"Lavender Haze" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff, Jahaan Sweet, and Sounwave. Zoë Kravitz and Sam Dew co-wrote the song, and Braxton Cook was an additional producer. The title was inspired by a phrase used in the series Mad Men that refers to the state of being in love. Republic Records released "Lavender Haze" to US radio on November 29, 2022, as the album's second single.
The track's production incorporates a thumping bassline, pulsing modular synthesizers, and layered falsetto vocals in the refrain. Critics described the genre as pop, ambient house, R&B, and disco, with elements of hip-hop. The lyrics were inspired by the media scrutiny surrounding Swift's relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn: the narrator disregards others' opinions on her relationship and unwed status, and she affirms her desire to stay in love with her partner. Music critics interpreted the lyrics from a feminist perspective, and they generally praised the track's production as restrained, sophisticated, and catchy.
"Lavender Haze" peaked at number two on the Billboard Global 200 chart and on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. It reached the top 10 in many other countries. Swift wrote and directed the music video for "Lavender Haze", which was released on January 27, 2023. It incorporates psychedelic and surrealist visual elements and features the Dominican-American model Laith Ashley as Swift's love interest. She included "Lavender Haze" in the set list of her sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Background and production
Taylor Swift announced her tenth original studio album, Midnights, at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28; its title and cover artwork were released shortly after the same day via social media. She conceived Midnights as a collection of songs about her nocturnal ruminations, detailing a wide range of emotions such as regret, lust, nostalgia, contentment, and self-loathing. The standard album was produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, as a result of the two experimenting with music while their partners were both shooting for a film in Panama.
Swift announced the album's track listing via a thirteen-episode video series called Midnights Mayhem with Me on the platform TikTok, where each video contained the title of one track at a time. The title of "Lavender Haze" was revealed in the episode posted on October 7, 2022. In an Instagram post that she uploaded the same day, Swift shared that she discovered the expression "lavender haze", which describes the state of being in love, when watching the period drama series Mad Men. Intrigued by its meaning and supposed 1950s origin, Swift saw parallels between the expression and her relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn; she interpreted it as an "all-encompassing love glow".
"Lavender Haze" was written by Swift, Antonoff, Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet, Sam Dew, and Zoë Kravitz. Sounwave wrote the initial track within 15 minutes. After experimenting with different sounds, he "[hit] one button by accident" and played a voice memo that Sweet had sent to him: it was a recording of his roommate Braxton Cook singing wordless melodies over some chords. Antonoff, who was in the same room, was fascinated by the sound. Sounwave and Antonoff then teamed up with Dew and Kravitz to write a track containing an R&B groove using keyboards, built on Cook's vocal coos; according to Sounwave, Dew came up with the melodies and Kravitz added some sonic embellishments. Antonoff shared the track to Swift, who recorded her vocals and sent it back to the other writers. Sounwave recalled their reactions when Antonoff played the finished track: "[...] all our mouths dropped. [Swift] took it to a whole new world and made it her own [by creating] different pockets we did not hear."
Swift, Antonoff, Sounwave, and Sweet are credited as the producers of "Lavender Haze", and Cook is credited as an additional producer. Antonoff and Laura Sisk recorded the track at Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn, Electric Lady Studios in New York, and Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. In addition to programming the song, Antonoff played drums, modular synthesizers, the Julo-6, the Mellotron, and the Wurlitzer. Sweet played bass, bass pad, flute, and Juno. Dominik Rivinus played snare drums, which were recorded by Ken Lewis at Neon Wave Studio in Pirmasens, Germany. "Lavender Haze" was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. On the vinyl editions, the track was mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in Nashville, Tennessee.
Music
"Lavender Haze" incorporates four on the floor beats, a thumping bassline generated with a synth bass, and downtempo rhythms. Swift's vocals are layered and sung in her breathy upper vocal register against swirling modular synthesizers and background vocals from Kravitz, Dew, and Antonoff. In the refrain, she sings in her falsetto range.
Critics categorized "Lavender Haze" into pop fusion genres such as synth-pop, electropop, dream pop, and disco-pop; some reviews described it as ambient house and "slow disco". The track displays influences of rhythmic styles like R&B and hip-hop. The bassline is the Reese bass, characterized by a very low bass patch, that evokes dance and club styles such as techno, UK garage, and jungle.
The production elements led to critics deeming the sound dark, "subterranean", dreamy, sultry, and sensual. Some reviewers likened the production styles to those on Swift's 2017 album Reputation. There were comparisons to the music by other artists: Grace Bryon from Paste thought its "bubbling electropop" production was a borderline imitation of Lorde and Lana Del Rey, Ann Powers of NPR compared the layered vocals and synth drums to Whitney Houston, and Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph said the falsetto "funkiness" evokes Prince.
Lyrics and interpretations
The lyrics were inspired by the media scrutiny that Swift and Alwyn had faced. The overall message is that she wants to stay in love with him despite others' opinions. She appreciates his unwavering support for her and disregard of the gossip surrounding her past relationships: "I've been under scrutiny/ You handle it beautifully/ All this shit is new to me"; "I find it dizzying/ They're bringing up my history/ But you weren't even listening." The song also explores the pressures that come with protecting this love, such as fighting back gendered stereotypes ("the 1950s shit they want from me") that demand women to become either a wife or a one-night fling. Swift ignores all of the inquiries into her unwed status: "I'll be damned if I do give a damn what people say"; "Talk your talk and go viral/ I just need this love spiral."
According to several media publications, "Lavender Haze" has a feminist viewpoint and calls out the misogynistic conceptions about gender roles. In the view of Slate's Carl Wilson, the song sees Swift asserting authority and rejecting others' perception of her as a Madonna–whore complex. The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz contended that the track represented Swift's shifted attitude towards romance: whereas her 2008 single "Love Story" depicted marriage as the ideal romantic ending with starry-eyed fairy tale imagery, "Lavender Haze" expresses ambivalence towards not only marriage but also the societal expectations and "traditional timelines of adulthood". Writing for the Alternative Press, Ilana Kaplan considered "Lavender Haze" one of the album tracks where Swift grappled with the "good-girl" image that she had constrained herself to, a notion that she had explained in the 2019 documentary Miss Americana.
There were interpretations of "Lavender Haze" from a queer perspective. According to Shaun Cullen, a professor in the humanities, there are some reasons for this: the color lavender, which evokes the symbol of gay pride; and the protest against the "1950s shit", which suggests not only defiance against gender discrimination but also sexuality-based discrimination. Cullen argued that this showcased Swift's increasing awareness of her status as "a white celebrity, artist, and citizen struggling to communicate [...] across the color line", which parallels her departure from "the trappings of Jim Crow-era country and planation nostalgia" suggested by her early country songs.
Release and commercial performance
Republic Records released Midnights on October 21, 2022; "Lavender Haze" is the opening track. It was later released as the album's second single. In the United States, Republic released the song to contemporary hit radio on November 29, 2022. The track was supported by several remixes released in February–March 2023: a tropical house remix by Felix Jaehn, three more by Tensnake, Snakehips, and Jungle. An acoustic version was released on March 31, 2023.
"Lavender Haze" debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Global 200. It was one of the Midnights tracks that made Swift the first artist to chart in the top five the same week. In the United States, the single debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It helped Swift become the first artist to monopolize the top 10 of the Hot 100 the same week, together with other Midnights tracks. It spent two consecutive weeks in the top 10, charted at number five on the Pop Airplay chart and number four on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. As Swift's 27th song to enter the top 10 of the Adult Pop Airplay, it made Swift the solo artist with the most top-10 entries.
The single peaked at number two on the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand; number three in the Philippines and the United Kingdom; and number four in Singapore. It reached the top 10 in India, Portugal, Vietnam, Iceland, and South Africa; and the top 20 in Luxembourg, Norway, Lithuania, Austria, Croatia, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. "Lavender Haze" was certified triple-platinum in Australia; platinum in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; and gold in Poland, Portugal, and Spain.
Swift performed "Lavender Haze" as the opening number of the Midnights act on the Eras Tour (2023–2024). Before the performance, the stage floor displayed a video of Swift swimming and visuals onstage showed ocean waves. She then appeared onstage in a purple fur coat, climbing up a ladder leading to an elevated platform, as dancers wheeled around with lavender artificial clouds as props. Visuals onstage showed Swift lying in a lavender field, dancing in lavender clouds, and sitting and posing as abstract lavender lines cascaded around her. Variety's Chris Willman thought that the performance set the sensual tone for the Midnights act, the final act of the concert, as "the best after-hours club in the world".
Critical reception
"Lavender Haze" received positive reviews from music critics; many deemed it a strong opening track that sets the tone for Midnights. The production was a common point of praise: PopMatters' Rick Quinn and The A.V. Club's Saloni Gajjar complimented the sound as catchy and danceable, while Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos and Our Culture Mag's Konstantinos Pappis deemed it restrained and muted, with the former adding that it has a playfulness to it. In Vulture, Craig Jenkins deemed it one of the R&B-tinged tracks of Midnights that showcased Swift's abilities to create "a mannered genre reset constantly threatening to cut in an alluring new direction". Elise Ryan of the Associated Press considered track one of the album's more experimental cuts and deemed Swift's delivery "beckoning". Annie Zaleski similarly lauded her vocals as "sophisticated and alluring", and The New York Times' Jon Caramanica picked the track as one of the album's better moments with Swift's great singing. A lukewarm review was from Slant Magazine's Paul Attard, who felt that the opening seconds were burdened by excessive reverb and turned out overwhelming.
Other reviews focused on the lyrics. Billboard's Jason Lipshutz placed the track fourth on his ranking of all 13 Midnights tracks; he contended that the lyrics were direct and barbed, and were elevated by the sophisticated production elements. Willman thought that the feminist message was provocative, interesting for the audience, and self-revelatory for Swift. In a similar vein, Quinn was impressed by Swift's rejection of societal norms and embrace of her own emotional journey. Paul Bridgewater from The Line of Best Fit contended that the song was convincing because it showcased Swift's reflective side, "holding a mirror to herself and past behaviours". Mary Siroky from Consequence selected "Lavender Haze" as one of the album's essential tracks, praising how it functions as a "self-contained world". Jenkins thought that although the song was inspired by Swift's fame and celebrity, its depiction of a desire for uncomplicated love was resonant and relatable to any listener.
"Lavender Haze" has appeared on some rankings of Swift's songs. In his list of the select 75 tracks by Swift, Willman highlighted her defiance against the "1950s shit" stereotype and described its production as "a good groove in every possible regard". The song appeared in the upper-tier of rankings by Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield (85 out of 274) and Vulture's Nate Jones (71 out of 245). Slant Magazine's editorial staff picked "Lavender Haze" as one of the 20 best collaborations by Swift and Antonoff, and Billboard placed it at number 69 on their list of the best songs of 2022.
Music video
The music video for "Lavender Haze" premiered on Swift's Vevo channel on YouTube, on January 27, 2023. She wrote and directed the video herself. It incorporates psychedelic and surrealist visual elements. According to Swift, "Lavender Haze" was the first Midnights music video for which she wrote the treatment; she described the concept as "a sultry sleepless 70's fever dream" that encapsulated the "world and mood" of the album.
The video has a dominant purple color scheme and 1970s fashion and interior design. It starts with Swift waking up at midnight, listening to vinyl records, burning incense, and tracing the outline of the universe on the back of her lover (portrayed by the Dominican-American transgender activist and model Laith Ashley). Her bedroom is then engulfed in a lavender-hued fog, in which Swift dances. She then crawls across a 1970s living room whose carpets are blooming with lavender flowers and tears the television apart to reveal a cosmic aquarium.
Swift is then seen swimming in a purple-hued pool and having a house party with her friends while cuddling with her lover, engulfed in the lavender mist. The video ends with Swift floating in outer space with a lavender fog and floating koi fish around her. According to publications, the "Lavender Haze" video contains numerous Easter eggs that link to other Midnights tracks.
Accolades
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Midnights.
Charts
Certifications
Release history
References
Sources
- Cullen, Shaun (2024). "What It Means to Shake It Off: Taylor Swift, Race, and Citizenship". In Tontiplaphol, Betsy Winakur; Klimchynskaya, Anastasia (eds.). The Literary Taylor Swift: Songwriting and Intertextuality. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 979-876510452-1.
- Eadon, Yvonne M. (April 2, 2024). "'You Could Hear a Hair Pin Drop': Queer Utopianism and Informal Knowledge Production in the Gaylor Closeting Conspiracy Theory". Social Media Society. 10 (2). doi:10.1177/20563051241242797.
- Zaleski, Annie (2024). "The Midnights Era". Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs. Thunder Bay Press. pp. 203–231. ISBN 978-1-6672-0845-9.203-231&rft.pub=Thunder Bay Press&rft.date=2024&rft.isbn=978-1-6672-0845-9&rft.aulast=Zaleski&rft.aufirst=Annie&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Lavender Haze">
