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- Taylor Swift has released 11 distinct albums throughout her career (and rerecorded four of them).
- BI's senior music reporter ranked them from worst to best, using a Swift-specific scoring method.
- "Folklore" took the top spot, while her latest, "The Tortured Poets Department," is in fourth place.
Taylor Swift/UMG
Final grade: 8/10
Thank goodness for the "3am" edition. The "Midnights" final grade* was rescued by the eight extra songs that Swift tacked onto the original 13-track album, plus "Hits Different," which was added even later.
With a bit of editing (swap "Bejeweled" for "Paris" and "Midnight Rain" for "The Great War," put "Would've Could've Should've" at track five where it belongs), "Midnights" could've been a versatile and well-paced pop album. But as it stands, it's an anticlimactic journey full of detours and flat landscapes.
Swift rarely explores the album's themes in depth, preferring to gesture broadly at interesting ideas. I'm not an "Anti-Hero" hater, but you're telling me the greatest songwriter of her generation couldn't come up with a better way to critique the infantilization and sexualization of women in Hollywood than "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby?" Please.
But when Swift does take her time on this album to grab a flashlight and a compass — inspecting sensations of loss, regret, devotion, obsession, forgiveness, and idolatry without fear — the results speak for themselves.
God-tier songs: "Would've Could've Should've," "Hits Different"
Worth listening to: "Lavender Haze," "Maroon," "Anti-Hero," "You're On Your Own Kid," "Question...?," "Karma," "Sweet Nothing," "The Great War," "Bigger Than the Whole Sky," "Paris," "High Infidelity," "Glitch," "Dear Reader"
Background music: "Snow On the Beach (featuring More Lana Del Rey)," "Labyrinth," "Mastermind"
Skip: "Snow On the Beach (featuring Lana Del Rey)," "Midnight Rain," "Vigilante Shit," "Bejeweled," "Karma (featuring Ice Spice)"
Big Machine Records
Final grade: 8.3/10
Any Swiftie will tell you that "Reputation" was made to be played live.
Indeed, I challenge anyone to watch the Reputation Stadium Tour or Eras Tour concert films and not come away with intensified respect for bangers like "I Did Something Bad" and "...Ready For It?"
Even "Dancing With Our Hands Tied," one of my least favorite tracks in terms of production, shines in concert with Swift's acoustic rendition.
But outside of those clips, "Reputation" exists as an album, not a live show. Despite glimmers of genius, the tracklist contains some of Swift's worst decisions to date.
Her moments of sincerity, or even sincere badassery ("If a man talks shit then I owe him nothing"), are meager compared to the aggressive pop posturing. Swift's usually sharp lyricism is overshadowed by the production, which tries to sound bold and maximalist but comes across instead as impersonal and heavy-handed. You may argue this effect is deliberate — camp, perhaps — but intentionality doesn't mean it's good.
Of course, all of Swift's albums have their comparative lows, but here we find the dregs — and the album's highs just aren't consistent enough to salvage the score.
My score for "Reputation" is actually quite generous considering "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" would fall dead last on my all-time ranking of Swift's songs, far beneath "Bad Blood" and every single one of her Christmas covers. Remembering how it was the tour's setlist closer sends a cold shiver down my spine.
God-tier songs: "Delicate," "Don't Blame Me"
Worth listening to: "...Ready For It?," "End Game (featuring Future and Ed Sheeran)," "I Did Something Bad," "Getaway Car," "Dancing With Our Hands Tied," "Dress," "Call It What You Want," "New Year's Day"
Background music: "So It Goes..."
Skip: "Look What You Made Me Do," "Gorgeous," "King of My Heart," "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things"
Big Machine
Final grade: 8.9/10
"Taylor Swift" is widely regarded as Swift's worst album, but that's only because all her albums are good. Something has to be the "worst" — that's how rankings work — and "Taylor Swift" is often overlooked, being the singer's first and most rudimentary work.
Released the same year Carrie Underwood was topping country charts with "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Before He Cheats," Swift's self-titled debut is archetypal banjo-pop with a girlish twang. It did its job well, putting her on the map in Nashville and beyond, but the album wasn't designed to push any boundaries or set any trends.
Nevertheless, "Taylor Swift" has more timeless tunes than you may realize. Led by the memorable torch song "Tim McGraw" — cleverly named after an already-popular musician, long before others would use this strategy to game streaming numbers — the 14-track album also includes hits like "Picture to Burn," "Teardrops on My Guitar," and "Should've Said No," which remain staples in Swift's discography. "Our Song" will go down in history as a masterpiece.
And that's not to mention "Cold As You," the heart-wrenching ballad that set the bar for Swift's track-five tradition. ("You come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." It still stings.) The truth is, "Taylor Swift" did push boundaries and set trends.
When "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)" is eventually unveiled, I won't be surprised if the album climbs a ton of rankings, both in and outside Swift's existing fandom.
God-tier songs: "Picture to Burn," "Our Song"
Worth listening to: "Tim McGraw," "Teardrops On My Guitar," "Cold As You," "The Outside," "Should've Said No," "Mary's Song (Oh My My My)," "I'm Only Me When I'm With You," "A Perfectly Good Heart"
Background music: "Stay Beautiful"
Skip: "A Place in This World," "Tied Together With a Smile," "Invisible"
Taylor Swift/UMG
Final grade: 9.4/10
"Fearless" claims a legendary space in Swift's career. It earned her first Grammy Award for album of the year when she was just 20 years old — at the time, the youngest artist ever to win — and it's still known as the most-awarded country album of all time.
"Fearless" is also a marvel of cohesion and consistency, a no-skips album in the purest sense.
That being said, cohesion can be a double-edged sword — especially after the release of "Fearless (Taylor's Version)," which turned the album into a 26-track affair. It's not Swift's longest album, but it sure feels like it.
Save for the two certified classics that everyone and their mother could sing along to (you know the ones), the great songs on "Fearless" are all equally great. The less-great songs are all equally good. No track is so bad that it stands out, but still, some stuff should've been cut. Do you see the dilemma?
This would be a career-topping triumph for any other artist, but Swift was just getting started. She kept getting better and better, crafting so many moments of shock and awe and undeniable musical genius for other albums, they make the climaxes on "Fearless" feel like prologues.
God-tier songs: "Love Story," "You Belong With Me"
Worth listening to: "Fearless," "Fifteen," "Hey Stephen," "White Horse," "Breathe (featuring Colbie Caillat)," "Tell Me Why," "You're Not Sorry," "The Way I Loved You," "The Best Day," "Change," "Jump Then Fall," "Forever & Always," "The Other Side of the Door," "You All Over Me (featuring Maren Morris)," "Mr. Perfectly Fine," "Don't You," "Bye Bye Baby"
Background music: "Untouchable," "Forever and Always (Piano Version)," "Come In With the Rain," "Superstar," "Today Was a Fairytale," "We Were Happy," "That's When (featuring Keith Urban)"
Skip: N/A
Taylor Swift/UMG
Final grade: 9.7/10
Sonically, "Lover" is a little all over the place, but thematically, it's coherent and compelling. Swift described the album as "a love letter to love itself — all the captivating, spellbinding, maddening, devastating, red, blue, gray, golden aspects of it (that's why there are so many songs)."
"So many songs" usually means there are more duds, and that's certainly the case here. (Yes, "Me!" is campy and spelling is fun. It's still a skip.)
But "Lover" also has more God-tier hits than most of the albums in Swift's oeuvre. The peaks are dizzying: "Cruel Summer" is goes-hard-in-the-car perfection; "Lover" is destined to soundtrack first dances until the end of time; "The Archer" contains some of Swift's most insightful lyricism to date; "Cornelia Street" is so vivid that it plays like an Oscar-winning short film; "Death by a Thousand Cuts" boasts a knockout bridge that hits every time like it's the first time.
God-tier songs: "Cruel Summer," "Lover," "The Archer," "Cornelia Street," "Death by a Thousand Cuts"
Worth listening to: "The Man," "I Think He Knows," "Soon You'll Get Better (featuring The Chicks)," "False God," "Afterglow," "It's Nice to Have a Friend," "Daylight"
Background music: "I Forgot That You Existed"
Skip: "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince," "Paper Rings," "London Boy," "You Need to Calm Down," "Me! (featuring Brendon Urie)"
Taylor Swift/UMG
Final grade: 9.8/10
For much of Swift's career, "Speak Now" was her most underrated album. Sandwiched between the commercial juggernaut "Fearless" and the fan-favorite "Red," it seemed to fly under the radar for many of her casual listeners.
The "Speak Now" lore is essential to note. Swift was the only songwriter credited on the original 14-track album. She doubled down on "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," discarding the cowritten bonus cut "If This Was a Movie" and only adding songs "from the vault" that she wrote by herself.
"I didn't want to just be handed respect and acceptance in my field, I wanted to earn it," she explained in the album's prologue. "I figured, they couldn't give all the credit to my cowriters if there weren't any."
"I had no idea how much this pain would shape me," Swft continued. "This was the beginning of my series of creative choices made by reacting to setbacks with defiance."
Indeed, "Speak Now" is a portrait of a precocious young woman, hungry to prove herself. It's also a curious paradox; for someone so preoccupied with being perceived as a "good girl," her only self-written album is surprisingly fierce, strong-willed, and gutsy.
The title track casts Swift as a rebel with a cause, itching to interrupt her soulmate's wedding, while "Dear John" is an unforgettable takedown of a man who should've known better.
She confronts her critics on "Mean" ("All you are is mean, and a liar! And pathetic! And alone in life!") and scathes a vintage dress-wearing saboteur in "Better Than Revenge." Even with the now-infamous lyric change, the song is still packed with quick jabs and pithy one-liners — including one that feels downright prophetic today ("You might have him, but I always get the last word").
Other highlights like "Enchanted," "Haunted," and "Long Live" further reveal the album's emo-rock roots. For "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," Swift brought her influences to the foreground, enlisting Warped Tour icons Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy as featured artists.
Unfortunately, the vault tracks aren't all winners (hurting its new score), and a few key moments in the original tracklist lost their sparkle (RIP to the shaky inhale in the bridge of "Last Kiss"). But Swift's mature voice was able to breathe new life into others.
"Innocent," which I used to consider a skip, is truly sublime when delivered by an actual 32-year-old who's still growing up, now. Once dedicated to a man who didn't deserve it, the song now shines in the afterglow of self-reflection, as though teenage Swift is reaching through time to comfort her future self.
"Speak Now" was always an album about making mistakes and overcoming shame, about "reacting to setbacks with defiance," in Swift's own words. "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" is the physical embodiment of that spirit. By reclaiming ownership of her music, Swift made sure her words would ring truer than ever.
God-tier songs: "Dear John," "Enchanted," "Long Live"
Worth listening to: "Mine," "Sparks Fly," "Back to December," "Speak Now," "Mean," "The Story of Us," "Better Than Revenge," "Innocent," "Haunted," "Last Kiss," "Electric Touch (featuring Fall Out Boy)," "I Can See You," "Castles Crumbling (featuring Hayley Williams)"
Background music: "Never Grow Up," "Ours," "When Emma Falls In Love," "Foolish One," "Timeless"
Skip: "Superman"
