YMMV / Midnights

• Accidental Innuendo: This line in "Maroon" accidentally sounds like either Come Back to Bed, Honey or I'll Be in My Bunk. Being the line with the Precision F-Strike doesn't help.
  And I wake with your memory
  Over me
  That's a real fucking legacy. To leave.
  • Somehow the clean version make this trope even worse, with "fucking" being replaced with "lasting".
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • What is the loss in "Bigger In the Whole Sky" about? Loss of self (implied by sharing the same wording in the chorus with "Would've, Could've, Should've")? Loss of a relationship? Or a more literal loss/death of a person? Especially a child or an unborn child with how much emphasis the song placed on the short time they spent together and the loss of a future the narrator and the subject could've had together.
  • Is the narrator of "Vigilante Shit" The Mistress, striking back when she discovered her boyfriend was married by teaming up with his wife? Is the narrator more interested in the wife? Is it both? The last interpretation is NOT helped by the song's performance for the Eras tour where she gave a lap dance as choreography.
  • How much of "Question...?" is sincere and how much of it is Passive-Aggressive Kombat meant to hurt and spite her ex-boyfriend?
  • Is the line "Bet I could still melt your world / Argumentative, antithetical dream girl" from "Hits Different" singing to a woman? Or is she casting herself as the dream girl in question?
  • In the same vein, who is the "her" that Taylor blames for the events in "The Great War"? Is it another woman? Or is it herself?
  • If we consider all of narrators from the song is the same person (something that Swift encourage given her promotional post), how to interpret her attitude toward marriage? Is she against it because she hate being fit into a traditional woman role, as evidenced from "Lavender Haze", "Midnight Rain", and "High Infidelity"? Or (as the release of "You're Losing Me" as well as Swift's past discography has suggested) does she secretly want marriage and her denial is meant to hide her feelings towards her love interest not wanting to marry her?
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Taylor herself fully expected the lead single for Midnights, "Anti-Hero", to not be a hit because of its complex lyrics and melody. She was extremely surprised and glad to be proven otherwise.
• Angst Aversion: Many critics and listeners agree that some of the songs in the 3 AM edition are much sadder than the rest of the album and, despite their quality, it is understandable that they got cut. Two notable examples are "Bigger Than the Whole Sky" and "Would've, Could've, Should've".
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Many of the bonus tracks are massively beloved by fans who wish they made it into the standard version. Most notably "The Great War", "Bigger Than the Whole Sky", and "Would've, Could've, Should've". The latter is especially notable, with many critics and audience dubbing it just as powerful and intense as Swift's previous magnum opus "All Too Well".
  • "Hits Different" and "You're Losing Me" weren't widely available until months after the album's release, which probably contributed to them getting extra attention outside the context of the album.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Many listeners would have a very different view of this album when the news broke a few months after its release about Swift's breakup with her long-term boyfriend and sometime collaborator Joe Alwyn, coupled with the release of "You're Losing Me".
  • In particular, "Maroon", "Bejeweled", "You're On Your Own Kid", "Midnight Rain", "The Great War", and "Dear Reader" sound less like intrusive thoughts on late nights and more like confessions that her relationship was going south and that she feels incredibly lonely and isolated.
  • "Labyrinth", "Sweet Nothing" and "Mastermind" are hit hard by this in the opposite manner, knowing he co-wrote "Sweet Nothing" and the seemingly happy relationship they depict didn't survive.
  • "Lavender Haze", "Anti-Hero", and "Paris" also get hit with this because one of the messages in the songs is to ignore the outside world and distractions and / or having a love life in spite of that. Swift's massive increase in fame between 2022 and 2023 is one of the main reasons cited for the break up, validating her fear of her fame and the outside world coming between her and the subject of the songs.
• Ho Yay: The narrator of "Vigilante Shit" seems almost enamored of her target's wife, boasting about helping her divorce the louse and make off with all his money after he gets arrested, and fawning, "She looks so pretty, drivin' in your Benz." Not to mention, an infatuation or even an affair with the wife could explain what motivated the narrator to go after the guy in the first place.
  Picture me, thick as thieves with your ex-wife.
• Narm: "Vigilante Shit" was criticized for its "2014 Tumblr" try-hard lyrics, particularly "Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man", the very first line. (Naturally, part of the "2014 Tumblr" crowd who have embraced that era finds the song/line Narm Charm because the narrator is clearly enjoying taking vengeance and singing about it.)
• Pandering to the Base: After many fans were disappointed that Lana Del Rey only sings the backing vocals in "Snow On the Beach", Taylor announced that she and Del Rey went back to redo the song for the Til Dawn Edition to give Lana a verse.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: "Vigilante Shit" was one of the less-liked songs on the album upon release, due to some people finding the lyrics a bit try-hard or thinking the production clashed with the rest of the album. Then came The Eras Tour, where the performance of that song was often touted as a highlight of the night, thanks in no small part to Taylor doing a chair/lapdance in a very revealing dress and garter, as well as her commanding stage presence. Even fans who don't rank the song itself that highly will agree the performance is great.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus toward the "Karma" remix with Ice Spice. Even though the music video is well received, the remix itself is widely considered inferior to the original version and a damage control move because of Swift's very publicized romance with Matty Healy.
• Spiritual Sequel:
  • With the reference to age 19 and the theme of being taken advantage of by an older man, "Would've, Could've, Should've" is as explicit as a sequel to "Dear John" as is possible without using the name of the song.
  • "The Great War" reference a big misunderstanding that is the fault of the narrator to the point that it almost ended their relationship, with many details similar to "Afterglow" from Lover.
  • "High Infidelity" has a lot of themes, details and motifs similar to "Gorgeous" from reputation, with the theme of wanting out of an unfulfilling relationship with a new person. Taylor seems to acknowledge this and sang both songs together as surprise songs for the Eras tour.
• Tough Act to Follow: Following the critical adoration of the folklore / evermore era, some listeners admit that while this isn't a bad album, it still didn't live up to them.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The narrator of "You're Losing Me" complains of her love interest not understanding her and not realizing their relationship is dying. However, much of the song comes off as passive aggressive, guilt tripping, acting contradictory (keep begging her love interest to "do something" but earlier in the song she keeps telling them to "stop" because they are "losing her"), acting bitter that her love interest doesn't want to marry her, and being condescending toward her love interest instead of just talking to them directly.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The love interest for the "Lavender Haze" music video is a trans man (model Laith Ashley). Many fans interpret this as a symbolic protest against the increasingly transphobic legislation and public sentiment in the United States during the early 2020s.