taylor swift discography ranking

written june 27, 2023, and originally uploaded to the diary.

this was, i think, just when midnights had come out, so my ranking might be different now, given the rereleases and new album...! maybe i should do it again.

i saw a girl on tiktok calculate her favorite taylor swift album by rating EACH SONG in each album on a spreadsheet, getting the average of the songs per album, and then using those averages to rank the albums. i did this before with seventeen, my last musical obsession, and jumped at the chance to do it again with my latest one. i was thinking about making a tswift shrine, but honestly i just wanted a place to ramble about her songs, so maybe this is enough...!

a bit of history: i've loved taylor since i was a youth, but as a casual... i think i started keeping up with her properly a bit after reputation, and then i really got into her during the pandemic, with folklore as my gateway.

anyway without further ado:

initial thoughts: i ranked them based on instinct before i filled out the sheet, and the first four were already solidly in those places. THE OTHERS THOUGH... my instincts could not have been more scrambled.

i'll go through the albums from bottom up with some standout songs!


debut

i'm so sorry miss taylor. i really only have listened to teardrops on my guitar and picture to burn. i don't really have any burning interest in listening to any of the other tracks... there were a couple that came on shuffle once that i liked but not enough to remember to go back to!


speak now

i'm only recently getting into speak now! the taylor's version hype is real.


fearless

fearless is honestly wonderful. there are a lot of songs i really like, but none i'd like... start a fight at a bar about. you know? not that i am the type of person to do that. i think i need a bit more LONGING and ANXIETY for something to really hit, and the albums i've ranked low are too young to have much of that. but i also like them for their youthfulness!


1989

as an Upbeat Song bitch, i should really like 1989 more than i do! i think it fell a little short lyrics-wise though. but this was The Big Pivot To Pop so i understand. i'm honestly surprised it ranked above fearless though – i feel like i have fewer standout faves here, but i guess i enjoy more tracks/am less prone to skipping.


red

ok we're getting to the albums that make me start throwing things.


midnights

i am fucking SURPRISED that this is so high up! i'm looking at the numbers but i can't really tell why it's up here when i don't have any major faves. i don't have any faves off of midnights - i was kind of a hater when i first listened through the album but i was also this way with evermore and look where that is. so the moral of the story is sometimes my instinct is just a hater and she needs to give more things a chance.

(i guess midnights, red, and 1989 don't have that big a difference in score so... the ranking probably fluctuates each week depending on my mood.)


reputation

i will start by saying i did not like the cover for this album. so it shocks me that i like the songs so much. many of them are songs that make me want to destroy things. i think these next four albums are the ones i love most lyrically like? girl what the hell


evermore

i was coming into evermore from folklore (well. most people were.) and because i was such a folklore stan it took a while for evermore to grow on me, but now i really love it. there are so many stories. i love a story!


lover

the anxiety album! i believe reputation is the true Romance Album despite lover being named how it is because lover is so. Stressed Out. and that is why i like it SO MUCH. it's an album i want to yell out. i think there's only one song on here i can't quite sing along to for lack of familiarity (false god - surprise surprise, the supremely chill song) but everything else i've probably replayed a million times.


folklore

we've arrived. folklore my beloved... i don't even know how i became so obsessed with this album. i guess it just got me at the right time! the melancholy of this album hit hard during the pandemic and was supercompatible with my own melancholy i guess... also there were a number of songs i listened to with Blorbovision (blorbohearing?) so that may have contributed. all in all i love this album. it's a no skip album for me!

(but i will skip some in these writeups, because it is almost 3am.)


so that's that. whew. i'm winded.

i still vacillate between being a little embarrassed by how much i love tswift (her music in particular, although i quite like her too to an extent) and absolutely claiming it. i think it depends on who i'm around... so i think it's important i claim it on my own site. she is my favorite music artist! i listen to her music every day! her songs mean a lot to me!

anyway... i'm trying to get tickets to her international tour, and tomorrow i'm participating in the bloodbath that is a presale, so i'm in a taylor-related anxious mood and thought i might as well get that energy out :•) i had fun writing this post... i have no real idea what i would like to use this diary for or how i'd like to organize it, but this is a good start imo.

ok! good night!