Lavender Haze

"Lavender Haze" has an electro-hip-hop-influenced production driven by a thumping bassline, modular synthesizers, and layered falsetto vocals in the refrain. Critics described its genre as pop, ambient house, R&B, and disco. Inspired by the media scrutiny surrounding the romantic relationship between Swift and English actor Joe Alwyn, the lyrics are about a narrator disregarding others' opinions and asserting that she wants to stay in love with her lover. Critics praised the song for what they deemed a sultry mood, a catchy production, and straightforward lyrics.


The single peaked at number two on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and on the Billboard Global 200. It reached the top 10 in many other countries. The "Lavender Haze" music video, written and directed by Swift, 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 setlist of her sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

Background and production[edit]

Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album, Midnights, at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2022. She revealed the scheduled release date of October 21, but did not immediately disclose the track list.^[1] Beginning on September 21, Swift started to unveil the track list in a randomized order through her 13-episode short-video series Midnights Mayhem with Me on TikTok.^[2][3] In each video, Swift rolls a lottery cage containing 13 ping pong balls numbered from one to thirteen, each representing a track, and when a ball drops out, she discloses the title of the corresponding track through a telephone.^[4]


In the ninth episode on October 7, 2022, Swift announced the title of the album's opening track as "Lavender Haze".^[5][6] After disclosing the track title, Swift shared via an Instagram post that she discovered the expression "lavender haze", which describes the state of being in love, when watching the period drama series Mad Men; the phrase appears in the twelfth episode of the second season.^[7][8] Intrigued by its meaning and supposed origin dating back to the 1950s, she saw parallels between the expression and her relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn.^[9] To Swift, the title signified an "all-encompassing love glow": "[When] you're in the 'lavender haze' you'll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud."^[10][11]


Swift revealed the songwriting credits for Midnights on October 18, 2022. "Lavender Haze" was written by an assembly including Swift, Jack Antonoff, Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet, Sam Dew, and Zoë Kravitz.^[12][13][14] The first four songwriters also produced it and used a vocal sample from jazz musician Braxton Cook, who is credited as an additional producer.^[15] Antonoff and audio engineer Laura Sisk recorded the track at Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn, Electric Lady Studios in New York, and Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Musicians on "Lavender Haze" include Antonoff, who programmed the song and played drums, modular synthesizers, Juno-6, Mellotron, and Wurlitzer; Sweet, who played bass, bass pad, flute, and Juno; Dominik Rivinus, who played snares that were recorded by Ken Lewis at Neon Wave Studio in Pirmasens, Germany. Serban Ghenea mixed "Lavender Haze" at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Randy Merrill mastered it at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. On the vinyl editions, the track was mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in Nashville, Tennessee.^[14]

Composition and lyrics[edit]

"Lavender Haze" is driven by a thumping bassline generated with a synth bass,^[16] downtempo rhythms,^[17] and swirling modular synthesizers.^[18] In the track, Swift sings with her layered, breathy upper register vocals that lead to falsetto in the refrain, accompanied by high-pitched background vocals from Antonoff.^[19][20][21] Music critics described the production as dreamy, moody, and sensual.^[20][22]


Critical consensus was that the track's music links to a variety of genres. Reviews such as those published in The Times and The Sydney Morning Herald called it a song rooted in synth-pop^[23][24] and dream pop^[25] genres, while also evoking ambient house^[26] and elements of rhythmic genres like R&B^[20][27] and hip hop.^[28][29] Alex Blimes of Esquire described the song as "slow disco".^[30] In Vulture, musicologist Nate Sloan and journalists Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz said the prominent synth-bass sound evokes an ensemble of dance and club styles of techno, UK garage, and jungle. Harding said the bassline used in "Lavender Haze" is the Reese bass, a synth-bass sound that characterizes a very low bass patch.^[17] Some reviewers likened the track's sound to that of Swift's 2017 album Reputation.^[20][28] Ann Powers of NPR thought the layered vocals and synth drums are reminiscent of the music by Whitney Houston,^[31] and Neil McCormick of The Telegraph said the falsetto "funkiness" evokes the styles of Prince.^[32]


The lyrics are about the tabloid scrutiny and online rumors that Swift and Alwyn had faced,^[33] and wanting to stay away from the press with her lover.^[34] In the lyrics, a narrator disregards others' opinions on her relationship: "All they keep asking me / Is if I'm gonna be your bride / The only kinda girl they see / Is a one-night or a wife."^[35] She disregards the scrutiny on her romantic life as bigoted and outdated ("the 1950s shit they want from me").^[35][36] She refers to questions surrounding the relationship as "dizzying" and compliments Alwyn's disregard to public inquiries about their relationship.^[37] She ultimately shakes off the judgement, "Talk your talk and go viral / I just need this love to spiral."^[16] Media publications wrote that the lyrics feature a feminist viewpoint and call out the misogynistic conceptions about gender roles.^[16][24][34]