Your Faithless Loves the Only Hoax I Believe In.

The first thing I thought of comparison wise to the midnights cover was The Weeknd’s early mixtapes which all actually have a lot of similarities to the midnights cover. I’m not a font expert but I’m pretty sure that’s also Helvetica (bold) which is what Taylor used on mindnights. If not the exact font it’s a very similar clean line font that is used pretty often.

If you want to look back historically this was also a pretty common practice especially in the 60s/70s on record covers (which may mean there’s a 60/70s influence but who knows). Taylor is also obviously using vinyl records as an influence because of the side a/side b categories for the songs.

tw// all types of abuse, descriptive physical abuse, bullying, sexual harrassment and assault, mentions of rape

This is another controversal post. But honestly? I'm tired of this topic not being talked about. Before commenting, read the entire post and try to see where we're coming from. That's all I ask. So, contronversal post, but here we go.

Minor abusers exist and can cause just as much damage and trauma as adult abusers, if not more. As hard as it is sometimes to catch adult abusers, it's even harder to catch minor abusers. This is because no one wants to believe their kid, or kids in general, are capable of harming someone else. But they most definitely exist and unfortunately, minors who abuse others have become normalized and even expected.

Bullying is a type of abuse. The definitions of physical bullying and physical abuse are pretty much the same (causing physical harm to someone repetitively). This also goes for the other types of abuse and bullying. It's not unknown that minors specifically (although adults are not excluded from this) bully and harm others. Teachers and the school systems do nothing to stop this, but that's a different topic. It's not uncommon for adults to, intentionally or not, ignore when kids bring this to their attention.

Another unfortunately common one is physical abuse from siblings. Allowing siblings to physically fight and not breaking it up is horrible parenting. But it's even worse when you don't break it up when one isn't fighting back. I don't care if the one not fighting "needs to toughen up" or "needs to be prepared for the real world" or the one who's fighting "needs an outlet for their anger." You are still allowing abuse to happen in your watch. They are a minor, your kid, an abusing someone else (usually another of your kids). I'm hoping I don't need to explain more. Even if it's not you hurting them, they are still getting physically abused at home and no one cares because it's their siblings.

The most normalized one, unfortunately, is sexual assault or harrassment. In one of our middle schools, it was a /game/ among students to sexually harrass/assault someone. Depending on the day of the week, it was a game that too many students participated in to touch/slap personal parts of a person's body. The teachers let it happen. Not only that, but catcalling is insanely normalized as well. How can you not consider sexual assault/harrassment as abuse?

Just a friendly reminder that I would never have thought it was possible to go back and remake my previous work, uncovering lost art and forgotten gems along the way, if you hadn’t emboldened me. Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Tonight we begin again. Red (my version) is out now.

https://taylor.lnk.to/redtaylorsversion

gold rush being a single thought in which she invents this whole relationship and then immediately shakes it off as something that cannot happen. “I almost jump in” being at the start and the end of the song really punctuates the disappearance of this thought process.

No body no crime is humorous about the withheld thoughts, literally saying “I think he/she did it but I just can’t prove it” over and over to show that these are just suspicions.

And in happiness “I/you haven’t met the new me yet” because they don’t yet have the ability to say all of this to their ex-lover. The gatsby references also relate to this as Daisy knows that it’s “too late” for Gatsby to win her over.

Coney Island is a duet of two lovers saying all they need to say to each other to themselves as they sit alone wallowing in their good memories. They are both “lost again with no surprises” because they’re both too prideful to tell the other what they’re feeling.

Ivy is of course all about secrets, and the scared anticipation of almost wanting to see the shit hit the fan (“spring breaks loose”), but also not quite having the guts to make that happen. (“But so does fear”)

Long story short has that beautiful moment where she asks her past self to give up on the idea of revenge. “Long story short” in itself is a phrase used to diminish a story into something trivial and not worth the time it takes to tell it.

Right where you left me suggests that the character refuses to allow herself the closure she deserves. She could get up and accept the decision her lover made, but she chooses to wallow in the pain.

‪folklore deluxe edition featuring bonus song “the lakes” is now available to stream/download 🌊

‪📷: Beth Garrabrant