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Just like clockwork, Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated 10th studio album has arrived.
Swifties have been eagerly awaiting its release since the pop superstar broke the news during her video of the year acceptance speech at the 2022 VMAs. “I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21,” she coyly revealed. “And I will tell you more at midnight.”
And tell us more, she did. Aptly titled Midnights, she explained that the album would tell “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life” — inviting fans all along “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.”
In the wee hours of the night, three hours after the album’s initial release at midnight ET sharp on Oct. 21, the 13-track project became a 20-track one. The singer-songwriter surprise dropped the “3 am Edition,” which contains seven additional new songs.
To celebrate her newest full-length set, Billboard dug through Swift’s hefty catalog to find every mention of “midnight” in a song. Night in general has been a recurring theme in her music for over a decade, yet we were surprised to find that that exact word only appears in 10 out of 200+ songs (and four being from Midnights alone). So we decided to take things a step further and also count the times she sings “middle of the night” as honorable mentions — because take away a few letters and it’s the same darn thing (and before you @ us, no, we are not listing her specific mid-night mentions of 1:58 a.m., 2 a.m., 2:30 a.m., 3 a.m. and so forth).
Without further ado, from Fearless to Evermore to Midnights, here are all of Swift’s “midnight” and “middle of the night” lyrics, listed chronologically (with “middle of the night” lyrics beginning at No. 11).
“We went through a bit of a rough time,” 311 singer and guitarist Nick Hexum tells Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast when asked about the band’s status following comments made online by bass player Aaron “P-Nut” Wills.
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In May, founding member P-Nut ignited speculation about his future with the band after saying on Twitter he was “planning on taking a break from the band after I fulfill my obligations,” which extended to 2023 “and slightly beyond.” Five months later, however, the band is on stable ground, says Hexum.
The band members have had “some really good conversations lately about getting getting back on track,” Hexum shares. “And you know, we’re looking forward to the future. Again, I think breaks are healthy, and we have had a fairly intense touring schedule” that has included 62 concerts so far in 2022 and continues with dates in Chicago (Oct. 22 and 23) and Los Angeles (Nov. 11 and 12) before heading south to Slightly Stoopid’s Closer to the Sun festival in Mexico in early December. “Everything feels pretty well on track,” says Hexum. “And we’ve we’ve had some really good talks and discussions lately. We’re excited about the next chapter — P-Nut included.”
This year, 311 made a concerted effort to include secondary markets in the middle of the U.S. as the band returned to the road after two years slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Being from the middle of the country, we’re also in the middle of a lot of different styles,” shares Hexum. “We don’t want to be like elitist in any way, you know what I mean? We want to make it known that everyone’s welcome in our community. And so it was nice to show some love for the smaller towns that we have probably just been neglecting out of, you know, being being pulled to the bigger cities.”
311’s spring and fall tours took them to such cities as Fargo, N.D.; Bozeman and Missoula, Mont.; Green Bay and Superior, Wis.; Garden City, Idaho; Tulsa, Okla.; and Wichita, Kan. “Personally, it’s been a fun year to get to go to play, like, Missoula,” says Hexum. “Who knew that we had a good amount of fans there?”
This fall, 311 is streaming six concerts that each highlights a different album. Fans can purchase livestreams of the album sets and upgrade to bundles that include limited-edition merchandise such as T-shirts, autographed posters and animated NFTs. The band’s two performances at Terminal 5 in New York City on Oct. 1 and 2 featured 1993’s Music and 1994’s’s Grassroots. 311 will perform its breakthrough, self-titled album from 1995 and the successful follow-up, 1997’s Transistor, in Chicago on Oct. 22 and 23, respectively. As the tour continues west, shows in Los Angeles on Nov. 11 and 12 will perform Soundsystem from 1999 and From Chaos from 2001.
Listen to the entire interview with 311’s Nick Hexum and drummer Chad Sexton at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Stitcher or Audible.
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