the pain she uncovered in Act 1, only tenfold because it hits different this time? The empty house of Dear Reader in the Prologue (and incidentally in HI I've just realized) is blanketed in darkness in YLM, and it's up to her to decide if she's turning the light back on or out for good.

Epilogue: Yeah, you can face this

You're On Your Own Kid feels like the perfect emotional ending for this playlist because not only does the song travel through this entire time period, from an early young love that gave way to bigger dreams to the sheer devastation she put herself through to reach the very top and the subsequent crash. And it feels like it answers the question asked in the previous chapter: Yeah, you can do this. You've come back from every setback and you'll be able to do it again. You've always ultimately had to rely on yourself, and you'll do it again and again until you pull yourself out. The song is full of such sad revelations, but it also ends on a hopeful, if bittersweet note. She might be playing solitaire for now, but doesn't mean she can't handle it.

It feels wrong to mess around with Taylor's tracklisting like this, but it was so much fun 😂 I loooooooove delving into the themes in her albums and I really find like the emotional journeys within them become more salient as time passes on too.

Honestly, I can't say it enough, I loved the pre-release playlists for TTPD too, if you're looking into this kind of emotional deconstruction of her discography at large. The beats within the playlists themselves make so much sense, and I think frames the songs within them really well. Just my two cents!

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nuetralizedevangelist · 1 year ago

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❝in that lavender haze❞ || tom blyth x f!reader

| request- hear me out! lavender haze with tom 🤭

| A/N- done and done. im hearing you out and im listening so hard. i’ve been high probably like hundreds of times but still cannot properly word it sorry 💔

| WARNINGS- marijuana consumption (mega slay), kissing, eating, wine, tiktok, tooth rotting fluff,

(divider by @benkeibear)

the feeling of your lungs being filled with smoke made you giddy, everything with sharp edges turning soft and fuzzy. coughing lightly at the larger hit you’d taken you passed the blunt to your left, to tom.

your eyes fixed on the way his lips wrapped around it and the way he closed his eyes at the sensation. your hopeless crush on your mutual friend with rachel had been developing for months, seeing him at every gathering and meet up.

he was fairly nice and polite, the true english way. you just wished he’d converse with you, more than small talk. you’re laying on your back on the floor and studying the swirling patterns on the ceiling. out of your peripheral vision you see tom lay down next to you.

staring at the ceiling with you, you don’t ever say too much. and you don’t really read into my melancholia.

“you don’t have much to say, do you?” you question into the air hoping that tom would cling on. he hums and says “yeah, i don’t know what you like or what you don’t like so i jus’ say nothing.” you turn your head to face him- all caution thrown to the wind. you find it hard to care about your words in your state. “when i first met you i thought you hated me, you wouldn’t talk to me like how you talked to everyone else. thought i might’ve done something. sometimes i still think that.” you confess and it hangs lowly over both of you.

“i was honestly kind of scared of you. in my head you’re this cool actress who does slashers and everyone loves her. i didn’t wanna say the wrong thing.” you smile and place your hand on your chest. “you think i’m cool? i think you’re cooler, tom.”

his eyes crinkle when he laughs and you love it. you find it hard to decipher where the high ends and where how tom makes you feel starts, but they’re mixing. “i think you’re really cool. you do these cool like artistic horror movies and i’m kind of obsessed with your acting.”

i find it dizzying, they’re bringing up my history. but you aren’t even listening.

the group on the couch and chairs above you pass a bottle of wine and finish off the blunt. your friend laughs loudly and you turn to look at him. “do you remember that time last year when you dated the like entire cast of that one movie? what’s it called? i can’t remember. that was funny as shit.” you cringe and cover your face trying to forget.

tom lightly grazes your shoulder with his finger and whispers “are you hungry? i really want pizza right now.” you smile and nod. he wasn’t going to ask about your questionable past times. he pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to you. “i can’t function enough to order pizza, could you do it?” you happily nod and scroll your way through the menu before you both agree on toppings you both like.

i just wanna stay in that lavender haze. talk your talk and go viral, i just need this love spiral.

the pair had found themselves in a corner, talking and giggling over pizza whilst telling stories. “yeah! and she kept asking when i was going to settle down and get married. during an interview for a horror movie.” tom shakes his head and laughs. “i couldn’t get through one promo or interview without someone showing me at-least one edit of me. it was torture.” you pull your phone out and show him how edits of him had filled your timeline.

“you’re literally everywhere. i’m not complaining but sometimes i want to see something else!” he picks his phone up and shows your his own home page. “i’m sorry i ruined your tiktok, but this might make up for it.” his entire for you page was filled with edits of you and you co-stars from your latest movie.

you laugh and watch them “i had no idea people made edits of me, i feel honored. it’s like a right of passage.” he sets his phone down as well as his pizza. “they only the use the same ten clips of you covered in blood, i need more content.” you place you own pizza down and lean towards him.

“do you wanna know a secret i’m not supposed to tell anyone?” he nods and leans closer. “i’m gonna in the next scream movie and i’m one of the ghostface’s, you’re gonna see me murdering on the big screen.” he raises his eyebrows and you barley take into account how close your faces are.

“i love everything you’re in. when i first met you, i went home and watched everything you’ve done.” he confesses with a smile and red eyes. “i did the exact same thing, rachel told me i was creepy! we’re like each others biggest fans.”

get it off your chest, get it off my desk. that lavender haze, i just wanna stay.

you’re sitting in the bathtub of your bathroom passing a blunt back and forth between you and tom. “it’s so much quieter in here, i love them but they’re so loud.” you say leaning your head back on the tile. he softly chuckles and looks at you. “i can’t believe we could’ve been hanging out for months, i should’ve just talked to you.” you smile and set the blunt in the ashtray you brought with you.

“yeah but where’s the fun in that? this is probably the best night i’ve had in a while.” you turn to look at him and you study his features. you’ve never had a chance to really look at him, your glossy eyes try to memorize each slope and curve of his face.

“can i kiss you?” you whisper out before even realizing you’ve said it. he mutters a small ‘yes’ and you’re leaning in, like your body’s on autopilot. he tastes like weed and pizza, you couldn’t find a bone in your body that cared. you sluggishly manage to inch onto his lap. “you’re so pretty.” he whispers in between kisses. his hands find purchase on your waist, not letting you even dream of getting off of him.

you reluctantly pull back and his lips chase yours. “do you wanna hang out tomorrow?” you ask him with a smile. “i would be honored, maybe i’ll take you out on a real date.” his hands are rubbing small circles on your waist. “the press is gonna love that one.” you mutter out before leaning back into him.

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