ranking taylor swift albums tier list

Pam Grier reflects on her most iconic roles, from, now backpedaling their initial criticisms, unrequited love looming on the high school bleachers, Professor of Commercial Music explains to EW, reclaiming the masters of her life's work, New Reputation: Taylor Swift shares intel on TS7, fan theories, and her next era, The best song from every Taylor Swift album. Related: Ranking Taylor Swift's 10 Most Viewed Music Videos. 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. So, the savant of promotional whimsy announced an upcoming album in August, cloaked her website in a cryptic countdown reading "Meet me at midnight," posted the premise of "the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life," and ceremoniously revealed the track titles from an antique bingo machine in a TikTok series. As if a trump card she saved specially for its bridge, Taylor relinquishes a rare shriek of elation and dismay ("He looks up grinning like a devil!") Shes mined this type of melancholy tone before, but never for the full length of an album and certainly never with such a range of perspectives. 1 as it best represents the evolution of Swift and her music. Midnight's answer: she's still soaring. Taylor Swift surprise-released her eighth album "Folklore" on July 24, 2020. Red is filled with top notch tunes: the brilliantly snarky We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Swifts first ever Billboard 100 Number One) and fizzing 22 are stone-cold smashers. Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a big year for the artist, who released two surprise albums and secured her first Album of the Year nomination since her 2015 record, 1989. 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. She also adds that with her recent re-recording of previous albums, Swift has "unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting," by dipping her toe back into previous eras. But herein lies the merit of Speak Now. Some of her trademarksher gift for melody, her third-act POV reversalswere already present here, but theres a sloppiness to the writing that shes long since cleaned up. But her mounting success undoubtedly stands on the shoulders of Speak Now's case studies of condensing complex inner dilemmas seeing your parents' failed marriage as a prophecy, wishing you'd never grown up into an album still adorned with hope. That early nuance and the fact that she wrote this entire album completely on her own is no small feat. She's moved on, but she also wants us to know she's moved on. "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. And though Taylor's never been a stranger to love songs, here, she's more sultry than sweet. Her narrators often seem to lack insight because Swift writes with the point of view that hers is the only story to be told, which makes songs like Dear John and Better Than Revenge come across as shallow and shortsighted. Thus, her 10th album is at the neutral midpoint on this list, though Midnights' careful metaphors are some of the best mirrors for abstract projection and self-reflection that listeners will find on this list. Perfectly Fine." Although she claims the old Taylor is dead in the lyrics of "Look What You Made Me Do," we see touches of her "old self" in the softer chorus of otherwise intense "Ready For It?" 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. Sal Cinquemani, Midnights is far removed from the folk instrumentation of Folklore and Evermore, coming closest to mirroring 1989s more uptempo electro-pop palette. Songs like "Blank Space" and "Wildest Dreams" are more than deserving of their far-reaching recognizability, but not so much their long time (and only recently dethroned) standing at the top of Taylor's Spotify play stats. Even so, there are simply too many placeholders on Lover's 18-track roster for it to fare well against her discography's worthier, meatier contenders. 1989 instead is sonically joyous without losing dimension or leaning on familiarity. These were the de facto anthems for young listeners especially, clutching MP3 players to the chest like rosaries as we projected onto Taylor's portraits of then-mythical teen love. 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. 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. It's the product of a prolific mind being forced to slow down, reflect, and create something completely new; A memoirist moved to experiment with a stream-of-consciousness novel. Theres a free-wheeling, carefree attitude to the collection. Then there's the true-to-life nostalgic musings of romantic naivety at fifteen and unrequited love looming on the high school bleachers. Fearless, however, just as strongly made the case that Swift had the goods for a long, rich career. "Speak Now" comes in at no. And, of course, "Marjorie" is a masterful and beautiful tribute to Swift's grandmother that's packed with soulful and illustrative lyrics. The album finds Swift living up to all of the praise she earned for her songwriting earlier in career. Ten albums, a mantelpiece of awards and over a decade later, Swift has become one of the biggest popstars on the planet. Still, what some may see as folklore's central weakness is in actuality its greatest strength. The imagery for the album was filled with snakes, and lyrics subtly (and at times, not so subtly) addressed their falling out. "Mine" proves this point at the LP's onset, condensing years into seconds, tracing the shadow childhood trauma casts over a guarded, grown-up love ("You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter / You are the best thing that's ever been mine"). the album's opening track, and in the closing track, "New Year's Day," when we hear a stripped-down, piano-heavy ballad in which Swift sings emotion-filled lyrics. How do you follow-up Reputation, a revenge album filled with vengeance? Keefe, Swifts seventh album, Lover, lacks a unified sonic aesthetic, ostensibly from trying to be something to everyone. This time, "All Too Well" retires a full band backing for hazy synths, but it's anything but smoke and mirrors. But just because Taylor took a sharp left turn doesn't mean she was unsuccessful. 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. Your email address will not be published. Released in 2014 and named after the year she was born, "1989" was inspired by the pop music of the mid-1980s. Keefe, Nearly every track on Swifts sophomore effort, Fearless, builds to a massive pop hook. On earworm lead-single Anti-Hero Swift sings: Its me/Hi/Im the problem, its me, the kind of thought weve all had when lying awake trying to drift off. 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. Overall, it's charming and mostly tame, but then again, she's happy. From Taylor Swift to Midnights, we've ranked all of the singer's studio albums from best to worst. There's no question her most recent two albums are related, as "Evermore" has a similar sound and features nods to "Folklore. At the time of publishing, we're just over two weeks past our first listen, still internalizing the record's themes of loneliness and loathing, insecurity and insomnia. 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. Almost 15 years ago, before the Grammy awards and international tours, a fresh-faced, 17-year-old Taylor Swift released her self-titled debut album. Taylor is again musically faithful to the source material she spawned, honoring her then 22-year-old self by jeering and tearing up right on que, though this time with an inherent air of maturity. By album three Swift was a certified Big Deal. It marks a shift from the retro-minded pop-rock of 1989 toward a harder, more urban aesthetic, and Swift wears the stiff, clattering beats of songs like Ready for It? like body armor. The album's comedown is a moment of quiet reflection carried by a piano's lone lullaby, when the festivities are over, the partygoers are gone, and all that's left is a lover for the long haul ("I want your midnights / But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day"). Lover is a backtrack in a way. The Taylor Swift's Albums Tier List below is created by community voting and is the cumulative average rankings from 131 submitted tier lists. Only vault songs are included. Released as a surprise sister album to folklore, it focused on Swift's exploration of lyrical storytelling based on tales and experiences that weren't her own. From Taylor Swift to Midnights, we've ranked all of the singer's studio albums from best to worst. But over a decade later, Taylor makes the incredible move of re-recording her teenaged relics almost note-for-note, now at 31 years old. But this is Taylor we're talking about here, and the fact of the matter is, she's at her best at her most singular, when there's zero doubt that anyone but her could have been the creative mind behind the record. 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). Cruel Summer, co-written with St. Vincent, a euphoric three minutes of exhilarating 80s synth-pop, should have been a single. It's her only album with skip-every-time songs (why on earth would you force a collab between Future and Ed Sheeran? 1989 is a masterclass in how to make a timeless pop record. Jonathan Keefe. Its admirable that she tries to incorporate more sophisticated elements into a few of the songs here, but dancing with or kissing someone in the rain is a default image that crops up with nearly the same distracting frequency as references to princesses, angels, and fairy tales. Gone is the will-they-won't-they tension of Reputation's hushed, closed-door affair; Taylor's Lover is here to stay, and this seventh studio album exists almost solely to deliver that proclamation between a few self-love clichs ("I'm the only one of me") and tired girl-power taglines ("If I was a man / Then I'd be the man"). Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. The best All Taylor Swift Songs (including Midnights) rankings are on the top of the list and the worst rankings are on the bottom. It isnt the weight of the subject matter alone that makes Folklore feel so vitalits the exemplary caliber of her writing. The album has been described as escapist, cottagecore-inspired, and was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keefe. 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. This only further proves that "Reputation" is a prime example that Swift can experiment with a variety of genres and still create magic. It won a mantelpiece of awards including the Grammy for Album of the Year but perhaps even more impressive is the fact its already left a massive impact, a mere six years after it was released. 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. For the album ranking, I considered a few factors including cohesiveness, listening experience, the number and quality of standout songs, and if the album is musically interesting or lyrically special. 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"). Between those extremes is a reliable lineup of ultra-catchy mega-hits that infected the cultural consciousness through Top 40 countdowns and, later, TikTok videos. 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. 'All You Had To Do Was Stay' - '1989' Article Continues Below Don't get me wrong, "All You Had To Do Was Stay" is an amazing song that fits perfectly into. But her self-titled debut is stagnant in retrospect, its feet firmly planted into an arbitrary industry mogul's limited vision of the "next best country artist." Last Night by Morgan Wallen 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" "Speak Now" comes in at no. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver's defeated drawl) borrows similarly spacious minor keys with ten times the heartbreak. Lover. Midnights is simultaneously a rare treat and a return to normalcy. 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. Songs range from edgy and confident with "I Did Something Bad" to breathy and beautiful with "Dress," all the while playing with different musical styles and production effects. The difficulty (and, perhaps, the beauty) of attempting to order her albums is that 1) she's been so consistently good, and 2) whichever albums harbor your affections most can change by the year, month, day, and even hour depending on your headspace and heartache. 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. 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. 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. Although the first glimpses we heard from it (the musical theatre-style Me! and the stomping You Need to Calm Down) didnt do the record justice, listen to Lover in full and youll find moments of pure joy. 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. "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. evermore. The contrast of that relationship with the one detailed in "Champagne Problems" makes the latter seem even more heart-wrenching. '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. Following on from the release of Swift's 10th album 'Midnights', let's take a trip down memory lane and take stock of the superstar's career so far. However, evermore is still occasionally upbeat with an ethereal glow, with cooing strings that glint on "willow" and synthesizers that gleam on "gold rush." 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.". "'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. Report RESET RANKING RESET TEMPLATE SAVE/DOWNLOAD TIER LIST Template by lucy 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. 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. 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. But reputation is much more than an extended diss track; It's also a not-so-private ceremony for a new, hush-hush love affair (that years later blossoms into a now-rumored engagement to partner Joe Alwyn). But for every purely excellent song off 1989 ("Out Of The Woods," "Clean") there's invariably a hollow foil track, the worst offenses, of course, being "Shake It Off" and "Bad Blood." From Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett to a potential Best Supporting Actress toss-up, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. 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." "So I just kept writing them.". Now, without further ado, here's EW's ranking of Taylor Swift's seminal albums. 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. folklore is a backward glance over your shoulder clouded by a cold air exhale and it remains Taylor's greatest work to date. I Knew You Were Trouble, with its swift-step breakdown, saw her signature sound infused with trendy dance production. The finished product is, of course, sterling. Taylor Swift Drops Trippy Lavender Haze Music Video, Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoffs 20 Best Collaborations. As J. English penned for NPR in 2017, this album really helped solidify Swift's identity in the music world. But "Folklore" has a laid-back vibe that reflects the spontaneity of how this album was created. 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. 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. There are many more parallels to past albums, as revisiting life moments already explored in her previous songs creates yet another treasure map of topics for knowledgeable fans. "Red" and "Lover" remain in the middle of the pack. 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.

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