Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. To me, "Midnights" feels like an encapsulation of Swift's musical journey. Cruel Summer, co-written with St. Vincent, a euphoric three minutes of exhilarating 80s synth-pop, should have been a single. Song for song, the album finds Swift at a new peak in her command of language. Released in 2006, Swift's first studio album is so country that newer fans may barely recognize the songstress' sound considering she has experimented with a number of other genres since then. Perhaps even more impressive is Swifts mastery of song structure. We, the listeners, need a few more of our own sleepless nights, staying up drinking with Taylor and looking backward to definitively weigh our affection. Unlike previous albums, no singles were released before the official album drop, and at 3 a.m. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. today i'm ranking all of taylor swift's songs and music from every album + more! The resulting 2021 album, Fearless (Taylor's Version), is an inspiring feat and first step forward after reclaiming the masters of her life's work. Pam Grier reflects on her most iconic roles, from Coffy to Jackie Brown. To make it easy for you, we haven't included Taylor Swift singles, EPs, or compilations - everything you see here should only be studio albums. 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. She's moved on, but she also wants us to know she's moved on. Your email address will not be published. This is based on A. "Her music mixes an almost impersonal professionalism it's so rigorously crafted it sounds like it has been scientifically engineered in a hit factory with confessions that are squirmingly intimate and true," wrote critic Jody Rosen for Rolling Stone in 2008. 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. Theres a Bon Iver collaboration, too: melancholy duet Exile, a slow-burning number which eventually erupts into chattering layered vocals and euphoric strings at the climax. Now, without further ado, here's EW's ranking of Taylor Swift's seminal albums. by Slant Staff October 25, 2022 1 Photo: Republic Records Taylor Swift started off as a country artist at a time when the genre was both less respectful and accommodating of the voices of women than at any other point in its storied history. That early nuance and the fact that she wrote this entire album completely on her own is no small feat. These subtle parallels between songs form a sheen narrative web that hovers above the awareness of the average listener but dazzles the die-hard fan, who at this point is well accustomed to Swift's scavenger hunt antics. But as we all know, Taylor Swift isn't like other artists. When it comes to things other than boys, though, Swift has always preferred to dip her toes in rather than get soaking wet; her transformation from country teen to pop queen was, after all, a decade in the making. 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. Red is filled with top notch tunes: the brilliantly snarky We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Swifts first ever Billboard 100 Number One) and fizzing 22 are stone-cold smashers. the album's opening track, and in the closing track, "New Year's Day," when we hear a stripped-down, piano-heavy ballad in which Swift sings emotion-filled lyrics. Sure, this album has its highs and lows and is filled with impressive tracks, but it ranks below others because although it feels like many things she does here (like haunting lyrics and pop beats) are things she's done before and a bit better in her previous releases. And on Midnights, Taylor turns to us, yet again. 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. Its a dazzling, surprising album, brimming with career-best moments, and heralded a brave new direction for the pop star. On her first three albums, love is mostly a daydream. "Fearless" outranks "Taylor Swift" as it has more standout songs and has a cohesive sound that distinctly country-pop. It's her only album with skip-every-time songs (why on earth would you force a collab between Future and Ed Sheeran? 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. Pam Grier reflects on her most iconic roles, from, now backpedaling their initial criticisms, unrequited love looming on the high school bleachers, Professor of Commercial Music explains to EW, reclaiming the masters of her life's work, New Reputation: Taylor Swift shares intel on TS7, fan theories, and her next era, The best song from every Taylor Swift album. That she employs her long-established songwriting tropes in novel ways is truly the most significant development here. 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. 1 as it best represents the evolution of Swift and her music. Plus her later albums feature songs that are more interesting and creative lyrically and stylistically. 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. Swifts cottage-core diptych felt innovative in how they rebuilt Swifts sound from the ground up, but despite its own idiosyncratic delights, Midnights ultimately feels too indebted to her past efforts to truly push her forward. On this record, Swifts took her new sound and ran with it with thrilling results. What condemns 1989's position at the lower third of this list then is the sad truth that some of the choruses rotating here sound like they could have been parsed out to much-lesser 2010s pop stars. But Midnights and its seven "3am" bonus tracks are still steeped in singularity, mostly due to its ultra-honest subject matter and intriguing concept parsed out with Taylor's expert execution. After a fiery Twitter storm courtesy of Kanye (though it was far from their first feud), Taylor finally sheds her decade-old, good girl persona for the villain alter-ego curated by the media, opting to settle the score through what she does best: traversing new sonic territory. If Teardrops on My Guitar from Swifts debut album was her breakthrough song, it was Love Story, the ballad from its follow-up Fearless, that cemented her name in the pop history books. And, yes, her songwriting here is not quite fully actualized (as hindsight allows us to see now), but that doesn't diminish these songs' lasting splendor. 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. To celebrate, weve revisited all 10 of her studio albums and ranked them from best to worst. But clearly, Taylor is capable of much more, and her nine subsequent albums are proof. Its fantasias are more melancholic, its themes of longing more resentful. Only vault songs are included. Her once apolitical music is, on Lover, peppered with references to Americas current state of affairs, both thinly veiled (Death by a Thousand Cuts) and more overt (You Need to Calm Down). 1 as it best represents the evolution of Swift and her music. This only further proves that "Reputation" is a prime example that Swift can experiment with a variety of genres and still create magic. The gist: In each "battle," two Taylor Swift songs (from the same album or not) are pitted against each other for your judgment. The album has been described as escapist, cottagecore-inspired, and was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. So while it's vehemently impressive that an adolescent was the creative force behind the best tracks on a seven-time platinum record, it doesn't change the fact that it's far from her best work, and mostly made of songs that slip through her legacy's cracks more than any other album. The distorted vocal effects and shifts in dynamics on I Knew You Were Trouble heighten the sense of frustration that drives the song, and the driving rhythm section on Holy Ground reflects Swifts reminiscence of a lover who took off faster than a green light, go. Not all of the songs here are so keenly observedState of Grace and I Almost Do lack the specificity thats one of Swifts songwriting trademarks, while the title track underwhelms with its train of pedestrian similes and metaphorsbut if Reds highlights were career-best work for Swift at the time. 'I. On 2012s Red, Swift began her transition from country crossover artist to creating glossy, mainstream pop; on its 2021 re-record we were reminded just what a superb songwriter Swift has always been. All of Swift's signature elements are present on Swift's third studio album that was released in 2010 beautifully honest lyrics about heartbreak ("Dear John," "Last Kiss"), biting diss tracks ("Mean," "Better Than Revenge"), and a story that unfolds ("Mine"). Rather, reputation is often compelling in its lavish catharsis, best seen on tracks "Gorgeous," "King of My Heart," and "Getaway Car" (which has co-writer/producer Jack Antonoff's handprints all over its Bleachers-like chorus builds). "Picture To Burn" is a scorned teen's "Before He Cheats" swapping shooting whiskey for rumor mills with a grown woman's wit and a veteran songwriter's aptitude. Whether thats emphasizing the wrong syllables of words because she hadnt quite mastered the meter of language (most notable on Teardrops on My Guitar) or mixing metaphors (on Picture to Burn and the otherwise catchy Our Song), theres a lack of polish and editing on Taylor Swift. 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. The catalyst was lead single "Tim McGraw," but this ticket to the country radio airwaves turned out to be a red herring with the advent of other ironclad, infinitely repeatable songs that remain fan favorites, even in lieu of our now excess of options. Keefe, Nearly every track on Swifts sophomore effort, Fearless, builds to a massive pop hook. The record's tales unfold into imagined personal histories, with what Swift calls the "Teenage Love Triangle" songs (suspected to be "Cardigan," "August," and "Betty") painting three vivid portraits of an interwoven affair at different points in time. 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. However, evermore is still occasionally upbeat with an ethereal glow, with cooing strings that glint on "willow" and synthesizers that gleam on "gold rush." Though she was praised for her songwriting right out of the gate, what Swifts self-titled debut truly shows in hindsight is how diligently shes worked to hone her craft over the years. So it is written in "State Of Grace," beginning the album with a percussive prologue la U2, warning that we "fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds or fades in time" before proclaiming, almost joyously, that she'll "never be the same." On Red (Taylors Version), we got the spellbinding 10-minute version of the song, an epic rendition that cements the tunes place as a songwriting triumph. These were the de facto anthems for young listeners especially, clutching MP3 players to the chest like rosaries as we projected onto Taylor's portraits of then-mythical teen love. I also factored in critic reviews of the albums when deciding on the final ranking. These tales spin out like spools of fine gold, delicate in their delivery, eschewing catchy hooks to instead relish in simplicity. Theres a free-wheeling, carefree attitude to the collection. In honor of her instant-classic, record-breaking new LP. But reputation's best serenade is also its most understated (and underrated): "New Years Day." 176. But once the title track's idyllic and endearing comedown is over, and the atmospheric funeral march for past woes of "The Archer" makes way for new beginnings, Lover has very few high points after its fifth track. Where her debut guaranteed she was, at the very least, a momentary sensation, it wasn't until 2008's Fearless that the world understood the musical force that Taylor Swift could be. 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. 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. Anyway. The album finds Swift living up to all of the praise she earned for her songwriting earlier in career. Taylor Swift's folklore rose from quiet shadows at the peak of isolation and uncertainty, written and produced in quarantine and released during the first COVID summer. Listening to folklore then is like wiping the cuff of a cable knit on fogged glass to peer in on private moments. Pick what song you like better in each battle to get an accurate list of your favourite songs. The rest of the record sees relationships rise and fall like once-great empires reduced to dust, each an individual tragedy set to incessantly hooky choruses. Swift, of course, got her start writing astutely observed country ballads, and these songs bolster her trademark knack for lyric-crafting with maximalist, blown-out pop production courtesy of collaborators Max Martin and Jack Antonoff. And I'm telling you, it's going to be a journey. There are whispers of reputation as well on opener "Lavender Haze," "Midnight Rain," and b-side "Vigilante Sh-t," which are menacing in their side-eyed electro hip hop shades but with a more relaxed delivery, swapping her sixth album's shock value for more earnest meditations on conflict born out of your own misgivings. Shes mined this type of melancholy tone before, but never for the full length of an album and certainly never with such a range of perspectives. Look, Reputation served a purpose. How does Midnights compare to its worthy predecessors? document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "ae642da28755683afdf2ec0fe06ed858" );document.getElementById("facec42938").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. This time, "All Too Well" retires a full band backing for hazy synths, but it's anything but smoke and mirrors. The tongue-in-cheek I Forgot That You Existed is a strutting reminder of Swifts skills as a lyricist. Its a brilliantly honest moment, taken from Swifts most mature album yet. 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