Labyrinth (Taylor Swift Song)
In reviews of Midnights, most critics praised the song for its vocal production and what they deemed an ethereal and subtle soundscape. "Labyrinth" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 12 on the Billboard Global 200, and in the top 20 of singles charts in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and Singapore. Swift performed the song live for the first time at the Buenos Aires concert on November 9, 2023, as part of her Eras Tour.
Background and release
On August 28, 2022, during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year for All Too Well: The Short Film at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album and its impending release date on October 21. Soon after, Swift revealed the album's title Midnights and its cover on her social media, but did not immediately release the track list. On a September 6, 2022, video titled "The making of Midnights" on her Instagram, she revealed Jack Antonoff, a musician who had worked with Swift since 1989 (2014), as a producer on Midnights. On September 21, about a month before the album's release, Swift announced a thirteen-episode series called Midnights Mayhem with Me on the social media platform TikTok. In each episode of the series, Swift revealed the title of one album track. In the eleventh episode of the series, she announced the title of track number 10, "Labyrinth".
Swift wrote and produced "Labyrinth" with Antonoff, who programmed the track, provided background vocals, and played instruments including percussion, electric guitars, and multiple synthesizers (Moog, Juno 6, Realistic Synth, and OB8). Antonoff and audio engineer Laura Sisk recorded the song at Rough Customer Studio, Brooklyn, and Electric Lady Studios, New York. "Labyrinth" was mixed by Serban Ghenea, assisted by Bryce Bordone, at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and it was mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey. Republic Records released Midnights on October 21, 2022; "Labyrinth" is track 10 out of 13 tracks on the standard edition. On November 9, 2023, Swift performed "Labyrinth" live for the first time: she sang a piano rendition at the Buenos Aires concert as part of her Eras Tour.
Composition and lyrics
"Labyrinth" is four minutes and seven seconds long. It is a muted synth-pop and dance-pop track that features prominent electronic stylings. The production is minimalist and incorporates dubstep-influenced bass, trap-and-house-influenced beats, and filtered synthesizer tones, alongside subtle guitars and an instrument that evokes the sound of a church organ. The outro is made up of repeated refrains until they fade out.
The synths are dense and accompany Swift's vocals: Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork felt that the production mirrors the "ice melting around her heart" and compared each "synth quiver" to "a pump of new blood", and Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described how the synths are distorted "like the circuits are melting down". Swift sings with a soft timbre and uses her upper register throughout much of the track until her vocals are manipulated to a lower pitch later. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian commented that the vocal effects "warp [Swift's] voice to a point of androgyny". According to Ann Powers of NPR, the vocal production turns Swift's voice into "myriad light streams" that contain some parts resembling a Bon Iver song. In the Associated Press, Elise Ryan found "Labyrinth" to be an amalgamation of styles on Swift's past albums, namely the synth-pop of 1989 and the alternative of Folklore.
In the lyrics, Swift sings about falling for a new romance while facing the anxiety that ensues. The narrator wonders if she is falling in love too fast; "Oh, I'm falling in love / I thought the plane was going down / How'd you turn it right around?" Planes are a lyrical motif that symbolizes the uncertainty evoked by romance, and recurs on many of Swift's songs such as "Last Kiss" from Speak Now, "Come Back... Be Here" from Red, and "Out of the Woods" from 1989. For Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone, the romance in "Labyrinth" has a potential to fade away. At one point, the lyric, "Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out", reference Swift's 2022 commencement speech at New York University. The lyrics, "You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back/ Just like that", according to Esquire journalist Alan Light, allude to Swift's fear and pressure of her fame and the resulting expectations. Petridis found the song's lyrics to defy gender stereotyping surrounding women.
Critical reception
"Labyrinth" was met with generally positive reviews from critics. Sheffield hailed it as a "stealth classic" and praised Swift's vocals. In the Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood picked the song as one of the album tracks where Swift experimented with vocal cadence and emphasized "the grain of her voice like never before". Konstantinos Pappis from Our Culture Mag and Mark Richardson from The Wall Street Journal picked "Labyrinth" as one of the highlights on Midnights; the former wrote that it balanced between musical experimentation and lyrical craftsmanship, and the latter complimented the track for "amply using space and leaving out the curlicue melodic shapes". Mary Kate Carr from The A.V. Club picked "Labyrinth" as one of the most underrated Midnights tracks; she hailed it as one of "the most deceptively simple yet hauntingly beautiful tracks" in Swift's entire catalog. Writing for The Sentinel, Alaina Conaway found the lyrics and music of "Labyrinth" to be minimalistic and simple, which was a "risk" for Swift to showcase her "versatility as a writer, musician and individual".
In a less enthusiastic review, Callie Ahlgrim and Courteney Larocca of Insider describe the track as "an understandable inclusion on the album", despite their postulation that some might find the track boring. In The Times, critic Will Hodgkinson found the vocal manipulation "modish" and "off-putting".
Commercial performance
After the release of Midnights, all tracks of the standard edition debuted within the top 15 of the Billboard Global 200 chart simultaneously; "Labyrinth" was at number 12. In the United States, it debuted and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track peaked on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 14 and was certified gold from Music Canada on November 29, 2022. "Labyrinth" appeared on various single charts, at number 10 in the Philippines, number 13 in Australia and Singapore, number 22 in Malaysia, number 28 in Vietnam, number 32 in Portugal, number 52 in Sweden, number 58 in Switzerland, number 60 in the Czech Republic, number 64 in Lithuania, number 65 in Slovakia, and number 81 in Spain.
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Midnights.
- Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriting, production
- Jack Antonoff – songwriting, production, programming, percussion, Juno 6, Realistic Synth, OB8, Moog, electric guitars, background vocals, recording
- Megan Searl – assistant engineer
- Jon Sher – assistant engineer
- John Rooney – assistant engineer
- Serban Ghenea – mixing engineer
- Bryce Bordone – assistant mix engineer
- Randy Merrill – mastering engineer
- Laura Sisk – recording
- Evan Smith – mastering for vinyl
Charts
| Chart (2022) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA) | 13 |
| Canada (Canadian Hot 100) | 14 |
| Czech Republic (Singles Digitál Top 100) | 60 |
| Global 200 (Billboard) | 12 |
| Greece International (IFPI) | 25 |
| Ireland (Billboard) | 17 |
| Lithuania (AGATA) | 64 |
| Malaysia International (RIM) | 22 |
| Philippines (Billboard) | 10 |
| Portugal (AFP) | 32 |
| Singapore (RIAS) | 13 |
| Slovakia (Singles Digitál Top 100) | 65 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE) | 81 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) | 52 |
| Swiss Streaming (Schweizer Hitparade) | 58 |
| UK (Billboard) | 16 |
| UK Audio Streaming (OCC) | 17 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 14 |
| Vietnam (Vietnam Hot 100) | 28 |
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA) | Platinum | 70,000 |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Gold | 40,000 |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Silver | 200,000 |
|
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||