Taylor Swift finds herself in a “Lavender Haze”, in a music video which features...a lavender haze. And lots of lavender.

Midnights is still fucking it up on the charts. Fans still can’t get tickets to see a bitch on tour. But Taylor stays releasing ‘the content’ to make sure the clock album holds tight until the tour starts. By which point I’m sure we’ll have more videos.

With Lana Del Ray releasing her ninth studio album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd in March of this year, it wouldn’t surprise me if Taylor dropped a music video for the Lana Del Rey assisted “Snow on the Beach” in the same month. “Snow on the Beach” doesn’t seem to be a popular song on Midnights, but it’s one of the few songs on the album that I actually like and play aside from “Anti-Hero”. The whole sound of the song reminds me so much of Maggie Rogers.

But for now, the new video we have is for Midnights’ opening song “Lavender Haze”, which I think sets the album up nicely, just for the album to not really pay it off. But y’all can read my review where I get into all that.

As was the case with “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled”, the music video for “Lavender Haze” is directed by Taylor herself. And whilst “Bejewelled” didn’t carry through any of the branding of Midnights, “Lavender Haze” does; feeling like it’s set in the same word as the the “Anti-Hero” music video.

What we got here is pretty much what I and I’m sure many others envisioned as a music video. Dreamy. Lots of purple. Lots of lavender. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes the most obvious solution is the best one. There’s just something about the vibe of the song and the title of it which paints very specific and obvious pictures.

I grinned and pointed at the screen like that Leonardo DiCaprio meme when I saw Laith Ashley in this video. For all that Taylor Swift tried to do with that “You Need to Calm Down” video, featuring a trans man as her love interest here beat all that out, because it was so nonchalant and casual. I know “You Need to Calm Down” has its fans, and that everybody who featured in it will always be grateful to have been a part of it. But I had problems with that music video. So it’s cool to now see Taylor Swift’s approaches to things like visibility and representation evolve and become less of a signpost when she does it. It’s something she’d quietly been doing for her music videos, almost immediately after “You Need to Calm Down”, and I’ve noticed it. So, props to Taylor.

This was a great example on how to put trans folk in things. You just fucking do it. You don’t have to give them a trans storyline or highlight they are trans; not that there is anything wrong with that. But trans people can just be cast as you would cast anybody else.

Taylor and Laith also had really great chemistry too.

Lavender Haze | Taylor Swift

“Lavender Haze” is the better of the Midnights music videos to hit thus far, because there’s no excessively long dialogue sequence. The “Anti-Hero” video did not need that shit during the funeral scene, and the intro for “Bejewelled” was also unnecessary. The premise of the video was simple. It didn’t need any explanation. Even from the Kamikaze Lightspeed queen that is Laura Dern.

But Taylor is really coming into her own as a music video director. Given how meticulous she’s always been with her brand and how she shares her art, it makes sense that she’d eventually start directing her own music videos. It’d be great to see her branch out and direct videos for other acts. Directing a video for Haim would be a great start, if they’re able to be pulled away from Paul Thomas Anderson.

There aren’t enough women in the game directing music videos these days. Diane Martel, Floria Sigismondi and Sophie Muller are still holding it down as the OG’s. And we have Melina Matsoukas and Hannah Lux Davis who were part of a new generation of music video directors. But we need more women. ESPECIALLY Black women directing music videos.

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💿 Album Reviews: Midnights | Lover