Taylor Swift: Controversial Album Ranking

With all the recent news regarding Taylor Swift and her new music, there is no better time to rank her albums from favorite to least favorite. Obviously, this is an opinion piece so I would love some responses with other people’s opinions. For the purpose of this piece, I will be rating folklore and evermore as one (folkmore).

Coming in last place (no. 8) is her self-titled album, “Taylor Swift”. As I feel as if this choice for last place is going to upset people, I’m going to be honest. Although I like a few of the songs on the album such as “A Place in This World” and “Mary’s Song” I just wasn’t that big of a T Swift fan back in 2006 when the album was released. Overall album score 4/10.

No. 7 is “Lover”. Once again, I feel as if this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I will explain myself. Although her lesser known songs (such as “Cruel Summer” and “False God”) in my opinion are phenomenal and are constantly getting stuck in my head, I don’t think her singles were particularly great. I found songs like “I Forgot that You Existed” and “Lover” hard to listen to. Even after listening to these songs multiple times, I just couldn’t bring myself to love the songs. Those few songs really dropped this album a lot on my list.

Coming in at no. 6 is “Fearless”. This is where the list got extremely difficult in ranking as I see this album and the one that comes in at no. 5 on a very similar level. No one can ever get sick on “Love Story” as that is a song that I never skip when listening to Taylor. Especially the new version of the song – that has been on repeat ever since it came out. But before I get on a tangent about how amazing that song is, we can look at a couple of the hidden treasures on this album which make it higher than the previous two albums that I have ranked. Songs like “You’re Not Sorry”, “Hey Stephen” (anyone who knows me will get this) and “Forever and Always” really just hit in a much different way when experiencing the emotions that Taylor sings about in those songs. 

Moving onto no. 5, I’m going to go ahead and rank “Speak Now” a right here. Although I didn’t particularly love her hit “Speak Now”, the album itself takes the listener through a rollercoaster of emotions. One of my personal favorite songs “Long Live” will always have a special place in my heart as I sang that at my high school graduation in 2018 with a group of other students who were in the high school chorus. “Long Live” will never fail to make me feel a million different emotions within the five minutes and 18 seconds that it plays. Another song that makes me feel really happy and powerful is her song “Enchanted”. This song gives me more of a royal princess sort of vibe which my 10 year old self absolutely loved back in 2010 when the album came out. I still listen to this song on repeat whenever I get the chance! And to highlight one final song on “Speak Now” that I can’t possibly forget is “Sparks Fly”. That is a song that will never ever get old. Whenever the music comes on it brings me back to my first time in elementary school when I figured out what it was like to have a crush on someone. With these songs being brought to the forefront, I think it is important to have some honorable mentions that I wish I could go on and on about. Some of these include “Haunted”, “Dear John” and “Better Than Revenge”. 

Moving right along into no. 4, I have “1989”. This album has always been top notch when taking into account her singles such as “Blank Space” and how her line “Darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream” really has empowered many females. All of her singles on this album roped me into listening to the rest as soon as it came out in 2014. Some of these songs include “I Know Places”, “Wonderland”, and “You Are in Love”. If you have not listened to this album in its entirety, you need to!

Okay and onto no. 3. I have folkmore here. I think that both of these albums have some truly great songs ranging from a more intense country sounding song like “no body, no crime” (my absolute favorite song off of these two albums) to softer and more lyrical sounding songs such as “exile”. With these albums, I found that you really need to listen to all of the songs a few times in order to get into it. A lot of her songs have a much deeper meaning that initially though on the first listen. “champagne problems” truly means a lot to me as it highlights a struggle with mental health and how it is looked down upon from a societal level. That isn’t something I caught on the first listen. And the more you listen, the more you find these types of things, which is why these albums are up so high on my list.

Now we’re really getting down to the wire. No. 2 is “reputation”. I. LOVE. REPUTATION. I would argue that I like “reputation” better than my number 1 ranked album, but I’ll explain that a bit more in the next section. There is not one song I dislike on “reputation”. This album truly gives me some empowering vibes which is something I needed when the album came out in 2017. From her song “So It Goes…” all the way to songs like “Getaway Car”, “End Game” and “I Did Something Bad” there is something for everyone on this album. You also just can’t deny that when listening to this album, there is something just entrances the listener and empowers them. 10/10 album, Taylor.

And finally, my number one spot goes to “Red”. “Red” to me marks the start of a major transition period in Taylor’s career. She developed a new style within her music while still managing to stick to her country roots. Her song “Red” brings the listener on a journey where they can picture exactly what Taylor is singing about. Along with that, we have amazing songs such as “All Too Well” and “The Moment I Knew”. Just by briefly mentioning a few songs, we know that the album has this vibe with different styles of music. The reason that I believe this album is better than reputation is because it simply marks the start of her transition and is iconic when thinking about Taylor Swift. It seems to encompass all of the phases she has been through in one singular album.

I hope no one is too upset by my ranking, but here it is. If anyone wants to respond, I would love to see what other people think!!