Mastermind
Midnights (2022)
Table of Contents
Background and Release
«I know that I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about my music, and I'm not here to deny that. But I am here to defy that. Welcome to a new series I'm calling: Midnights Mayhem With Me. I'm going to allow fate decide exactly what track titles I'm going to be announcing and in what order. The first track I'm gonna tell you about: Track thirteen. Because of course. Track thirteen is called 'Mastermind.'»
Taylor Swift
Lyrical Theme and Production
«Remember that last scene? I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to have a lyric about being calculated? It’s something that’s been thrown at me like a dagger, but now I take it as a compliment.»
Taylor Swift
One can’t blame Taylor for being a better selective autobiographer than everyone else in the digital age as we curate our lives for our own audiences of any size—cutting away from the raw fabric of our lived experience to reveal the shape of the story we most want to tell, whether it’s on our own feeds or the world’s stage. In “Mastermind” she admits to this herself, in a bridge so feathery one could almost miss that it marks some of the rawest, most naked songwriting of her career: “No one wanted to play with me as a little kid/So I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since/To make them love me and make it seem effortless/This is the first time I’ve felt the need to confess/And I swear I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian because I care.”
Live Performances
Commercial Performance
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Once upon a time
The planets and the fates and all the stars aligned
You and I ended up in the same room at the same time
And the touch of a hand lit the fuse
Of a chain reaction of countermoves
To assess the equation of you
Checkmate, I couldn’t lose
[Chorus 1]
What if I told you
None of it was accidental
And the first night that you saw me
Nothing was gonna stop me
I laid the groundwork
And then just like clockwork
The dominoes cascaded in the line
What if I told you I’m a mastermind
And now you’re minе
It was all by design
‘Cause I’m a mastermind
[Verse 2]
You see all thе wisest women had to do it this way
‘Cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover’s game
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
Strategy sets the scene for the tale
I’m the wind in our free-flowing sails
And the liquor in our cocktails
[Chorus 2]
What if I told you
None of it was accidental
And the first night that you saw me
I knew I wanted your body
I laid the groundwork
And then just like clockwork
The dominoes cascaded in a line
What if I told you I’m a mastermind
And now you’re mine
It was all my design
‘Cause I’m a mastermind
[Bridge]
No one wanted to play with me as a little kid
So I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since
To make them love me and make it seem effortless
This is the first time I’ve felt the need to confess
And I swear
I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian ’cause I care
[Chorus]
So I told you
None of it was accidental
And the first night that you saw me
Nothing was gonna stop me
I laid the groundwork
And then saw a wide smirk
On your face, you knew the entire time
You knew that I’m a mastermind
And now you’re mine
Yeah, all you did was smile
‘Cause I’m a mastermind
Artist | Taylor Swift | |||
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Album | Midnights | |||
Released | October 21, 2022 | |||
Recorded | 2021-2022 | |||
Studios | Rough Customer (Brooklyn) Electric Lady (New York) | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 3:11 | |||
Label | Republic Records | |||
Songwriters | Taylor Swift Jack Antonoff | |||
Producers | Jack Antonoff Taylor Swift | |||
MIDNIGHTS CHRONOLOGY | ||||
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