To me Midnights is her worst album, which is not to say it's horrible, but it had ZERO business winning Album Of The Year. It has some good pop moments but it's very forgettable and bland. Then again, it had the task of following her masterpiece of folklore/evermore. The problem with having such a high point album as folklore/evermore is that now I know what she's capable of, so I am less likely to accept when she isn't living up to that.
This is a step in the right direction overall, despite the BS release approach of the surprise double album, but this just re-enforces what was already very very clear to me.
Dessner >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AntonoffFor this reason the second album is the better of the two.
I saw an interview somewhere recently where she said [paraphrasing] that the reason she loves Antonoff is because he is always so enthusiastic. No matter how weird or different of an idea she comes in with he freaks out like "Oh my God! Oh my God! I know exactly what it needs!!!" And I think that is precisely the problem. He has no filter and doesn't hold her to any standard. He takes any idea and just dumps tons of production sugar on it and his songs all sound too similar.
Dessner is much more of an artist and I think her game rises to meet him and produces much better songs.
To me I look at the songs. If you take the bulk of Antonoff's songs on Midnights and here and just had her play the song on a piano or acoustic guitar, stripped down to the basics, I don't think they would hold up. Whereas if you see any of the stripped down performances of folklore/evermore songs they hold up because they are genuinely good songs. Same with the Dessner songs on this release. They mostly have good bones and then are built upon from there. Antonoff songs are just sugar with nothing underneath.
Overall I think this would have been better culled down to a single album of all the best songs (mostly Dessners).
What'd I'd love to see next is her dump Antonoff and pair with a real ball breaking type producer. Someone who values the album as an art form and who is going to force her to make an album of 12-14 songs of her best and ask the questions like "Is this good enough?" "What are you trying to say in this song? Is it something that HAS to be said? Have you already said it in one of the other songs?"
Of course this is all first listen. I reserve the right to change my mind wildly after more listens
