What makes Taylor's first foray into pop so often irresistible is her ability to rise above the genre's preoccupation with recycled hooks and surface level lyrics. "The 1" and "August" tied for the top spot. 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. 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. 20: 20. The gist: In each "battle," two Taylor Swift songs (from the same album or not) are pitted against each other for your judgment. 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. Drag and drop items from the bottom and put them on your desired tier. After embracing folk-flecked sounds on sister albums Folklore and Evermore, for Midnights Swift instead turns to bubbling synths and percussive beats, this sleek production run under the artists late night musings. Although there are standout individual songs on the album, "Taylor Swift" isn't particularly cohesive and now that her discography has been built up, it's hard to rank this high when listeners now know exactly what she's capable of. The best Taylor Swift's Albums rankings are on the top of the list and the worst rankings are on the bottom. Rosen is right this album combines intimate lyrics and incredibly catchy tunes and it is showcased in Swift's hit single "You Belong With Me," an upbeat anthem for those dealing with unrequited love. Lover. ", Released in 2019 and named after one of the album's singles, "Lover" introduced a new era for Swift one that seemingly had elements of many of her past works, like "1989" and "Speak Now.". Jonathan Keefe. It's 1989's sonic spirit with more lyrical depth, dipping a brush in her newfound solipsism and painting musical murals of Taylor's "13 sleepless nights," scenes of "self-loathing, fantasizing about revenge, wondering what might have been, falling in love, and falling apart" construed in vivid detail. Look, Reputation served a purpose. Not content with just giving us one surprise album in 2020, Swift returned to her cabin in the woods and a mere five months later released Evermore. "Red" is a sophisticated album that demonstrates that Swift cannot be put into a box of one category or another: her sound is not all emotional songs about past lovers or radio-ready pop tracks it's so much more. Such contrast in tone and prophecy perfectly capture the beautiful whiplash strewn throughout the album as she walks us through the stages of moving on: willing them to stay ("Treacherous"), drinking with friends to forget ("22"), ending the reconciliation cycle ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"), and starting anew with the next beau ("Begin Again"). It also boasts some of Swifts best ever lyricism for example its title track, where Swift vividly describes the wedding of an ex-lover: I sneak in and see your friends / And her snotty little family, all dressed in pastel / And she is yelling at a bridesmaid / Somewhere back inside a room / Wearing a gown shaped like a pastry. The spectacular The Last Great American Dynasty describes the life of American artist Rebekah Harkness (whose Rhode Island house Swift bought in 2013) with vivid descriptive lyrics. From the first track, you know this album isn't like what you've been hearing on the radio it opens with the synthetic beats and sounds of "Welcome to New York.". It was the first taste the world got of Swifts deeply confessional songwriting, and from that moment, we were hooked. "Drew looks at me / I fake a smile so he won't see / that I want and I'm needin' / Everything that we should be" was as good as poetry, and a north star to the forlorning that looms in girlhood. How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 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. Your email address will not be published. Any album judgment requires not just multiple listens, but the passage of time to sit with the music. Theres a free-wheeling, carefree attitude to the collection. Offers may be subject to change without notice. When you pose the question of why Taylor Swift is among the most distinguished artists in popular music, the strength of her narrative songwriting is among the best answers. 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. And on this album, in particular, the stories she tells are about how her narrators choices impact others, often in ways that cause irreparable harm. Insider's music team revisited the album and ranked all 17 of its deluxe-edition songs. escaped the fate of Pharrell in Minions or Timberlake in Trolls). In a review for Rolling Stone, Claire Shaffer called the album "a refreshing change of pace.". Its a brilliantly honest moment, taken from Swifts most mature album yet. But none are more affecting than "champagne problems," a first-person post-mortem after rejecting a marriage proposal a classic "it's not you, it's me" scenario with simple piano chords accompanying the guilt of walking away and the peril of being mentally unwell ("'She would've made such a lovely bride' / 'What a shame she's fked in the head,' they said"). 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. 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. "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, 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. Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone writes that the album "most notably picks up where the pure pop triptych of '1989,' 'Reputation,' and 'Lover' left off, a dazzling bath of synths complementing lyrics caught between a love story and a revenge plot.". 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. 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. 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. The music of folklore takes its time to unfurl, ivory keys yawning at dusk, acoustic strings waking at daybreak. "We Were Happy," Fearless (Taylor's Version) (2021) There's a thin line between timeless and basic, and this "from the vault" track stays on the wrong side. 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. Yet between its plot-point breadcrumbs is an inherent relatability embedded in Taylor's never-better introspection. 1989 signifies a rebirth of sorts for Taylor, not just because it's named after her actual birth year, but more due to its status as her first seismic genre shift. It's her only album with skip-every-time songs (why on earth would you force a collab between Future and Ed Sheeran? First contact is a shock, a singe that lingers and radiates energy, next a scab, hardening as it heals, before calming into a scar you carry, listening to, forevermore. 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. After the runaway success of country-pop second record Fearless, for Speak Now elements of pop rock, bluegrass and soft rock were added into the mix. Songs like I Know Places ride a reggae swagger and trap-influenced snare beats before launching into a soaring, Pat Benatar-esque chorus. Taylor Swift Drops Trippy Lavender Haze Music Video, Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoffs 20 Best Collaborations. On her first three albums, love is mostly a daydream. 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. Still, what some may see as folklore's central weakness is in actuality its greatest strength. However, evermore is still occasionally upbeat with an ethereal glow, with cooing strings that glint on "willow" and synthesizers that gleam on "gold rush." 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 released in 2008, its original release won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and thirteen years later in 2021, Fearless (Taylors Version) became the first of Swifts re-recorded albums to drop. The album plays as a survey course in contemporary pop, and Swift is game to try just about anything, from the uninhibited dance-pop of standout Starlight to the thundering heartland rock of Holy Ground. The tracks that work best are those on which the production is creative and modern in ways that are in service to Swifts songwriting. and Bleachers fame), who employs an undercurrent of drums that boom like palms on metal doors and vocals that echo as if off skyscrapers. Unlike previous albums, no singles were released before the official album drop, and at 3 a.m. But this time, we're also met with a subtle lightness, like the calm and clarity that comes after a good cry. 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. taylor swift albums Tier List Maker - TierLists.com taylor swift albums Press the labels to change the label text. It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. Let's be clear: There are no bad Taylor Swift albums. Swift has proven herself capable of laughing at herself, thereby defusing the criticisms often levied at her, but with Reputation she created a larger-than-life caricature of the petty, vindictive snake shes been made out to be. The finished product is, of course, sterling. 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. She colors its lyrics and soundscapes between the clear cut, ear candy lines a hint of bubblegum pop, a dash of animated movie-anthem flair (it's a miracle that "ME!" 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. 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