"Maroon" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a dream pop, synth-pop, and trip hop ballad with layered vocals, trap beats, and an oscillating electric guitar creating a sustained note throughout. In the lyrics, the narrator reminisces a past relationship.
The track received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented the production and deemed the lyrics poetic, but a few found the theme similar to Swift's previous songs. "Maroon" peaked at number four on the Billboard Global 200, number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, and charted within the top ten in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Background and release
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2022. She later revealed the name of the album, Midnights, and its album cover on social networks but the tracklist was not immediately revealed. On a video via her Instagram account on September 6, titled "The making of Midnights", Swift revealed that Jack Antonoff, who had worked with her before on her five studio albums since 1989 (2014), was a producer on the album.
On September 21, 2022, exactly a month before Midnights's release, Swift announced a thirteen-episode short series called Midnights Mayhem with Me on the social media platform TikTok. The series' purpose is to announce a song title every episode by rolling a lottery cage that contains thirteen ping pong balls numbered one to thirteen; each ball represents a track. In episode five on September 30, Swift revealed "Maroon" as the title of track two. Midnights was released on October 21 under Republic Records. In 2023, Swift performed the track as a "surprise song" on selected stops of the Eras Tour, such as East Rutherford (May 26), Inglewood (August 3), and Mexico City (August 27).
Composition
Music and production
"Maroon" is three minutes and thirty-eight seconds long. Swift wrote and produced it with Antonoff, who provides programming and instruments including percussion, Juno 6, modular synth, piano, electric and bass guitars. Evan Smith plays organ, saxophone, flute, and clarinet, and recorded her performance at Pleasure Hill Recording in Portland, Maine. The track was recorded Antonoff and Laura Sisk at Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn and Electric Lady Studios in New York City. It was engineered by Antonoff, Sisk, and Smith, with assistance from John Rooney, Jon Sher, and Megan Searl. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea with assistance from Bryce Bordone at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and was mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey.
"Maroon" is a dream pop, synth-pop, and trip hop ballad. It has a buzzing electronic drone that dominates the second half. The production incorporates layered, reverbed vocals, synthesizers, preset echoing drum patterns, trap beats, and electric guitar played on an EBow which creates a single note that sustains and slowly oscillates up and down throughout the track. Critics called the track's production ambient, moody, and atmospheric. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described the guitar as "shoegazey". In Paste, Ellen Johnson compared the trap-tinged production and "light rapping" on "Maroon" to the music of "Dress", a track off Swift's 2017 album Reputation.
Lyrical interpretation
In the lyrics, the narrator reminisces a past relationship where she and the lover shared memories together, referencing many imagery found in Swift's older songs such as New York, wine, and scenes of domestic life. The refrain recalls the remnants of a neglected long-distance relationship ("And how the blood rushed into my cheeks/ So scarlet, it was (Maroon)/ The mark they saw on my collarbone/ The rust that grew between telephones"). After detailing how the relationship derails in the second verse, the narrator contemplates how the relationship still leaves a mark on her in the bridge ("And I wake with your memory over me/ That's a real fucking legacy, legacy").