Paul Attard, Considering that Swifts previous material was almost always better when she tossed the ill-fitting country signifiers and focused on her uncanny gift for writing pop hooks, Red was a smart, if overdue, move for the singer. In short: 1989 is Taylor Swifts masterpiece. 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. It's the album that immortalized her in the cultural ethos (for the first time around), delivering instant classics in "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" that are forever fan favorites no matter how far her style and sensibilities have evolved. She's moved on, but she also wants us to know she's moved on. 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. First emerging as a country-crossover artist, shes since embraced glossy pure pop and indie-folk; but while her sound may have changed, Swifts brilliantly honest lyricism and songwriting talent has remained a keystone in her tunes. 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"). Keefe, Swifts third album, Speak Now, is problematic in precisely the same ways that its predecessors are, but there isnt a song here that isnt an absolute wonder of technical construction. When "Midnights" was first announced, Swift described it as "the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life" and invited fans to meet her at midnight the night the album dropped. Swift shines brightest on these songs, building and developing her story out of economic but evocative turns of phrase.". 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" Another remote collaboration composed in secret, evermore is a sort of epilogue to the backwoods mythos and backdoor relationships on folklore, delving into new character studies with a familiar, folk-infused air of coulds, woulds, and shoulds. ), and is occasionally clumsy in its comebacks. "So I just kept writing them.". Taylor Swift surprise-released her eighth album "Folklore" on July 24, 2020. This only further proves that "Reputation" is a prime example that Swift can experiment with a variety of genres and still create magic. 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. She's since genre-jumped from country to proper pop, to electro R&B and bare-backed folk. "'Fearless' may have established her as a capable teenage singer-songwriter, but 'Red' is the album that solidified her confidence, sexuality, and identity as a bonafide force to be reckoned with," English wrote. How often I find myself in the mood to listen to . Look, Reputation served a purpose. And, thus, here's where she lost some audiences at the onset, who understandably furrowed their brows at first listen. Acoustic guitars, violins, and banjos enjoy free reign, dancing across tales of childhood friends destined for sparks, short-lived summer love, and backroad rendezvous. Theres a free-wheeling, carefree attitude to the collection. In the 2017 article, Jenkins also noted that this album features hip-hop influences, something Swift hasn't really done before. At just 20-years-old before she had even fully blossomed out of country's genre barriers Taylor had mastered the delicate balance of detailing the life moments blurred between adolescence and adulthood. In every instance, whats noteworthy is Swifts precision in communicating her exact intent. This winning combination warrants countless replays and, even now, listening to this song more than 10 years later reminds many of us so strongly of a crush we had when we were younger. Lover. Standout tracks from my first few listens include "Anti-Hero" and "Maroon. So, though this list must include the favorites, it's also a love letter to her illustrious career and its intersections into listeners' lives. But herein lies the merit of Speak Now. Consider how the instrumentation drops out during the last two words of the hook in Last Kiss, allowing the singers breathy vocal delivery to bear the entirety of the songs emotional weight, or how a simple acoustic guitar figure on Enchanted slowly crescendos behind each repetition of the line I was enchanted to meet you. Unfortunately, the greater complexity and range found in Swifts sound and in her song constructions doesnt necessarily translate to her songwriting. To celebrate the release of Swifts tenth album Midnights, here we take a look back on Taylor Swifts entire career and rank her ten albums in order of greatness. Pick what song you like better in each battle to get an accurate list of your favourite songs. But folklore is more a shuffled series of vignettes than a throughlined story, planting the lyrics with easter eggs recurring motifs (a favorite cardigan), places (cobblestone paths), and events (pulling up in a car, professing love on the porch) to offer conflicting perspectives of a love long ago lost. To celebrate Folklore's release, there is not a better time to rank Taylor Swift's albums' discography from the weakest to the best. It's her only album with skip-every-time songs (why on earth would you force a collab between Future and Ed Sheeran? And, of course, "Marjorie" is a masterful and beautiful tribute to Swift's grandmother that's packed with soulful and illustrative lyrics. 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. Editors Note: This article was originally published on July 6, 2021. On this record, Swifts took her new sound and ran with it with thrilling results. Where Swift has re-recorded an album, we have included only the new, re-recorded version of the record in the ranking. This time, "All Too Well" retires a full band backing for hazy synths, but it's anything but smoke and mirrors. The music of folklore takes its time to unfurl, ivory keys yawning at dusk, acoustic strings waking at daybreak. evermore. 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. Cinquemani, Swifts 1989 severed whatever vestiges of her country roots remained on 2012s Red, replacing acoustic guitars and pedal steel with multi-layered synthscapes, drum machines, and densely packed vocal tracking. It's Taylor's first autobiographical album in three years, after an incredible pivot to fiction in folklore and evermore followed by re-recording Fearless and Red (with the latter three all dropping in 11 months' time). folklore is a backward glance over your shoulder clouded by a cold air exhale and it remains Taylor's greatest work to date. October 26, 2022. The Grammy-winning Mean is amongst Swifts most underrated songs, Sparks Fly is a toe-tapping head-banging anthem and break-up slow-burner Back to December is a karaoke classic. Although "Folklore" may not have the mainstream appeal of her previous albums, it's an album longtime fans will appreciate as it highlights her stellar songwriting and pays homage to her acoustic roots. But Swifts most recent three albums are united through their more matured temperament and the stark intimacy of Swifts songwriting, with the comparatively scaled-back nature of her sound serving as a natural extension of this methodology. She's an artist defined by eras (as is the name of her heavily anticipated upcoming tour) a Reputation era for self-defense, a Lover era for romantic solace which her adoring fans latch onto and assign to their own life stages with fervor. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. 40 "Should've Said No" Swift's uptempo. While tracks like Cardigan and Invisible Strings hinge on protracted metaphors, Mad Woman and Peace are blunt and plainspoken. This time, she trades her upbeat synth-pop for overt trap tremors and heavy-handed hip-hop, like harsh emergency strobes disrupting a blacked-out cityscape. escaped the fate of Pharrell in Minions or Timberlake in Trolls). Ranking all 129 of Taylor Swift's songs (from "Tim McGraw" to the 'Reputation' era, Rob Sheffield writes, "the weirdest and most fascinating thing about Taylor Swift will always . 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. and Bleachers fame), who employs an undercurrent of drums that boom like palms on metal doors and vocals that echo as if off skyscrapers. Top that, Shakespeare. And the majority of Lover proves her path to better things, being an airy, whipped topping "love letter to love," both for the self and for a partner. Certainly, it matters that the two albums were born of the protracted isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic and that collaborators like Bon Iver and the Nationals Aaron Dessner figure prominently on both. Morgan Wallen One Thing at a Time (2023) 20. But what's never changed is Taylor's enchanting ability to translate a memory whether charmed or trying into a moment that feels like yours. Shes described it as a sister record to the aforementioned Folklore; where that record allowed Swift to completely reinvent her sound, coupling her trademark hooks and vibrant storytelling with indie-folk instrumentals, Evermore exudes a new sense of confidence. The best Taylor Swift's Albums rankings are on the top of the list and the worst rankings are on the bottom. Like folklore, much of evermore is made up of somber soliloquies that materialize like a fine mist over a field in the dead of winter. Taylor Swift albumsTaylor Swift - 1989Credit: Big Machine, Fall Music Preview Most Anticipated Albums, Taylor Swift albumsTaylor Swift - Speak NowCredit: Big Machine. Keefe. She may be on the outs, but she sure isn't alone. Less gradual was Swifts shift from political agnostic to liberal advocate. 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. 'Red' is filled with top notch tunes: the brilliantly snarky 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' (Swift's first ever Billboard 100 Number One) and fizzing '22' are stone-cold smashers. "Speak Now" comes in at no. Taylor herself referred to it as her "only true breakup album," and like her today, whatever heartache made us once cling to Red for the solace is (hopefully) behind us now. It's humbling to hear a decades-defining artist at the absolute top of her career sing confessionals about self-loathing ("I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror") and toxic longing ("I hosted parties and starved my body / Like I'd be saved with a perfect kiss") with less inhibition than ever before. Released in 2014 and named after the year she was born, "1989" was inspired by the pop music of the mid-1980s. Released in 2008, "Fearless" steps away from country and edges into pop in an impressive balance of the two as Swift continues to develop a style that is uniquely hers. It's hard to say. this includes her entire catalogue/discography and eras debut to evermore. As critic Jon Caramanica wrote for The New York Times in 2014, this album is filled with catchy pop tracks but it sets itself apart from mainstream music of that genre. 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. And that's really all Swift, whose genius for conversational melodies and knack for giving every chorus a telling new twist every time around remain unmistakable trademarks.". folklore. Song for song, the album finds Swift at a new peak in her command of language. The album finds Swift living up to all of the praise she earned for her songwriting earlier in career. Written in her freshman year of high school, it positioned her as a country-crossover hopeful ready for mainstream success. To me, "Midnights" feels like an encapsulation of Swift's musical journey. In this critical-darling album, Swift has done away with over-the-top production, catchy lyrics, and any sort of hit-making formulas and instead presents a stripped-back collection of songs with captivating stories and, in true Swift form, incredible lyrics. All necessary praise aside, one of the great joys of tracing Taylor Swift's arc is seeing her sound bleed across genres, from country and pop to (half-baked) hip-hop and folk and back. Then there's the true-to-life nostalgic musings of romantic naivety at fifteen and unrequited love looming on the high school bleachers. 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). 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. 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. Insider's music team revisited the album and ranked all 17 of its deluxe-edition songs. The gist: In each "battle," two Taylor Swift songs (from the same album or not) are pitted against each other for your judgment. "Cold As You" highlights Swift's talent in writing beautiful lyrics about heartbreak, a key Swift signature: "You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray / And I stood there loving you, and wished them all away / And you come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you.". Some songs lean more country ("Mean") whereas others hint at the musical experimentation that would follow in subsequent albums ("Enchanted," "Haunted"), and, yet, the album is a mix of styles that seamlessly blend together. Standout songs on the album include "The 1," which sets the tone of the album; "The Last Great American Dynasty," a folk song-esque storytelling in Swift's signature style; and "Exile," two perspectives on a broken love story (the lyric video shows off the mirroring narratives well). And a follow-up to 1989 would always have big shoes to fill but Reputation lacked the stone-cold smashers Swift has proven time and time again shes capable of. Modify tier labels, colors or position through the action bar on the right. 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. to ultimate effect (and influence to mega-fan Olivia Rodrigo's raucous debut). "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. 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. Midnights is simultaneously a rare treat and a return to normalcy. Here Taylor sacked off her country roots and embraced full-blown pop. Though she only first arrived onto (and soon conquered) the popular music scene 16 years ago, the breadth and depth of her work seems more the stuff of a lifelong evolution, spanning multiple genres and breaking industry records almost every time around. True, this album successfully acted as a reminder that Swift is a powerhouse musician who shouldnt be messed with. Anyway. It was the first taste the world got of Swifts deeply confessional songwriting, and from that moment, we were hooked. Dark, biting, sassy, and straight-up cool, in this track, Swift makes it known that she's here to play and no one can take her down: "But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time / Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time. There are, of course, a handful of golden tunes (Dancing with Our Hands Tied, Call It What You Want, Delicate). It's a melancholy that allows you to wallow on the condition of looking forward after the fact, holding nothing back as you let everything go. As if the gift of folklore's acoustic stylings wasn't a treat enough, Taylor conceived a surprise sister album like clockwork during her end-of-year creative storm, amidst filming the Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary and re-recording Fearless. Constructions doesnt necessarily translate to her songwriting brows at first listen communicating her intent. Registered trademark of Meredith Corporation all Rights Reserved her freshman year of high bleachers. 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