Taylor Swift Albums: Ranked!

By Yamilet Chabla Urgiles ('25)

Warning: These are my personal opinions; they do not represent anyone else's perspective but mine. No one’s opinion is right or wrong. All opinions are welcomed!

I’ve decided to rank Taylor’s albums since I’ve always thought about which album was better than the others. And I got really inspired from others that ranked albums. Taylor has a descriptive song writing style unlike any other artist. Her songwriting really draws you in with relatable lyrics. Her songs have a universal appeal that brings us together.

#9 Debut

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This is the first album released by Taylor. Personally, while the album is good to hear in my opinion, I like some songs like ‘’Picture to Burn,‘’ ‘’Tim McGraw," and ‘’Our Song’’ but I’m not a fan of the rest of the songs. It’s mostly because I’m more of a fan of her alternative era than her country era. At this time she didn’t have much experience in the music industry and throughout the years you can really see she improved through her storytelling and her vocals. I’m really excited to hear “Debut” (Taylor’s version). That would be amazing to hear. It was really her country's era at that point and she was an emerging artist from the age of sixteen. But no hate to “Debut” it is just not my favorite. Rating: 4/10

#8 Fearless

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Hear me out this album has GREAT bops to it of course like the classics ‘’You Belong with Me,’’ ‘’Love Story,’’ ‘’Hey Stephen," and ‘’The Way you Loved me," but some of the songs are so overplayed in the radio and every time I hear them now it reminds me of that. These songs are the classics c’mon! I remember pouring my heart out to ‘’You Belong with Me’’ when I was younger. But it doesn’t hit the same after hearing so many times. But it’s still good overall. Rating 5/10

#7 1989

Photo courtesy of The Harvard Crimson

The album named after she was born has many great songs. ‘’Style’’ was written after her infamous song about Harry Styles, which is written after their alleged relationship. ‘’Wildest Dreams,‘’ ‘’Bad Blood,’’ ‘’Blank Space," and other songs are pretty mainstream so I’ve heard them a million times. Therefore this also influenced my decision. Rating: 6/10

#6 Speak Now

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Before anyone comes to attack me! This album is one of the best written albums. It would have been top five but if they had redone it would have been higher. Taylor chose to re-record her first six albums in an attempt to have creative ownership of her own work. She does not own her old albums held by Ithaca Holdings that was bought for $3 million in 2019. The company is owned by Scooter Braun who used to manage Taylor before the incident. She was not pleased about this but who would? She decided that every artist had a right to their own music. Therefore she started re-recording Fearless on April 9 , 2021 then followed by Red released on November 12, 2022. It will be quite interesting to see what album will be next. Her songs hit all the relationship marks, it hits heartbreak, regret, the first you meet someone.  It doesn’t even have to be about a relationship necessarily but we have all been through a tough situation before. But yet it would have hit harder if they were redone, but overall it’s a 6.5/10!

#5 Evermore

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The ‘’sister’’ of the Folklore album as they say. But folklore has a slighter stronger songwriting. They are so similar in fact they are both newer and owned by Taylor in her own right.  She served us sad albums but they are not like her earlier heartbreak sad songs; they are not about Taylor’s relationships in the past but made up fictional characters and perspectives she wrote for the album. Many people wonder if she went through another heartbreak but she stated that you don’t need to go through a heartbreak to create art. Which is true you don’t have to go through one to create art. Folklore is more grounded in reality , whereas the sister albums seem to be more of a fantasy world. But Evermore is more experimental. It provides a new side to Taylor’s music as it expresses common themes of sadness , betrayal and frustration wrapped together. It's unlike any other albums it’s more alternative than the pop or country style tunes that she used to write, but overall it's a 7/10.

#4 Red

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This album is one of the best albums written. She really gave us a ten minute version of ‘’All to Well’’ that recently came out this year. She re-recorded the Album this year. Her musical vocals have really shown in this album compared to her 2012 ‘’Red’.’ As well as the newly released mini film of ‘’All to Well’’ with Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink which showed her relationship with rumored Jake Gyllenhaal and their tumultuous relationship that evoked unhealthy relationships that she was experiencing during this time during the album. This album ranged from intense love, frustration, betrayal, confusion, and jealousy. The album incorporates acoustic instruments like banjo and guitars . It was everything we needed. 7.5/10

#3 Reputation

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Reputation is the album we all needed to come back better than before. We see a fierce Taylor that made this album bring us back to life. Many speculate that this album depicts her ex-lovers and the drama with Kanye West, but whatever it was, this album did not disappoint and any time you feel down this album helps to bring you back and to remember your worth. 8/10

#2 Lover

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Ah yes, "Lover", coming in second place. The last year before pre-pandemic, the cover and the era was everything. The song is about love, happiness and overall gives the feeling of summer and rebirth. It just oozes happiness. And everytime I hear it it brings back memories from this era. Supposedly it is written for her boyfriend Joe Alwyn like ‘’London Boy.’’ It is just one of the best albums to be written. Yes, I am totally ranking the newer albums higher than the older ones, but it's because to me her voice has gotten better over the years and are also the ones I relate to the most.

And the grand winner is...

FOLKLORE

Photo courtesy of BBC

Folklore was the latest album dropped by Taylor Swift released in the midst of the pandemic on July 24, 2020 that served us some music to hear during these tough times. Many might have mixed opinions on a newer album being the first on the list. But older doesn’t necessarily mean better or vice versa. Taylor’s storytelling has improved since the beginning towards now. She released this less than a year later from her 2019 album ‘’Lover’’ there are many confessional melodies in this album. The album creates a woodsy grayscale album cover that really creates the atmosphere for the rest of the album. There are fellow artists in the album including Phoebe Bridgers on ‘’Seven’’. Especially on the official music video for "Cardigan" where there are twinkling visuals throughout the music video that really create an enchanted mood. And the amount of metaphors and similes of the lyrics behind this album is surreal.

Although it’s new it just hit closer to me at that time during a hard time it just made me relate to this album more than any other album. This album is folkloric with the album representing fogginess as in the album you can see that there seems to be a foggy cloud in the woods. In this album reality and fiction weave in together and can’t define the boundaries between fiction and reality. As she can’t distinguish reality from fiction. 

In ‘’Mad Woman’’ the narrative follows the revenge of a misfit widow that is seen as crazy by everyone around her.  One line of the lyric states, ‘’And women like hunting witches too." In "Hoax," there is a quiet piano ballad which creates great sadness. The historically accurate ballad "The Great American Dynasty" is the story of a socialite Rebekah Harkness who previously used to be the owner of Taylor’s current house. In the song it seems that everyone bashes her in a patriarchal society.  She was criticized by others in high society who said, ‘’There goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen.’’ But my favorite correlation is between ‘’Betty,’’ ‘’Cardigan,’’ and ‘’August’’ that is seen as a love triangle between these songs. It’s something we can all relate somehow not being the first choice in essentially anything. It leads to feelings of betrayal, confusion and still love for that person. These songs are woven to tell us a story of being the second choice and heartbreak.

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