Dylan O'Brien, Zoë Kravitz, and more make surprise appearances on Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' (original) (raw)
It's nice to have a friend — or in Taylor Swift's case, several.
In addition to Lana Del Rey's featured appearance on the track "Snow on the Beach," many familiar faces have more sneaky cameos on the singer-songwriter's new album, Midnights.
For starters, the album's opener "Lavender Haze," was not only co-written by Catwoman herself, Zoë Kravitz, but it also features background vocals from the star. The song, which is about wanting to ignore rumors and speculation and stay in that happy "new love" lavender haze, was also written by Swift, Jack Antonoff, Mark Anthony Spears, Jahaan Akil Sweet, and Sam Dew, the latter of whom also lends background vocals to the track.
A few songs later is "Snow on the Beach," an ethereal track about realizing that you're falling for someone at the same time they are falling in love with you. Swift co-wrote the ditty with Del Rey and Antonoff (who also co-wrote 10 other songs on the album). But there's also a famous face playing the drums: Dylan O'Brien.
The Teen Wolf actor previously starred in Swift's All Too Well: The Short Film, which released last November alongside the re-recorded version of Swift's album, Red.
Zoë Kravitz and Dylan O'Brien. Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage; Alberto Rodriguez/Peacock/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
The collaboration of sorts doesn't end there, though. Later on Midnights, in the track "Question...?" Swift sings the lyrics, "Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room, and every single one of your friends was making fun of you? But 15 seconds later they were clapping, too?"
A crowd can be heard clapping at this point, and turns out, that group is made up of actual Swift friends in a fun bit of art imitating life. The album's credits reveal that Antonoff, his sister Rachel, Swift's brother Austin, and O'Brien provided the sound effect.
As he's done in the past, Antonoff also lends background vocals to several tracks on Midnights. And, in what has become something of a new tradition, Swift's longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn co-wrote the song "Sweet Nothing," although he didn't provide any vocals or instrumentals. Alwyn previously co-wrote songs for Swift's albums Folklore and Evermore, all under the alias William Bowery.
Midnights is Swift's 10th studio album, and features a return to more personal subject matter after departing from that format with her last two albums. Over 13 songs, it charts the course of 13 sleepless nights throughout Swift's life.
Midnights is available to buy and stream now.
Related content: