From country to pop to folk, Taylor Swift has done it all. Since the release of her debut album in 2006, Swift has risen to the top of the charts countless times, racked up 42 Grammy award nominations and 11 wins and sold out global stadium tours. This past week, Swift hit a new milestone with the release of her fifth album in the past five years and her tenth total studio album,

Midnights

.

As described by Swift,

Midnights

tells the stories of 13 sleepless nights throughout Swift’s life. The 13 songs on the standard edition of the album cover topics familiar to Swift: her love for her three pet cats, her ever-present battle with producer Scooter Braun and her devotion to her long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Swift and Alwyn, disguised under the pen name William Bowrey, even collaborated to write a song on the album (“Sweet Nothing”). The album begins with “Lavender Haze,” a pop-driven song that sets the tone for the entirety of the record. Swift collaborated with producer Jack Antonoff on the entirety of the album. Those who are familiar with Antonoff’s work can recognize the familiarity between

Midnights

and his other works, such as Lorde’s 2017 album,

Melodrama

, and of course the majority of Taylor Swift’s recent albums, such as 1989,

Reputation

and

Lover

.

Though not as lyrically complex as recent albums

Folklore

and

Evermore

,

Midnights

holds much appeal to fans of Swift’s work in pop music, which began with the original release of her recently re-released album

Red

in 2012. Stand-out tracks on

Midnights

include “Karma,” “Anti-Hero,” “You’re on Your Own Kid” and “Mastermind.” “Karma” features fun, carefree lyrics a la Swift’s pop hit “Shake It Off.” In the song’s chorus, Swift sings, “Karma is a cat purring in my lap ’cause it loves me / Flexing like a god*mn acrobat.” These whimsical lyrics, accompanied by a peppy snare-driven beat, create an incredibly danceable and catchy track. “Anti-Hero,” of which Swift said, “I don’t think I have delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before,” does just that. Swift sings the tagline of the chorus, “It’s me / Hi / I’m the problem, it’s me,” Swift also discusses elements of her dreams in this song, connecting back to the album’s overarching concept of the stories of sleepless nights. In “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” Swift writes about struggles with growing up and learning to deal with the good and the bad on topics ranging from body issues to childhood friendships. Though it still holds the same pop feel as the rest of the album, “You’re On Your Own, Kid” feels lyrically more stripped down, as if it could fit into her more lyrically complex albums like

Folklore

or

Evermore

. “Mastermind,” serving as the last (and 13th, Swift’s signature number) song on the album, explores her rise to fame and Swift’s relationship with Joe Alwyn. Within the lyrics, Swift makes a callback to her 2010 album

Speak Now

, singing, “You see all the wisest women had to do it this way / ’Cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover’s game” much like she sang in

Speak Now

’s crooning breakup song “Dear John”: “And I lived in your chess game / But you changed the rules every day.” Ties like these are one of the elements of Swift’s writing fans love so much, as many feel one has to be a super-fan of Taylor Swift to fully unterstand her lyrics.

Though Swift is credited as writer and producer on all tracks on

Midnights

, along with Jack Antonoff, she also worked with many other collaborators. One of these collaborations was Lana Del Rey, another favorite of Antonoff, as they produced Del Rey’s 2019 Grammy nominated album

Norman F*king Rockwell

together. Del Rey is credited as a featured artist on track four of the album “Snow On The Beach,” though she falls victim to a treatment known by many featured artists on Swift’s songs, being given only backing vocals and no solo lines or verses. Despite this, Del Rey’s whimsical voice adds a layer to the track that otherwise would have been forgettable. Actress Zoё Kravitz, daughter of rock star Lenny Kravitz, is given songwriting credit on the album’s leading track “Lavender Haze,” giving the public the first taste of her collaboration with Antonoff, with whom she is working on an album with.

Though it may not appeal to fans of Taylor Swift’s more folk-inspired works,

Midnights

is a great example of what pop music can and should be, proving once again what Taylor Swift is capable of.