A 20-year-old Taylor, mid-transition from childhood to adulthood, draws from that dizzying dysphoria and uses it to refine her already awe-inspired songwriting. All of Taylor Swift's Albums in order + Some unreleased, bonus, and soundtrack songs (only ones that are in a mostly complete state) in table form A mean/mode score calculator under each album Page 2 A macro-enabled automatic ranking table of each album's mean score, with colours that re-orders automatically as you score the songs on Page 1 Page 3 She gets the heavy hitters out of the way early, beginning with a last word in "I Forgot That You Existed," a wink and wave goodbye to social media swarms and energy sucks. It's the stuff of shared languages, not unlike our own pensive journal entries when we had nowhere else to turn but the page. But "Folklore" has a laid-back vibe that reflects the spontaneity of how this album was created. By album three Swift was a certified Big Deal. Haim collaboration No Body, No Crime is a full-blown country revenge song, while Long Story Short and Gold Rush fuse Swifts new sound with some 1984-era gloss. This new sound may not be a far cry from the original, but to the trained Swiftie's ear, these small changes culminate into a noticeably "richer" listening experience from all angles. But in the meantime, Midnights remains on repeat with high regard. 1,062 Likes, 2 Comments - BLKPIK IDI ( ) (@blackpink.india) on Instagram: "#TaylorSwift, BLACKPINK and #OliviaRodrigo are the only female artists ranking inside IFPI's Top 10" In the song, she celebrates a level of stardom that she'd continue to exponentially build upon in the years to come: "And bring on all the pretenders / One day, we will be remembered. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver's defeated drawl) borrows similarly spacious minor keys with ten times the heartbreak. But before expanding on her honeymoon phase, we're treated to the tour-de-force track "Cruel Summer" (not a Bananarama cover), a buzzer-beating, angst-wielding anthem that's among the greatest pop songs her auteur has ever crafted. And then theres the title track, a gorgeous slow-dance, that acts as a reminder to why the world fell in love with Swift in the first place. There's no question her most recent two albums are related, as "Evermore" has a similar sound and features nods to "Folklore. In an album review for Variety, critic Chris Willman wrote, "For some fans, it might take a couple of spins around the block with this very different model to become re-accustomed to how there's still the same power under the hood here. But none before were so intricate and immersive as a whole fictional timeline pieced together from multiple angles in an album just over an hour long. and Bleachers fame), who employs an undercurrent of drums that boom like palms on metal doors and vocals that echo as if off skyscrapers. 1 as it best represents the evolution of Swift and her music. Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone writes that the album "most notably picks up where the pure pop triptych of '1989,' 'Reputation,' and 'Lover' left off, a dazzling bath of synths complementing lyrics caught between a love story and a revenge plot.". In every instance, whats noteworthy is Swifts precision in communicating her exact intent. Taylor Swift's Track 5s, Ranked 9. No one would have blamed her for taking a well-deserved creative hiatus after that marathon of releases, but Taylor has proven herself to be an artist of momentum multiple times over. The All Taylor Swift Songs (including Midnights) Tier List below is created by community voting and is the cumulative average rankings from 190 submitted tier lists. 40 "Should've Said No" Swift's uptempo. She's moved on, but she also wants us to know she's moved on. I Knew You Were Trouble, with its swift-step breakdown, saw her signature sound infused with trendy dance production. All in all, reputation is by far Taylor's most misunderstood work though its criticisms aren't without merit. I'm not using the 5-tier-ranking-scale or whatever because if I did literally half of the list would be a 5/5 yeah music is pretty good rn. Her door to escapism opened for lonesome, fractured listeners everywhere, who dove headfirst into the cottagecore sound grove, and relished in Swift's unexpected pivot towards barer-boned, folk-styled songwriting with electro-adjacent undertones whispered throughout. If you have a hard time taking a side, you can either click "I Like Both" or "No Opinion," though the catch is that the process might take longer. Rather, their relative simplicity only adds to Fearless' charm, bridging the old with the new a woman's voice singing a girl's anthems to make a once good album now great. Not content with just giving us one surprise album in 2020, Swift returned to her cabin in the woods and a mere five months later released Evermore. With the addition of six from the Vault tracks (songs written at the same time as the album, that Swift shared with the re-recorded version), it was like opening a musical time-capsule; with tracks like the emotive Fifteen taking on a new meaning as a poignant tribute to her teenage life. But this time, we're also met with a subtle lightness, like the calm and clarity that comes after a good cry. But, as is tradition, the haters hardly scratched the surface of this sixth record, overlooking its genuine feats of all-encompassing production and high-energy, in-your-face vocals. "I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives," reads her album announcement. folklore. Taylor Swift's 10 seminal albums, ranked In honor of her instant-classic, record-breaking new LP Midnights , here's EW's ranking of Taylor Swift's 10 studio albums from her illustrious career. Filled with rootin tootin tunes like Tim McGraw, Our Song and Teardrops on My Guitar (largely considered Swifts breakout song) that stormed the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, it earned a teenage Taylor support slots on tour with Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Faith Hill. She also adds that with her recent re-recording of previous albums, Swift has "unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting," by dipping her toe back into previous eras. Its an effortless fusion that, like much of 1989, displays Swifts willingness to venture outside her comfort zone without much of a safety net, and test out an array of sonic experiments that feel both retro and of the moment. 1989 is a masterclass in how to make a timeless pop record. But for every purely excellent song off 1989 ("Out Of The Woods," "Clean") there's invariably a hollow foil track, the worst offenses, of course, being "Shake It Off" and "Bad Blood." Almost 15 years ago, before the Grammy awards and international tours, a fresh-faced, 17-year-old Taylor Swift released her self-titled debut album. But while her grasp of song structure at this point in her career suggested an innate talent for how to develop a melody, Fearless also highlights Swifts then-limited repertoire and lack of creativity in constructing her narratives of doe-eyed infatuations and first loves gone wrong. When you pose the question of why Taylor Swift is among the most distinguished artists in popular music, the strength of her narrative songwriting is among the best answers. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, however, is her stock in trade, a richly painted narrative punctuated by cool synth washes and pep-rally chants, while The Archer is quintessential Swift: wistful, minimalist dream pop that displays her willingness to acknowledge and dismantle her own flaws, triggers, and neuroses. From Taylor Swift to Midnights, we've ranked all of the singer's studio albums from best to worst. There are many more parallels to past albums, as revisiting life moments already explored in her previous songs creates yet another treasure map of topics for knowledgeable fans. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Anyway. It made sense then for this, her second studio album, which won her four Grammys including Album of the Year, to be the first altar in the "Taylor's Version" re-recording saga. folklore in comparison merely flirts along the edges of pop mantras on songs like "the last great american dynasty" and the deeply affecting "mirrorball," while veering straight into indie-folk influence on "illicit affairs" and the finger-plucked "invisible string," among others. What once felt (or possibly still feels) like the end of the world is, on "Taylor's Version," also a testament to resilience we'll make it to the other side, and we'll do it again and again. Perhaps compensating for that previous album's wave of negative press, Taylor here returns to her tried-and-true toolbox, leaning into romantic whim and angelic daydreams: living room waltzes, paper promise rings, sneaking through gardens, skipping down streets. The singers first four albums barely scan as country music in a meaningful way, instead embracing her preternatural gifts for pop conventions, and her output has gotten stronger the more openly shes embraced those skills. At the time of publishing, we're just over two weeks past our first listen, still internalizing the record's themes of loneliness and loathing, insecurity and insomnia. It has a piano introduction reminiscent of "New Year's Day," a song about an enduring love. It was the first taste the world got of Swifts deeply confessional songwriting, and from that moment, we were hooked. But as we all know, Taylor Swift isn't like other artists. escaped the fate of Pharrell in Minions or Timberlake in Trolls). How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Here are the 40 biggest Taylor Swift songs, based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 (through the chart dated December 17, 2022). Only time will tell if "Midnights" will climb up my ranking, but as a new album amidst an outstanding discography, more time is needed to test how well it stands out from the rest. Her eighth LP disregards the crutch of compelling production and relies more so on solemn, thoughtful writing and is her first full-length departure from autobiography into fiction. It's synth-pop with depth energetic beats with lyrics that linger in your mind and soul-baring moments softened with catchy choruses ("It's me, hi / I'm the problem, it's me"). After embracing folk-flecked sounds on sister albums Folklore and Evermore, for Midnights Swift instead turns to bubbling synths and percussive beats, this sleek production run under the artists late night musings. She's endlessly accessible, easy to understand even in her later, more cryptic works, yet her songwriting is also a blank space (*cue pen-click*) ripe for filling in your personal memories and private associations. Painting the picture of an unravelling relationship, it gradually crescendos, climaxing in the gut-punch couplet of And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest. Reputation is, without a doubt, Taylor's most polarizing work to date. The bridge to Fifteen includes a great, revealing line about a friends lost innocence (And Abigail gave everything/She had to a boy/Who changed his mind/And we both cried), while the playful melody of Hey Stephen captures the essence of what makes for indelible teen-pop. From Taylor Swift to Midnights, we've ranked all of the singer's studio albums from best to worst. Theres a free-wheeling, carefree attitude to the collection. How often I find myself in the mood to listen to . It's the product of a prolific mind being forced to slow down, reflect, and create something completely new; A memoirist moved to experiment with a stream-of-consciousness novel. Note: hitting 'no opinion' or 'I like both' frequently will negatively affect your results. It saw Swift push back at a narrative that saw her portrayed as vengeful and bitter, an image that had been thrust upon her by the media and exacerbated by her very public, very long-running beef with Kanye West (first started when he infamously interrupted Taylor Swifts acceptance speech at the VMAs, and regularly reignited by the Kardashian-West clan). Note: If you make a mistake DO NOT click backspace unless you find extremely necessary. Written when she was a high school freshman, it saw Swift dissect her relationship with a senior who she knew would break up with her when he went off to college. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. ), and is occasionally clumsy in its comebacks. 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