There are at least ten stone-cold classics in her discography.
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Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Theres also the empire.
There is no daylight.
The person is the music is the brand.
The passage of time hits you like a brick.
I count at least fifteen stone-cold classics in her discography.
Others might see more.
No matter how high your defenses, I guarantee youll find at least one that breaks them down.
For similar reasons, the Taylors Version re-recordings are not afforded their own blurbs.
*This list was originally published in November 2017.
It has been updated to include Swifts subsequent releases and vault tracks.
Additionally, many rankings have changed to reflect the authors evolving taste.
Likeanother famous Pennsylvanian, this is a living document.
Me!,Lover(2019)
Most Swift songs grow with each listen.
is the exception: The more you hear it, the worse it sucks.
After the Sturm und Drang of theReputationera, Me!
was a return to bubblegum pop, a mission statement that says Im through making mission statements.
While self-awareness may be Swifts superpower, it fails her here.
Or as she puts it: What if happiness came in a cardboard box?
/ Then I think there is something we all forgot.
Better Than Revenge,Speak Now(2010)
A nasty little song that has not aged well.
To Swifts credit, it took her six records to get to this point.
But the villain costume sits uneasily on Swifts shoulders, and even worse, the songwriting just isnt there.
(I do dig the gleeful Cuz shes dead!
Any attempt to link her brand with Clintons likely would have rebounded to the detriment of them both.
This was an admirable thing to do, even if it hasnt always resulted in good music.
As the docs closing number makes clear, politics remains an awkward fit creatively.
The show you / know you rhymes mark this as an early effort.
Besides being politically incoherent was Tweeting at 7 a.m. really the thing that was bad about Donald Trump?
Coming hot on the heels of Me!
this track did not get theLoverera off to the strongest of starts.
As withReputation, the real gems would emerge on the album proper.
In an admirable bit of dedication, she also showed up to play it in the films climax.
Its kind of a snooze.
They won 36 gold medals!
Though her backing vocals are very pleasant, this is 100 percent a Tim McGraw song.
7 in D Major.
The Alchemy,The Tortured Poets Department(2024)
Finally, Travis Kelce gets his own London Boy.
Keith Urban shows up to add a bit of country verisimilitude but not much interest.
Worst of all is this duet with po-faced Ulsterman Gary Lightbody, which feels about ten minutes long.
A spirited vocal performance in the outro saves the song from feeling like homework.
The guitar sounds like late-period Graham Coxon.
Future and Ed Sheeran show up to form a Megazord of soulless late-10s pop.
The two would collaborate on much of Swifts first two albums.
We wrote and figured out that it really worked.
Shed say a line and Id say, What if we say it like this?
Its kind of like editing.
This early ballad about a friend with bulimia sees Swift and Rose experimenting with metaphor.
Most of them work.
Babe,Red (Taylors Version)(2021)
Sara Bareillescore.
Was Swift a teenage girl whose moment was ruined by an older man who couldnt control himself?
Or was she a white woman playing the victim to demonize an outspoken black man?
Both are correct, which is why everyones spent so much time arguing about it.
(Fairly or not, the comparison toWests own artistic responsehardly earns any points in the songs favor.)
Like Starlight, its a young persons vision of lifelong love, skipping straight from proposal to old age.
Seven months later, Swift put out one with an almost identical conceit and striking lyrical similarities.
(Rodrigo: I want to key his car; I want to make him lunch.
Docked 20 spots for hubris.
Though I do smile at theWordsworthpun.
(And yeah, sorry, Im not gonna do the lowercase thing for theFolkloretracks.)
In ours, its her Ob La Di, Ob La Da.
No Body, No Crime,Evermore(2020)
How far has Swift come from her Nashville days?
Perhaps too much you get the sense it might work better as a Bleachers song.
I dont think she needed to explain which kind of shade she meant.
We all got it.
But, in a casualty ofTTPDs sprawling run time, Im tapped out by the time it comes around.
The only thing that pricks my ears up is the nod to Mr. Brightside.
After 100 years, I say its fine.
It shouldnt work but it does, somewhat.
Instead, its a straightforward love song.
Here, he brings a sprightly arrangement to Swiftsode to an achingly good-looking man.
She blends in all too well: Which one is the featured artist, again?
Haunted,Speak Now(2010)
In which Swift tries her hand at Evanescence-style goth-rock.
Its like if Bad Blood contained actual human emotions.
There is a secret unease in this music, he writes, associations of guarded privacy and locked rooms.
This Love,1989(2014)
Began life as a poem before evolving into an atmospheric1989deep cut.
Like an imperfectly poached egg, its shapeless but still quite appetizing.
In this ode to soldiers and frontline health-care workers we get both just a flesh wound and someones daughter.
And when it comes to employing this specific melody and cadence in a refrain, I prefer Beyonces Halo.
But I do love a good spoken-word mission statement!
Although I do love the little arpeggio on the guitar.
Wonderland,1989 (Deluxe Edition)(2014)
A deranged bonus track that sees Swift doing the absolute most.
As she puts it, Its all fun and games til somebody loses their MIND!
Everything is off-balance, including the time signature, which is in 5/4.
But then the daydream ends, and we snap back to where we started.
Its clear she doesnt quite believe it herself.
(It would later be added to theTil Dawnedition.)
The title is a real How do you do, fellow kids?
Compare the ay-ee-ay sound in the first line to that in The Very First Night.
Also,not all of us were quietwhen the truth came out!
Its that kind of sloppiness that cost them the empire.
For a born memoirist like Swift, that must have been a dream come true.
Still, theres a fetching melody on this one that recalls Swifts early work.
Bonus points for mid-aughts PA-suburb verisimilitude: I lived across the street from an Aimee.
As if to reassure nervous country fans, the fiddle goes absolutely nuts.
The chorus sums up so much you barely even need the rest.
But it also feels more like a viral op-ed than a track that stands on its own.
Still, even if this song never rises above cuteness, it isincrediblycute.
I think Dadll get over the tattoos.
What she gained in hookiness, she lost in humanity.
The schoolyard-chant melody here sounds like carved into a granite cliff face, 60 feet high.
What can I say?It was late, and I was tired.
I suspect Swift liked it just as much since she made it the epic finale for herReputationlive show.
History hasnt vindicated either of us, but the positive memories remain.
But first-draft clunkiness abounds, especially in the bridge.
I can picture the red pen: I choose you and me, religiously Do we need this?
Carolina,Where the Crawdads Singsoundtrack (2022)
Swift had two shots at an Oscar nomination in 2022.
The one she really wanted was a Best Live Action Short nod for her All Too Well video.
(Which is … fine.
Unfortunately, Swifts long wait for her first Oscar nom would continue.
Original Song went to the exuberant Naatu Naatu, while the mawkishAn Irish Goodbyewon Live Action Short.
Happiness,Evermore(2020)
A divorce ballad finished only a few days beforeEvermores release.
The title now reads, feat.
More Lana Del Rey, which is hilarious.
But if she can give Shakespeare a happy ending, she damn sure can give Coleridge one as well.
The albatross saves the day in the end!
Labyrinth,Midnights(2022)
Pitch-shifted vocals are toMidnightswhat cheerleader choruses were toLover.
[A dozen Hozier fans storm out of the room.]
She would later repurpose the title phrase for the opening line of 2017s Call It What You Want.
(Ive seen the percussioncomparedto Nine Inch Nails, but the Postal Service feels more her wavelength.)
It works better than Swifts other capital-Cchoice: her decision to sing the chorus in a British accent.
As a 30-something unsure if motherhood is on the table, her follow-up is less romantic.
Now, she notices how the childs innocent world of imagination is a construct carefully maintained by adults.
You have no idea, she tells the kid.
All this showmanship, to keep it for you in sweetness.
I can see you staring, honey / Like hes just your understudy is an underrated blood-drawer.
Rest in peace to co-writer William Bowery, who will probably never be heard from again.
Docked five spots for biting drunk in love.
(Joe Alwyn had a small role in the second one.)
Girl, your dad worked for Merrill Lynch.
I like that she adds her friends cheers into the chorus the second time around.
You probably shouldnt take it as an instruction manual unless youre Harry Styles.
The Prophecy,The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology(2024)
The Tragedy of Taylor A.
Of all Swifts varied post-folkloremodes, I like her best when she gets into dark-night-of-the-soul territory.
This ones about her grandparents, Marjorie and Robert.
Question for the group: Did she get the title fromSarah McLachlanorEverything But the Girl?
As a slice of gothic pop-star paranoia, it gives a much-needed bit of edge to1989.
This Is Me Trying,Folklore(2020)
Do you need subtext?
(I got wasted like all my potential.)
The climax sneaks up on you like a moment of clarity.
(Theres even a martial drumbeat.)
Shes soKaty and Kanyecoded.
It is, I fear, kind of a slay.
Because of this, Swifties treasure it dearly, but I prefer her other kissing in the rain songs.
Its sparse, but her vulnerable vocals sell it.
This twangy ballad about con artists who fall in love feels like the work of that alternate-reality Swift.
Fortunately, the lived-in cynicism of the lyrics belies the tunes anonymous qualities.
The schoolyard vibe fits the playground-romance lyrics; I assumeany resemblance to the plot ofCarolis accidental.
If youve ever been alone on Christmas, this is your song.
Its an ambitious conceit that I dont think works 100 percent, but I appreciate the big swing.
Knocked a few spots for featuring the cheerleader chorus onLoverthat finally broke me.
Bumped up a spot for the reminder that Swift is an Iggles fan.
I just didnt find the guy compelling, and I missed the dramatic sweep of Swifts earlier romances.
But I still cant really get into this one.
The production and vocals are appropriately restrained sometimes, simplicity works.
Theyre deified yet destined to be replaced.
Mastermind,Midnights(2022)
I have trouble doing things with intention.
One thing I admire about Swift is she does not appear to suffer from this problem.
Is it parody masquerading as confession, or confession masquerading as parody?
All I know is there are few moments onMidnightsmore cathartic than when the synths hit in the pre-chorus.
People tend to look askance at this, seeing it as another instance of her victim complex.
But they miss the playful element: that Swifts having fun trying on a Disney-villain costume.
A dwindling mercurial HIGH!
People werezooming in on Notes App screenshots, searching for hidden pixels that supposedly proved her perfidious nature.
Of course she went a little crazy and recorded a super-defensive album about it anyone would!
Is that a raga chant?
Are those fucking gunshots?
(Possibly because shes been a child before.)
But if it is indeed about Harry Styles, then why is she referencing things that happenedin 2018?
The rising falsetto in the chorus should be trademarked at this point.
Almost left off the album, but savedthanks to Shonda Rhimes.
here came to its writer in a dream.
Inspiration works in mysterious ways.
It just makes the listener feel like the writer and the artist care about the song,Rose toldBillboard.
I hadnt talked to him in two-and-a-half years,she told the WashingtonPost.
He was like: Hey, hows it going?
And Im like: Wow, youre late?
Good to see you?)
In the context ofTTPDs second-half torpor, the dreamy 90s alt-rock vibes have an effervescent effect.
Everything Has Changed,Red(2012)
We good to go?
For many American listeners, this was the first introduction to a redheaded crooner named Ed Sheeran.
Clean,1989(2014)
Co-written with Imogen Heap, who contributes backup vocals.
This is1989s big end-of-album-catharsis song, and the water imagery of the lyrics goes well with the drip-drip-drip production.
The songs addressed toSwifts late grandmother Marjorie Finlay, an opera singer who passed away in 2003.
Bejeweled,Midnights(2022)
Workmanlike pop in the1989mode.
Lyrically, this is kind of the same song as Me!
but rewritten to be less annoying.
Jump Then Fall,Fearless (Platinum Edition)(2006)
An effervescent banjo-driven love song.
All they keep asking me is if Im gonna be your bride, she sings.
The only kinda girl they see is a one-night or a wife.
Willow,Evermore(2020)
Evermorekicks off with a visit to the worlds most melancholy coffeehouse.
Willow is a love song, but its so prickly and suspicious it doesnt always sound like one.
Surely its a coincidence that the intro sounds a bit like a song fromone of Swifts other old enemies?
Your heart breaks with her.
Probably ranked too high, but this is my list and Ill do what I want.
(Its not; co-writers Louis Bell and Frank Dukes didnt work on that album.)
OnTTPD,one of our finest purveyors of the former finally turns her hand to the latter.
(AsLiz Phairproves, you need not have been married to write a divorce song.)
Then it turns out shes been uninvited oops so she decides to hide in the curtains.
Finally, at a pivotal moment she stands up in front of everyone and protests the impending union.
Luckily the guy is cool with it, so we get a happy ending!
All this nonsense undercuts the admittedly charming chorus, but its hard not to smile at the unabashed silliness.
(A phrase as beautiful to me as cellar door.)
Docked a few spots for featuring roughly the same backing track as King of My Heart.
Champagne Problems,Evermore(2020)
51.
22,Red(2012)
Another collaboration with Martin and Shellback, another absurdly catchy single.
Hey Stephen,Fearless(2008)
Who knew so many words rhymed withStephen?
They all come so naturally here.
For once, the mid-song laugh is entirely appropriate.
Dear John,Speak Now(2010)
Ive never named names, Swift once toldGQ.
That may technically be true, but she came pretty dang close with this seven-minute epic.
She has fun constructing parallels between herself and Harkness their neighbors hated them!
and a last-chorus switcheroo makes the comparison explicit.
(For one, Beyonce had her beat byalmost a decade.)
OnLover, she wondered what life would be like if she were the man.
Here, she realizes that, likeCher, she always has been.
Am I shooting from the hip?
she once askedGQwhen confronted with the word.
Would any of this have happened if I was?
… you could be accidentally successful for three or four years.
But careers take hard work.
Still, there would have been no getting anywhere with it if the song werent good.
The atmosphere is noirish enough to convince me Swift really could murder a man and get away scot-free.
She gets eaten up by Florence Welch in the outro, butwho doesnt?
If you ask a Swiftie, this one should be in the top 10.
The Alwyn era gave us a lot of songs like this, and I like almost all of them.
Shake It Off,1989(2014)
Swifts second No.
(Never mind thatRedhad its own sugary singles.)
Almost a decade beforeFolklore, this was the first time shed ever beenspooky.
Karma,Midnights(2022)
Online, Swifties live in acollective unrealitypowered by their own imaginations.
The lyrics are nonsense whats all this about spiders?
but I like its breezy stutter step of a hook.
I wasnt giving it enough credit.
(Thompson gets a co-writing credit.)
One of the most empathetic songs in Swifts catalogue, as well as her most reliable tearjerker.
(Which is why Gen-X feminists mistrusted her at first.)
She already reveals so much about herself; this is one thing that belongs only to her.
The way the whole song starts and stops is an obvious trick, but I like it.
By the time shes twanging a line about dating all her exs friends, things have gotten downright rowdy.
(It works so well shed repeat the trick on1989, Reputation,andLover.)
Around Antonoffs tastefully jazzy production dims and swells, the memories fading, then rushing back all at once.
Even in fiction, Swifts ability to capture the wistful ache of nostalgia remains unmatched.
Fuck him up, Taylor!
The exuberance of the lyrics is matched in the way she tumbles from line to line into the chorus.
But somehow, the overstuffing works as the audio equivalent of the lyrics synesthesia.
I find a lot of them actively unpleasant, combining the worst elements of honors students and MKUltra victims.
(Many Swifties are fine people.)
What a pleasure to find out that Swift herself feels this way, too.
Its so gleefully unhinged that she fakes a pregnancy in the middle of the song!
And to top it off, the track marks the introduction of Swifts colloquial style Where is thisGOoO-ING?
that would serve her so well in the years to come.
(Compliments to Jack Antonoff, who co-produced, and St. Vincent, who co-wrote.)
Another surprise: that she never tried to sound like this again.
Cheating never sounded so satisfying.
The contrast with Betty is instructive.
(Even if I hadnt seenthe video, Id say thatAaron Dessners soundscapesfeel almost sepia-toned.)
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,Red(2012)
Flash back to 2012.
Carly Rae Jepsen had a No.
Freaking Gotye had a No.
And yet Swift, arguably the biggest pop star in the country, had never had a No.
(You Belong With Me and Today Was a Fairytale had both peaked at No.
Lover,Lover(2019)
Shes gone alt-country.
Even the dramatic double-time closer has grown on me, like a lovers foibles.
She even broke out the southern accent again!
That meta spin wont stop anyone from singing it around a bonfire.
Would any other albums Taylor be asking, Is it cool that I said all that?
Shake It Off, Look What You Made Me Do, Me!
each more inane than the last.
Add an instantly memeable hook and youve got a worthy heir to Blank Space.
Shes looking back at their past, hoping her memories wont be poisoned by whatever comes next.
Its as powerfully observed as all her best work love makes nostalgists of us all.
The couples subsequent breakup has only added to its emotional weight.
She was right: She probably wont ever walk Cornelia Street again.
(But nice job with that Green Day cover, Andy.)
Bumped up a few spots for the invigorating double-time bridge, the best on1989and maybe of her career.
Theres no one else on the track, just her, singing the realest words shes ever written.
(For an increasing number, the thinking about it isall theyre doing.)
Virgins need love songs, too.
Shes too sensible to agree with the idea completely but wouldnt it be just so pretty to think?
Cold was the steel of my ax to grind for the boys who broke my heart, she sings.
Now I send their babies presents.
This is her wisest song and one that never fails to make me well up.
Too bad shell probably never perform it live again.
Who wouldnt want to write their name?
He was completely on the defensive saying, No, baby …
I had to get off the phone really quickly …
I tried to call you right back … Of course I love you.
Baby, Im so sorry,she recalled.
She was just yelling at him!
I felt so bad for him at that moment.
Out of that feeling, a classic was born.
All Too Well,Red(2012)
Now it can be told.
The rules of list-making decreed that we choose a different No.
All Too Well was the first track Swift wrote forRed.
She had a story and she wanted to say something specific.
She had alotof information, Rose toldRolling Stonelater.
I just let her go.
Just like the scarf, you cant get rid of this song.
