ranking taylor swift albums tier list

"The 1" and "August" tied for the top spot. 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. '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. ", Big Machine/Republic Records/Republic Records/Big Machine. 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. 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. Related: Ranking Taylor Swift's 10 Most Viewed Music Videos. It's as if we're sitting round a campfire confiding in one another, sharing painful memories of when our best wasn't good enough, when our savior complex sputtered out, and when we watched them walk away. 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. The euphoric Mastermind takes it one step further, where on it Swift admits: No one wanted to play with me as a little kid/So Ive been scheming like a criminal ever since/To make them love me and make it seem effortless/This is the first time Ive felt the need to confess. 8 Taylor Swift (2006) Written during her freshman year of high school, Taylor Swift's debut eponymous album was young Swift trying to find her real voice. But as we all know, Taylor Swift isn't like other artists. But herein lies the merit of Speak Now. 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. Keefe, Folklore is neither a culmination of Swifts career to date nor a pivot in a new direction. It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. 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. Song for song, the album finds Swift at a new peak in her command of language. 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. These tales spin out like spools of fine gold, delicate in their delivery, eschewing catchy hooks to instead relish in simplicity. While tracks like Cardigan and Invisible Strings hinge on protracted metaphors, Mad Woman and Peace are blunt and plainspoken. 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." He also noted that this album began to show just how developed Swift's "potential for fury" was and he's right "Picture To Burn" is sassy and confidently filled with anger: "So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time / As far as I'm concerned you're just another picture to burn.". "Epiphany," track 13 on "Folklore," is written with Swift's grandfather in mind. The album finds Swift living up to all of the praise she earned for her songwriting earlier in career. 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.". It was the first taste the world got of Swifts deeply confessional songwriting, and from that moment, we were hooked. Jonathan Keefe. Keefe. 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. Swifts surprise eighth album arrived with very little fanfare. Insider's music team revisited the album and ranked all 17 of its deluxe-edition songs. Thus, Taylor Swift is reduced to the last spot on our ranking, partially by default, though also with respect and not without a good fight. 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. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. From Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett to a potential Best Supporting Actress toss-up, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Morgan Wallen One Thing at a Time (2023) 20. She may be on the outs, but she sure isn't alone. Whether it's a song about an ex or someone else who wronged her, Swift's clever, catchy "revenge tracks" have only continued to improve from here. The album's opening, "Ready For It?," is an aptly-titled shockwave to the system compared to her previous work, abandoning instrumental lead-ins for a feel-it-in-your-bones bass machine accelerating into a rap? 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. Songs that sum up this album include "State Of Grace," a different sound with gorgeous lyrics that are undoubtedly Swiftian; "I Knew You Were Trouble," a reflective song full of dramatic production effects and a driving beat; "All Too Well," a slow ballad reminiscing a past love with emotional lyrics and execution; and "22," an effortless pop hit. "Entirely self-penned, sans the collaborations of the previous albums, it's an enormous breakthrough in songwriting maturity, while hardly forsaking the childlike lack of pretense that made earlier efforts such guilt-free ear candy," wrote Willman. Now, without further ado, here's EW's ranking of Taylor Swift's seminal albums. Her self-titled debut stood as her lone and tall titan at the time of its 2006 release, which was immediately met with commercial and critical success, catapulting a then-16-year-old Swift to stardom almost overnight. But past skeptics be damned, the album has stood the test of time, with many now backpedaling their initial criticisms to revel in her unabashed outbursts of rage and ecstasy and its thematic anchor of tender love and care. 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. Released in 2014 and named after the year she was born, "1989" was inspired by the pop music of the mid-1980s. "Fearless" outranks "Taylor Swift" as it has more standout songs and has a cohesive sound that distinctly country-pop. How do you follow-up Reputation, a revenge album filled with vengeance? 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. The Taylor Swift's Albums Tier List below is created by community voting and is the cumulative average rankings from 131 submitted tier lists. "Musically and lyrically, Red resembled a heartbroken person. Welcome to the Taylor Swift song sorter. "Fearless" might just be the best opening guitar riff of her applicable albums (Taylor Swift, Speak Now, and Evermore's are less so) fringed with a summer's day twang and immediately infecting the listener with a blissful dose of euphoria, like a spoonful of syrup taken between smiling lips. Casting aside the usual lengthy album campaigns or meticulously planned drip-feeding of singles, T-Swiz uncharacteristically announced Folklore the day before it was released. I don't love the way the writer described some of the albums (saying Taylor sounds like a stay at home mom? The best All Taylor Swift Songs (including Midnights) rankings are on the top of the list and the worst rankings are on the bottom. In honor of her instant-classic, record-breaking new LP. The albums lyrics only serve to bolster that perception: Swift comes off like a frazzled stay-at-home mom scolding her disobedient children on Look What You Made Me Do and This Is Why We Cant Have Nice Things. But its her willingness to portray herself not as a victim, but the villain of her own story that makes Reputation such a fascinatingly thorny glimpse inside the mind of pops reigning princess. 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. 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. Returning to this record then, with its new polish and poise, is a kind of homecoming celebration. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Meanwhile, "Fifteen" translates the same country sentiment into a contemplative portrait of girlhood, of trying to mentor yourself before you've even grown up ("When all you wanted was to be wanted / Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now"). It has a piano introduction reminiscent of "New Year's Day," a song about an enduring love. "'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. Taylor Swift currently has 10 albums, with 2022's "Midnights" being her most recent release. 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. And, thus, here's where she lost some audiences at the onset, who understandably furrowed their brows at first listen. Swift certainly has an . Its fantasias are more melancholic, its themes of longing more resentful. October 26, 2022. On her first three albums, love is mostly a daydream. It's hard to say. Where Reputation before it was a risky, abrasive side-step shrouded in a smoky eye, Lover's follow up is a blushing cheek beaming with rosy retrospection and hopes for the future. 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. Ten albums, a mantelpiece of awards and over a decade later, Swift has become one of the biggest popstars on the planet. 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. Report RESET RANKING RESET TEMPLATE SAVE/DOWNLOAD TIER LIST Template by lucy This Taylor Swift discography is ranked from best to worst, so the top Taylor Swift albums can be found at the top of the list. that have almost childish lyrics to soft, heart-wrenching ballads about love and loss like "Soon You'll Get Better.". 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. But clearly, Taylor is capable of much more, and her nine subsequent albums are proof. 176. "This ain't for the best / My reputation's never been worse, so / You must like me for me," is a perfect thesis for the album as a whole on "Delicate," one of the LP's highpoints for its light-as-air ambiance, late night whispers coasting on a swirling current of synth waves. And though she does vary her phrasing in ways that attempt to mask her limited voice, Swift is still noticeably off-pitch at least once on every song on the album. In 2014 and named after the year she was born, `` 1989 '' was inspired the. Album filled with vengeance 13 on `` Folklore, '' is written with Swift seminal. Enduring love catchy hooks to instead relish in simplicity over a decade later, Swift has become One the... Out like spools of fine gold, delicate in their delivery, eschewing catchy hooks to instead relish simplicity! In honor of her instant-classic, record-breaking new LP and has a piano introduction reminiscent ``... Swift '' as it has a cohesive sound that distinctly country-pop an love... 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