Midnight Rain
In Midnights album reviews, some critics found the song captivating, and praised the vocally manipulated hook and nuanced production. A few others found the vocal production off-putting. "Midnight Rain" peaked at number five on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200. It also charted within the top 10 in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, and Vietnam; and the top 20 in Iceland, Luxembourg, and South Africa. The song received certifications from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Swift included the song on the set list of the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Background and release
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On August 28, 2022, the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album, set for release on October 21, during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year for All Too Well: The Short Film at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. Soon after, Swift revealed the name of the album, Midnights, and its cover, accompanied with a premise, on social networks. The tracklist was not immediately revealed. Jack Antonoff, a musician who has worked with Swift since 1989 (2014), was revealed as one of the producers of the album through a video she posted on her Instagram account on September 6, titled "The making of Midnights".
On September 21, 2022, 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 fourth episode on September 28, Swift announced the title of the sixth track as "Midnight Rain". Midnights was released on October 21, 2022, by Republic Records. Swift included the song on the set list of the Eras Tour (2023–2024). During the performance, Swift changed costume midway through and reappeared in a rhinestone bodysuit.
Swift wrote and produced "Midnight Rain" with Antonoff, who programmed the track and played instruments including percussion, drums, and multiple synthesizers (Moog synthesizer, Juno 6, Prophet-5, and modular synth). Antonoff and audio engineer Laura Sisk recorded the song at Rough Customer Studio, Brooklyn, and Electric Lady Studios, New York. "Midnight Rain" 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.
Composition and lyrics
"Midnight Rain" is 2 minutes and 54 seconds long. It is an electropop tune with an R&B and electro-hip-hop-inflected production. Driven by a distorted Moog synthesizer, the song incorporates dubstep-influenced bass, and house/trap-oriented, indie pop beats. It begins by featuring Swift's vocals pitched down and manipulated by Auto-Tune, and then transitions back to her normal singing voice. To achieve the desired sound, Antonoff modulated Swift's vocals using synth plugins including Soundtoys and iZotope Vocalsynth.
Ellen Johnson of Paste commented the manipulated vocals make the song "veers into indietronica territory". According to Billboard's critic Jason Lipshutz, the vocal shifts act as a call and response between the song's narrator and subject. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times described the song as "slow [and] woozy". Some critics compared the song's production, specifically the vocal manipulation, to Antonoff's work on the singer-songwriter Lorde's 2017 album Melodrama.
In the lyrics, the narrator contemplates on a lost love that she left back in her hometown and how she chose her career and fame over a domestic life; "He wanted it comfortable/ I wanted that pain/ He wanted a bride/ I was making my own name." Towards the conclusion, the narrator reflects on her indecision, "I guess sometimes we all get some kind of haunted/ And I never think of him except on midnights like this." For The A.V. Club journalist Saloni Gajjar, the song's theme of leaving a small-town lover behind harkens back to Swift's song "Champagne Problems", from her 2020 album Evermore. Some critics consider the song to be the album's centerpiece and comment that it best sums up Swift's concept of "13 sleepless nights". For Esquire's journalist Alan Light, the lyrics reflect Swift's contemplation on her own career path, "the determination, ambition, and sacrifices that got her to such rarefied altitude".
Critical reception
In reviews of Midnights, some critics picked "Midnight Rain" as one of the album highlights. Elise Ryan for the Associated Press found it to be a strong showcase of Swift's lyrical abilities for displaying "her unparalleled ability to make any emotion feel universal", and selected the track as one of the album's most sonically interesting. Craig Jenkins from Vulture picked "Midnight Rain" as one of the tracks to be indicative of Swift's abilities to create an R&B-tinged album, "a mannered genre reset constantly threatening to cut in an alluring new direction". Spin critic Bobby Olivier considered the vocal manipulation to be "well executed, [...] landing an uncharacteristically soulful smolder". Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic also praised the vocal production and found that the "oozing and panning noises" "conjure a feeling of suspended time". Lipshutz ranked it fifth on a ranking of all 13 Midnights tracks; "that woozy hook is rock-solid [...], and when Swift eventually adopts the refrain in her own voice, the words cut through with righteous clarity, and greater power."
Some critics were not entirely impressed with the production. The New York Times' Jon Caramanica opined that the production resembles the music of other artists such as the Weeknd and does not suit Swift. For Paul Attard from Slant Magazine, Antonoff's composition was somewhat redundant. In Consequence, Mary Siroky said the vocal manipulation overwhelms the song and picked "Midnight Rain" as one of the album's missteps. Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal deemed "Midnight Rain" a solid song that displayed a high level of songcraft, but he commented that it was "unexceptional" and "[broke] no new ground for [Swift]".
Commercial performance
After Midnights was released, "Midnight Rain" debuted and peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song along nine other Midnights tracks made Swift the first artist to occupy the top 10 of the Hot 100 and the woman with the most top 10 entries (40), exceeding Madonna (38). In the United Kingdom, the song reached number seven on OCC's Audio Streaming Chart and received a gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It charted at number five on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified platinum by Music Canada. In Australia, the song peaked at number five on the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart and received a double platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
Elsewhere, "Midnight Rain" peaked at number two in the Philippines, number three in Singapore, number four in Malaysia, number six in Vietnam, number 10 in India and Portugal, number 13 in South Africa, number 14 in Iceland, and number 19 in Luxembourg. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Global 200.
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Midnights.
- Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriter, producer
- Jack Antonoff – songwriter, producer, modular synths, Juno 6, Moog, Prophet 5, drums, programming, percussion, recording
- Laura Sisk – recording
- Megan Searl – assistant engineer
- Jon Sher – assistant engineer
- John Rooney – assistant engineer
- Randy Merrill – mastering engineer
- Serban Ghenea – mixing engineer
- Bryce Bordone – assistant mix engineer
Charts
| Chart (2022–2023) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Argentina (Argentina Hot 100) | 94 |
| Australia (ARIA) | 5 |
| Belgium (Billboard) | 18 |
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) | 52 |
| Canada (Canadian Hot 100) | 5 |
| Czech Republic (Singles Digitál Top 100) | 22 |
| Denmark (Tracklisten) | 33 |
| France (SNEP) | 111 |
| Germany (Official German Charts) | 92 |
| Global 200 (Billboard) | 5 |
| Greece International (IFPI) | 8 |
| Hungary (Stream Top 40) | 37 |
| Iceland (Plötutíðindi) | 14 |
| India International Singles (IMI) | 10 |
| Ireland (IRMA) | 44 |
| Italy (FIMI) | 84 |
| Lithuania (AGATA) | 22 |
| Luxembourg (Billboard) | 19 |
| Malaysia International (RIM) | 4 |
| Norway (VG-lista) | 35 |
| Philippines (Billboard) | 2 |
| Portugal (AFP) | 10 |
| Singapore (RIAS) | 3 |
| Slovakia (Singles Digitál Top 100) | 28 |
| South Africa (RISA) | 13 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE) | 50 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) | 28 |
| Swiss Streaming (Schweizer Hitparade) | 26 |
| UK (Billboard) | 7 |
| UK Audio Streaming (OCC) | 7 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 5 |
| Vietnam (Vietnam Hot 100) | 6 |
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA) | 2× Platinum | 140,000 |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Platinum | 80,000 |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 400,000 |
|
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||