By Neha N., Grade 9
Taylor Swift's Latest 5 Albums, Ranked
5. Evermore
Writing about Taylor Swift’s latest albums feels magnitudes harder than writing about her first 5, because she’s improved so much at writing and singing. I want to make it clear that although Evermore is 5th on this list, I don’t dislike it at all. I think that It’s a pretty slow, soft album, and a lot of the songs are good as background music, which for me doesn’t give me the energy I want when I listen to music. I don’t think this album is bad at all, but I just find myself in less situations where I seek out quiet, soothing songs rather than ones that make me want to sing, and thus feel less connected to it.
4. Lover
Deciding where to place Lover was probably the hardest out of any album on this list. I think that’s because there are specific songs on Lover that I hold extremely close to my heart, like Death by a Thousand Cuts and I Forgot that You Existed, and there are some that feel like normal pop songs (which I still enjoy sometimes, but don’t get as close of an emotional connection to) such as ME! And Cruel Summer. I think the songs on this album are very hit or miss for me, so as a whole, it falls into fourth place, although there are many scenarios where I don’t mind classic pop songs at all and love to put on Cruel Summer or ME!
3. Reputation
I love most of the songs on Reputation with all of my heart, but I think another aspect of this album that drew my attention was its creation and its purpose. Taylor Swift wrote this album after years of silence following a hatestorm she got after fake media of her was released. Looking at the dark themes in this album and the motif of the snake that keeps coming up (a response to Taylor being called a snake) I can definitely see how Taylor made this album, one of her bestselling ones, in response to all the hate she was getting, which I think is super inspiring and empowering. She released the album, and then went on to go on the record-breaking Reputation tour, which proved that she was stronger than it seemed. With all of this in mind, it gives a lot of the darker songs new meaning, like Look What You Made Me Do and …Ready for it? All in all, I love this album’s music, songs, theme, and its empowering message.
2. Midnights
Midnights, one of Taylor’s most recent albums, is one of my favorites. I like how this album somehow has a theme while encompassing several different experiences and emotions. While a lot of her albums have specific emotions they exhibit, like the feeling of sadness, loss, being in love, or recovering from a broken heart, this album has it all. There are some really heart-wrenching songs on this album, like Maroon, and Bigger Than The Whole Sky, but there are also plenty of upbeat, danceable tracks like Karma and Bejeweled. Overall, I love how experimental and new-feeling this album was, and how it executed so many varying emotions flawlessly. Even though it has less traditional “pop” or “catchy” songs, I think it gives the album more timelessness, and guarantees that I won’t get tired of it.
1. Folklore
Folklore is an absolute masterpiece of an album to me. The songs are so raw and unfiltered and sad that they can provoke a change in emotion from me, which most music doesn’t do. This album was written and released when we were quarantining, and I think it’s pretty easy to tell. There’s a lot of loneliness and longing in the songs, and I can see how having more time by herself led Swift to deeply explore and create this album. It contains several fictional characters (designed by Swift) and the album contains a trilogy of songs very special to me, one for each character- cardigan, august, and betty. All in all, I think this album is a hidden gem that many people haven’t listened to, and I would encourage everyone to give it a try.
Taylor Swift's First 5 Albums, Ranked
This list consists of my personal rankings of each of Taylor Swift’s first 5 released albums, Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989.
5. Debut (Taylor Swift)
Falling into 5th place is Taylor Swift’s first ever album, titled Taylor Swift, which she released at just 16 years old. The main reason that I put this album in last place was that in the beginning of Taylor’s career, when this was released, she was mainly a country singer-songwriter. Since I’m not a huge fan of the country genre in general, this album didn’t resonate too much with me, but I still enjoy some of the tracks, like Our Song.
4. Speak Now
4th place is awarded to Speak Now, Taylor Swift’s third studio album, which she re-recorded in 2023. Personally, I liked some of the songs on this album, like Enchanted and Back to December, which became some of my favorite songs from Swift, but as a whole, this one didn’t really stick out to me. I feel like this album is very centered around love, which doesn’t resonate with me as much as it might with other people, but I still think it has some beautiful tracks.
3. Fearless
Although Speak Now doesn’t feel too relatable to me, Fearless definitely does. This album, which was re-recorded in 2021, has quite a few songs that I love. I absolutely adore Love Story, which is a romantic Shakespeare word-play about falling in love- but with a happy ending. I also love Mr. Perfectly Fine, which was a vault track released in 2021- meaning that Swift wrote the song for the original Fearless album, but decided not to add, meaning that we got to listen to this one for the first time in 2021, when Fearless: Taylor’s Version was released. But perhaps the most relatable of them all, is Fearless- a song about people in life that take away your fear to try new things. All in all, this album has several very strong songs, which never fail to make me sing along.
2. Red
I strongly believe that Red was one of Taylor Swift’s best albums ever. It’s a breakup album, and a lot of the songs, like 22 or We are Never Getting Back Together, are about Swift’s newly found independence coming out of a relationship. Although I do like those songs for karaoke or happy vibes, I have to say that my favorite on this album is All Too Well (Taylor’s Version). As many swifties agree, this song is about Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor’s relationship, which ended after a few months. To me, this song is heart wrenching and lyrically genius, significantly enhancing and adding depth to the rest of the breakup songs on this album.
1. 1989
First place, one of my favorite albums of all 10 Swift has released, is 1989. Unlike Red, I wouldn’t say that there’s one specific song that specifically advances this album, since pretty much every song on this one is amazing. I love the themes of self-discovery, and I enjoy the upbeat catchiness. I have no idea how Taylor Swift managed to make every single track on this one so good and catchy, but I will never stop loving these happy and carefree songs.
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