Taylor Swift has taken the world by storm with her musical and performance talent. Over the years, she has explored many different genres of music: everything from country to synth-pop has made it’s impact on Swift’s musical career and through each era has helped her evolve. I will be ranking my personal favorite top five Taylor Swift albums with 1 being the highest ranking and 5 being the lowest.
5.) “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”
Taylor Swift was only 19 when she wrote this album, it was entirely on her own. Speak Now has incredible lyrics and production quality, with Chrisopher Rowe producing all of the original Speak Now tracks, and Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff producing the vault tracks. I really like what this album did with the entire aesthetic of it. Maturing from the youthful and naive album that was Fearless, but still withholding the castles and princess look. Some stand out tracks would be Dear John, which is an incredible break up song about a short-lived romance. The lyrics “Wonderin’ which version of you I might get on the phone tonight” and “Don’t you think 19’s too young to be played by your dark, twisted games?” are some of my favorites in the song, as Taylor uses chess metaphors to describe her relationship. As she is describing herself to be too young to have been messed with in the way she was. This song provides a heartache and you cant help but feel bad for her when you listen to it. Another stand out song is “Never Grow Up” and I am already welling up just from writing about it. The lyrics are sweet but absolutely heart-wrenching: “…But don’t make her drop you off around the block, remember that she’s getting older too.” At this point just rip out my heart, it will have the same effect. Overall, it’s a great album about growing up and not living in a fantasy land anymore. Album Ranking: 7.5/10
4.) “Lover”
Despite the hate surrounding this album, I think it was a clever way to exit the reputation era. Contrasting the Reputation era, this album is filled with bright colors and butterflies, as opposed to the reputation symbol which was snakes. The leading single for Lover was “ME!” featuring Brendon Urie, which is why so many people were turned off from it at the beginning. However, this album is filled with many gems such as “The Archer”, “Cornelia Street”, “Death By A Thousand Cuts”, and “Daylight.” Following the Taylor Swift tradition of track 5 being the saddest on the album, it makes sense why “The Archer” was placed there. “The Archer” is a song about her anxieties with somebody seeing through her fake emotions and about being scared that somebody is going to leave her when they find out who she really is. My favorite lyrics from this song are probably “Who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay?” which is just an absolute gut punch. In my opinion, The Archer is one of her best written and produced, especially from the Lover album. The beginning of the song has helicopter sounds coupled with the beginning lyrics “combat, I’m ready for combat.” It’s a perfect manifestation of what her anxiety actually feels like, which is of that of a battlefield. The instrumentals growing with insanity at the bridge where she repeats “Cause they see right through me hey see right through me Can you see right through me?…I see right through me.” Is another reason as to why this song is one of my all time favorites. Lover is so over-hated for no reason, I think people should give this album another chance before hopping on the hating trend. Album Ranking: 8.0/10
3.) “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”
In 2014, Swift took the world by storm with her first fully pop album- 1989. Which is named after the year that she was born. You could not go anywhere without hearing the iconic sounds of “Blank Space”, “Shake It Off” and “Bad Blood.” These tunes set the scene for the rest of this era. With Taylor’s Version came new production attributes, the most notable changes being “Style”, “Out Of The Woods”, “Shake It Off”, and “New Romantics.” The New sound is not a bad change, after a couple of listens, it started to sound better and more clear than the original 1989. Christopher Rowe was a huge addition to Taylor’s version, as he helped to produce ten of the tracks, replacing some pervious producers on those tracks. His style is more so instrument focused, the background sounds as well as the interments are more prominent as opposed to the original. One of my personal favorites entitled “New Romantics” is a good example of this. Moving onto the vault tracks: 1989 has the best vault tracks from the “Taylor’s Version” discography. All of the vault tracks are produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor. Jack Antonoff is also known for his work with Lorde’s 2017 album Melodrama, there is definitely some overlap with his emblematic sound on 1989 , the best way to describe it would sad with a funky beat to it. Which I am not protesting about, as songs like “Is It Over Now”, “Say Don’t Go”, and “Now That We Don’t Talk” mesh perfectly with the lyrics. Speaking of: from the original 1989 album, I loved “New Romantics” and I thought that nothing could take my #1 spot. However…after listening to the vault tracks, my #1 might have to go to “Is It Over Now?” This song is kind of a slap in the face, especially if you know about the (alleged) back story about the song. The song follows Taylor as she’s questioning if her relationship is going to continue. Some of my favorite lyrics from this song are: “You dream of my mouth before it calls you a lying traitor” and “Your new girl is my clone” which is a crazy lyric considering the (once again, alleged) fact that one of her ex’s only dates girls who looks a certain way. This album is such a fun, and freeing album. And especially since this was her first fully pop-album, the execution was amazing. Album Ranking: 8.5/10
2.) “folklore”
On July 23rd 2020, Taylor released her 8th studio album: “folklore” she released this album with no prior warning, no released singles, and no promotion for the album. She wrote this album during lockdown, when she was just in an isolated cabin with her then boyfriend Joe Alwyn who also has some producing credits. Like the name suggests, it is a more folksy album compared to the 7th studio album “Lover.” The instrumentals on this album are absolutely beautiful and mesh so well with the production. Folklore has some of her best song writing on it. With lyrics such as: “Don’t call me ‘kid’, don’t call me ‘baby’ Look at this Godforsaken mess that you made me, you showed me colors I cant see with anyone else” -Illicit affairs. And lyrics from Seven which is from a kid’s selfish but innocent point of view “And I’ve been meaning to tell you I think your house I haunted your dad is always mad and that must be why. And I think you should come live with me And we can be pirates Then you wont have to cry, or hide in the closet.” Seven is a beautiful yet sorrowful song about adolescents. It also uses clever word play. In the lyrics “Feet in the swing over the creek I was too scared to jump in but I, I was high in the sky with Pennsylvania under me.” The lyrics about being too high being over the creek, but then blends into having the entirety of Pennsylvania under her, which is on a much larger scale than just a creek. Folklore also follows a love triangle about three teens: Augustine (alleged name), James, and Betty. This is the first time that Swift has one anything like this. Betty and James were kind of a couple but during the summer Augustine has a fling with James but then James in the song Betty was sating an apology about how he kind of regrets being with Augustine. My whole take on the love triangle is that: Both Augustine and Betty are both victims and James is the problem. As Augustine is younger and naïve, James took advantage of that just because him and Betty were on a break. In Betty’s song “Cardigan” There is a double meaning with the lyrics “You put me on and said I was your favorite.” The first meaning is that putting someone on could mean that they’re being lied to in this case: James is lying to Betty and saying that she’s his favorite even though he went and had a fling with someone else as soon as they went on a break. The second meaning could also mean using someone. The songs “Betty”, “August”, and “Cardigan” are all the songs about their love triangle. And I feel like I could write an entire essay about those three songs alone but I’m just going to leave it be. But, long story short: James is the problem and the “apology” of “Slept next to her, but dreamt of you all summer long” and using his age of 17 about how he just does not know anything about how to be a decent human is the worst. With that being said… Betty was my 3rd most streamed song of 2022. The lyric about James using his youthful age can also relate back to Cardigan when Betty said “When you are young they assume you know nothing” By affirming that young people don’t know anything. It could also relate to the “Peter losing Wendy” line because in Peter Pan, Peter wants to remain youthful (hence the child-like apology) but Wendy, is the realistic one in the sense of ending the relationship. Anyways, folklore is the perfect album to listen to on a rainy end-of-summer day (and if you want to cry). Album ranking: 9.5/10.
1.) “evermore”
The sister album to folklore, evermore, was released in December 11th, 2020, only 5 months after folklore. Swift stated that once she starting writing for folklore, she just could not stop, which is why we got evermore so soon after folklore. This was another surprise album, catching people way off their feet. This album has her best songwriting. Bar none. Songs like “Tolerate it” (which had me screaming at the eras tour like I was a 32 year old divorcee), “Ivy”, “Cowboy like me” and “Marjorie”. Just to name a few. The production is comparable to folklore in the fact of not being pop-like and more calm, the writing style is also similar. And having Aaron Dessner as a producer for mainly all of the songs. Personally, I find Dessner’s style as a better fit for evermore as opposed to folklore. Cowboy like me is my overall personal favorite Taylor Swift song for a reason. The song follows a lonely cowboy that is a crook. The song represents doing anything for acceptance: “Tellin’ all the rich folks anything they wanna hear” and my personal favorite lyric “Eyes full of stars” which could represent the wanting of being rich and accepted into society. Ivy is an incredible song about an illicit affair. With lyrics like “Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow” This song should be more appreciated. Album ranking: 10/10
There is no “bad” Taylor swift album. But in my opinion, these were some of her bests. I ranked them based off of production, instrumentals, and of course lyrics. I also think that Lover and Speak Now were some of her most personal albums, making you feel the emotions in the songs. Like in the original version of “Back to December” you could literally hear her voice shake, adding so much depth to the album. 1989 is such a Taylor classic, but it’s so much more than just “Bad Blood” and “Shake it Off” it’s an album about her new found freedom in a new and exciting city and just having fun with her friends. And even though folklore and evermore strained away form her pop-persona, they still have better lyrical quality than what was seen in 1989.
