A New Take
The opening track from Midnights gets reimagined into a folksy, finger-plucked tune
Taylor Swift is in the throes of her massive Eras Tour, which hits Arlington, Texas this weekend. But she still found time to drop an acoustic version of Midnights opener “Lavender Haze” on Friday.
She transforms the dreamy synth-pop track into a folksy, finger-plucked tune. The song —which was co-written by Zoe Kravitz and producers Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet, and Sam Dew — suddenly becomes an intimate, enchanting Lilith Fair-core tune as opposed to the arena-pop moment the single sounds like in its original state.
Swift revealed the inspiration behind the song in an Instagram video last October: “I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men,” Swift explained in a recent Instagram video after announcing the track title. “And I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would just describe being in love. Like, if you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow – and I thought that was really beautiful.”
The OG version of “Lavender Haze” is also part of Swift’s 44-song, three-hour Eras Tour set list. She kicked off her lengthy trek earlier this month in Glendale, Arizona and will stay on tour until early August. In honor of her shows, cities around the country have been getting in the Swiftie spirit as well: Glendale renamed themselves Swift City the weekend she was there and now Arlington has temporarily renamed a street near AT&T Stadium “Taylor Swift Way.”