The Definitive Ranking of Every Taylor Swift Song, Like, Ever

Love(r) her or hate her, Taylor Swift has written some messy, wonderful, iconic, underrated songs. This is me trying to pick the best one.

Good Morning America, May 8, 2019

[Update: July 2023] Taylor Swift has been busy and I’ve been desperate to catch up. When I first published this list, she had around 160 tracks. Now, she’s up to a dizzying 212. From entire new albums to vault tracks and random releases, she is keeping us fed. With that in mind, I completely revamped this list — grading on a curve, you could say (but best believe it’s still bejeweled). So consider this a new ranking. And remember all the details below.

In isolation I ran wild with a need to rank all of Taylor Swift’s songs. She’s one of the biggest pop stars in the world, a lightning rod for controversy, and — most importantly — a prolific songwriter with nine albums over fourteen years, countless hits over multiple genres, broken records for the Grammys, Spotify, YouTube, Billboard charts and more.

But, baby, who’s counting?

No matter how you feel about the celebrity, her discography (of which she’s credited with writing on every single track) demands to be taken seriously.

So this is me standing in front of you trying to rank them all.

What gives me the right, you ask? Well, I host a whole Taylor Swift podcast — called Swiftish — and I also have a pop culture podcast — called PS You’re Wrong — with multiple episodes dedicated to Taylor. I managed to score an invite to the 1989 announcement where she invited us back to her Tribeca loft and, yes, we danced in her refrigerator light. Also of note, I was featured in her reputation tour movie as one of the many screaming fans. See here:

I’m not saying any of this makes me an expert, but it definitely makes me a stan. One who spent the better part of 2020 [and now…2023] working through this ranking.

So what counts for a list like this? I settled on no features for other artists’ albums, no songs she wrote but didn’t record, and no covers unless they appeared on one of her main albums.

Obviously I know a list like this is *always* subjective. But I tried to introduce some objectivity through a rubric that scored songs based on five subjects: lyrics, production, critical acclaim, popularity, and my personal preference. Each song was awarded points split across these categories for a total out of 100.

Lyrics (worth 40) and production (worth 30) are obvious, as is my personal preference (worth 10). For acclaim (worth 15), I looked at how the song has been reviewed and awarded by critics. A perfect score of 15 means it is beloved and has won awards, too; 10 points means no awards but well-reviewed; 5 means it got awards but most critics hated it; 3 equals mixed reviews and no awards; and 0 means no one really talked about it.

The popularity vote (worth 5) is just a little local flavor. Taking into consideration Billboard rankings, streaming records, YouTube plays, and times Taylor herself has promoted or performed the track — whether as singles, music videos, or fan favorites — I scored them from hugely popular (5); to ones that charted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 100 (4); or are performed often or from soundtracks (3); charted in the Top 50 of the Billboard 100 (2); charted in the bottom 50 of the Billboard 100 (1); or are just not known by the general public (0). After all, Taylor has some say in what songs get a chance at public discourse, and I figured why not see how the Average Joe could influence a list like this.

Any tiebreakers were decided by lyrics first, then production, then my personal preference.

So there you have it. Will this carefully plotted rubric and general passing of the so-called buck spare me any accusations of CANCELLED. TRASH. WHERE IS THE TASTE?

Probably not. But I am, as they say, …ready for it.

212. Beautiful Eyes (Beautiful Eyes, 2008)

This EP isn’t available on streaming services and this (strangely sexual? overtly creepy?) track about some dude’s eyes might be a good reason why.

Best lyric: “I wanna be everything you need”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 6

211. Christmases When You Were Mine (Sounds of the Season, 2007)

Let’s just get it out of the way, shall we? This is early Taylor and it is schmaltzy Taylor. Some people like the covers she gives us on this album, but this original track struggled to find its holiday cheer.

Best lyric: "I know this shouldn’t be a lonely time / But there were Christmases when you were mine”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 9

210. Innocent (Speak Now, 2010)

An early example in *cringe*, this patronizing track dedicated to the 2009 Kanye debacle is practically unlistenable now knowing how that story ended up playing out.

Best lyric: “Wasn’t it beautiful when you believed in everything?”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 0 / Total: 11

109. Christmas Must Be Something More (Sounds of the Season, 2007)

There is something so cheesy about this song that it almost works. But then you remember there are better songs out there dedicated to the “birthday boy” and you move on with your life the same way I’m moving on with this list.

Best lyric: “The day holds something special / Something holy, not superficial”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 1 / Total: 11

208. Beautiful Ghosts (Cats, 2019)

You could say this wasn’t given a fair chonce though it does an adequate job of rounding out a truly bonkers film. Still, it’s not one I care to revisit ever again.

Best lyric: “All that I wanted was to be wanted”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 12

207. Superstar (Fearless, 2008)

This is a song about a not famous person professing her love for a very famous person. Oh how the tables will turn.

Best lyric: “I’m invisible and everyone knows who you are”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 0 / Total: 12

206. Superman (Speak Now, 2010)

Proof that sometimes bonus tracks just aren’t that much of a bonus, this treacly song is DC fanfic that never quite takes off.

Best lyric: “I always forget to tell you / I love you, I love you forever”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 0 / Total: 12

205. A Perfectly Good Heart (Taylor Swift, 2006)

We love a breakup track, but this one doesn’t do much to make itself memorable.

Best lyric: “Why would you wanna make the very first scar”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 15

204. ME! (Lover, 2019)

This cotton-candy fueled lead single felt like a thousand steps backward for our usually self-aware queen. And, sure, some might argue it’s “fun” or “cute” or “for the younger crowd” but to that I say … there are plenty of options to come on this list. And they have a better rhyme scheme.

Best lyric: “I’m the only one of me / baby let me keep you company”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 16

203. Labyrinth (Midnights, 2022)

The first appearance by TS10, it’s repetitive, strange, all ground covered by better songs. Uh oh oh no oh I’m skipping this song again.

Best lyric: “Uh oh I’m falling in love”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 0 / Total: 17

202. Sweeter than Fiction (One Chance, 2013)

Considered a precursor to her 1989 synth pop, this talky song and its overdone production is a lesson in Too Much™️.

Best lyric: “Proved me right when you proved them wrong”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 19

201. epiphany (folklore, 2020)

One clever line does not a great Taylor Swift song make. And “epiphany” may be emotional but it ultimately feels too niche to stand the test of time.

Best lyric: “And some things you just can’t speak about”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 0 / Total: 19

200. Girl At Home (Red, 2012)

We love a Zac Efron rumored track and while this message is nice and fine, it ultimately struggles to make an emotional impact.

Best lyric: “And it would be a fine proposition / if I was a stupid girl”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 2 / Total: 20

199. Stay Beautiful (Taylor Swift, 2006)

A fantasy hookup/breakup finds Taylor being strangely mature about the whole thing. It’s cute, but maybe something about it feels a little false compared to her deeper cuts, especially on her debut.

Best lyric: “It’s hard to make conversation when he’s taking my breath away”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 20

198. It’s Nice to Have a Friend (Lover, 2019)

This was a surprise sound at the end of her longest album and seemed to hint at a change in genre for Taylor, but this time-jumping narrative felt too simplistic sonically and lyrically to really stand out.

Best lyric: “Something gave you the nerve / to touch my hand”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 0 / Total: 21

197. Come In With the Rain (Fearless, 2008)

Taylor loves a good rain moment, and she even gives a Jesus shoutout. But this plaintive track feels like Taylor Swift parody at this point.

Best lyric: “I could stand up and sing you a song / But I don’t wanna have to go that far”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 0 / Total: 22

196. Starlight (Red, 2012)

Crashing parties. Raising big families. Boardwalks. This is an early draft in Taylor’s vision board of what life and love could look like, but it’s cute.

Best lyric: “He said, “Look at you, worrying so much about things you can’t change”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 23

195. Girl At Home (Taylor’s Version) (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

After staying true to the minutiae of every rerecording, Taylor tried to do better with this pop-ified reimagining presented with absolutely no commentary.

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 4 / Total: 24

194. If This Was A Movie (Speak Now, 2010)

It’s pretty remarkable songwriting what she’s able to squeeze into this wistful breakup track, but the theme falls a little flat here. Though there is rain. And windows. And waiting outside. All great pieces to a Taylor Swift puzzle that just don’t add up right now.

Best lyric: “I just want it back the way it was before”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 0 / Total: 24

193. dorothea (evermore, 2020)

This is the guy’s perspective from “‘tis the damn season” and, sorry to this man, but I’m not convinced we needed it.

Best lyric: “And if you’re ever tired of being known / for who you know / you know you’ll always know me”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1/ Personal: 0 / Total: 24

192. Change (Fearless, 2008)

An early anthem dragged down by a complete lack of narrative focus, it nonetheless feels right that it was a track chosen for the victorious 2008 US Olympic team.

Best lyric: “They might be bigger / but we’re faster and never scared”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 3 / Total: 25

191. hoax (folklore, 2020)

folklore is definitely her most well-written album to date. But this song is confusing AF.

Best lyric: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 0 / Total: 26

190. Eyes Open (The Hunger Games, 2012)

This got a lot of love. I don’t get it. The lyrics are simple (and that’s being nice about it) and the production makes it a permanent skip for me. It’s proof that Taylor could be counted on to always push herself into different genres, but I’m keeping my eyes closed on this attempt at rock.

Best lyric: “Yesterday we were just children / Playing soldiers just pretending”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 28

189. Bye Bye Baby (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

Released from the vault with her first rerecording, it’s sweet but she probably didn’t lose any sleep keeping this in the dark for over a decade.

Best lyric: “Oh, you took me home, I thought you were gonna keep me”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 1 / Total: 29

188. A Place in this World (Taylor Swift, 2006)

Early Taylor is always hard to judge because it all feels so earnest, but this series of cliches just serves to prove: she has better things coming.

Best lyric: “I’ll be strong, I’ll be wrong oh, but life goes on”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 30

187. The Outside (Taylor Swift, 2006)

She wrote this in sixth grade, so take it with a grain of salt. “It” being the clichés, the roads less traveled, the self-pity she better disguises in her later unrequited love songs.

Best lyric: “I’ve been a lot of lonely places / I’ve never been on the outside”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 30

186. So It Goes… (reputation, 2017)

I think Taylor was right to let this fade from our collective memory. It was the one rep track she didn’t include in her tour setlist (and we can argue all day about why that was) but I just think despite some fun play on counting, lyrically this felt disjointed.

Best lyric: “You did a number on me / but honestly baby who’s counting”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 30

185. We Were Happy (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

The twang came back for this track about daddy’s farm.

Best lyric: “No one could touch the way we laughed in the dark”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 3/ Total: 31

184. This Love (1989, 2014)

This is buried under its better counterparts on Taylor’s pop transition. It reads more meditative than musical, like a poem she set to music that doesn’t quite find a way to stand out.

Best lyric: “I could go on and on, on and on / and I will”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 3 / Total: 31

183. Carolina (Where the Crawdads Sing, 2022)

Ironically, there are just some rumors you can’t outrun and the controversy around this book and its author make me wish Taylor Swift had known better.

Best lyric: “Indelible scars, pivotal marks / Blue as the life she fled”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 33

182. The Last Time (Red, 2012)

A rare duet for Taylor Swift…and probably a good reason she waited so long to try again.

Best lyric: “Put my name at the top of your list”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 33

181. I’m Only Me When I’m With You (Taylor Swift, 2006)

She makes it easy to sing along to but we could probably be better than: this whole sentiment.

Best lyric: “Don’t wanna fly if you’re still on the ground”

Lyrics: 5/ Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 8 / Total: 33

180. How You Get the Girl (1989, 2014)

I get it, she’s cute. But there’s something too twee about this simplistic instruction manual for f*bois everywhere.

Best lyric: “Broke your heart, I’ll put it back together”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 33

179. Question…? (Midnights, 2022)

We all have questions about this one, right?

Best lyric: “Does it feel like everything’s just like second-best after that meteor strike?”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 5/ Total: 34

178. Soon You’ll Get Better (Lover, 2019)

It was brave and beautiful to share such an intimate look at one of her most important relationships. And Taylor’s voice carries the very real heartbreak through each and every line.

Best lyric: “Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too”

Lyrics: 13 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 0 / Total: 34

177. High Infidelity (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

I pulled out the popcorn for this track, but this vaguely threatening track still keeps us at arms length.

Best lyric: “Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 2 / Total: 34

176. Paris (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

She’s cute but shallow. No good track makes a shade pun. And it’s one she was more than willing to cut in her fifth midnights edition.

Best lyric: “Confess my truth / in swooping, sloping, cursive letters”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5/ Total: 35

175. Invisible (Taylor Swift, 2006)

This reads like an early draft of “You Belong With Me” before someone told her to take that teenage angst and channel it into something more upbeat.

Best lyric: “She’s never gonna love you like I want to”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 35

174. Glitch (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

I like this song. But the stitch visual gives me the ick..

Best lyric: “I thought we had no chance / and that’s romance”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5/ Total: 35

173. Ronan (Ronan, 2012)

Raw to the point of feeling unpolished. But the fact that she wrote it based on words from Ronan’s own mother? TEARS EVERY TIME. That’s why it’s impossible to listen to regularly.

Best lyric: “Flowers piled up in the worst way”

Lyrics: 13 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 0 / Total: 37

172. closure (evermore, 2020)

With these opening notes, she captures that feeling of anxiety that come when someone you don’t want to talk to pops up on your phone. But that caustic melody makes this song hard to enjoy. …even if it is the perfect kiss-off to someone (maybe a pretty blonde friend?) trying to make her make them feel better about how things ended.

Best lyric: “I can feel you smoothing me over”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 1 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 0/ Total: 37

171. The Best Day (Fearless, 2008)

This was an early practice in the Taylor Swift diaristic style and it’s ultimately just too specific to feel like it’s that timeless. Happy for her though.

Best lyric: “And I love you for giving me your eyes / Staying back and watching me shine”

Lyrics: 13 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 38

170. Never Grow Up (Speak Now, 2010)

There is something deeply relatable in her last verse as she laments *her* growing up, but for the rest of the song she hasn’t quite honed the storytelling here beyond some cliché warnings and simplistic images of childhood faded too fast.

Best lyric: “I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone.”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 2 / Total: 38

169. Stay Stay Stay (Red, 2012)

Honey, I’m sorry for the slander you get. You’re soppy and it’s hard to hold up against all of Taylor’s better written songs, but you’re also catchy as hell. And that bridge is cute enough to finally make me understand just what Taylor saw in the teenage Kennedy that summer.

Best lyric: “I just like hangin’ out with you all the time.”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 39

168. Vigilante Shit (Midnights, 2022)

Our girl always has a vision and her performance of this on The Eras Tour elevates the song, but as a standalone…it’s wattpad fanfic that never reaches that satisfying punch.

Best lyric: “The lady simply had enough.”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 2 / Total: 39

167. Electric Touch (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)

A rock anthem that fits nicely on the Speak Now rerecording, it gets a little lost in the metaphors.

Best lyric: “All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life.”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 4 / Total: 39

166. coney island (evermore, 2020)

That there are some brilliant lyrics here is not a question. But do they work together? Well, there’s the rub.

Best lyric: “And do you miss the rogue / who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 3 / Total: 39

165. Christmas Tree Farm (Christmas Tree Farm, 2019)

It’s her best Christmas song which, sure, isn’t saying much. But it’s fun, cheerful, and just jazzy enough to fit in on some of the more classic pop holiday playlists.

Best lyric: “In my heart is a Christmas tree farm / where the people would come / to dance under sparkling lights”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 40

164. You Need to Calm Down (Lover, 2019)

Aren’t you GLAAD this isn’t any higher? Jk Jk. This quasi-gay anthem was long overdue but probably rightfully criticized for its overstuffed subject matter and superficial lyrics. That being said…I’m never mad when it comes on.

Best lyric: “Like can you just not step on our gowns?”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 40

163. I Heart ? (Beautiful Eyes, 2008)

This hard-to-find track is REAL country Taylor. Heavy on the twang, the clever hook, and a need to rant about a boy who done you wrong. And you know what? It works even if her voice struggles to keep up.

Best lyric: “Wake up and smell the break up”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 40

162. Everything Has Changed (Red, 2012)

Ed Sheeran? She made that redhead famous. And this song gave us a pairing — his gravelly voice, her earnest one — that works surprisingly well even if the sleepy harmonies keep it from being all that great.

Best lyric: “All I know is we said, “Hello” / So dust off your highest hopes”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 40

161. the lakes (folklore, 2020)

People praise her poeticism here and she truly does pen some gorgeous images. But I was too distracted by the modern references to twitter and cell phones to feel like this song had reached its final draft.

Best lyric: “I’m settin’ off, but not without my muse”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 40

160. You All Over Me (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

Maren Morris doesn’t do much here, but it’s a sweet addition to Taylor’s country catalogue.

Best lyric: “The best and worst day of June / was the one that I met you”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 5 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 40

159. Haunted (Speak Now, 2010)

A first attempt at rock/goth, this song is a lil bit Too Much™.

Best lyric: “You and I walk a fragile line”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 4/ Total: 40

158. Hey Stephen (Fearless, 2008)

I think this might be my most controversial placement but I just cannot get into this song. There’s a lot to love, I understand. She hums, she gives a cute hook, and the best lyric below is one of her best lyrics ever. But its cutesy energy and extended run time keeps it a permanent skip for me.

Best lyric: “All those other girls, well they’re beautiful / but would they write a song for you?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 2 / Total: 41

157. Wonderland (1989, 2014)

People love this bonus track and she definitely has fun with the imagery, the sound, the energy of it all. But it feels a little all over the place to me.(My apologies to my co-host Ashley. Please don’t hate me).

Best lyric: “Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 41

156. You Are In Love (1989, 2014)

In this house we don’t acknowledge that this is about L*na D*nham; instead, we just enjoy that Taylor can write such an affecting song about love without it being a love of her own.

Best lyric: “And for once you let go / of your fears and your ghosts”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 41

155. Run (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

A first draft with Ed Sheeran, it’s just…fine.

Best lyric: “So give me a reason / and don’t say no”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 2 / Total: 42

154. Sweet Nothing (Midnights, 2022)

This stings a little more knowing how it ended.

Best lyric: “All that you ever wanted from me was nothing”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 42

153. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (reputation, 2017)

How you feel about the cackle in this song will decide how you feel about its placement on this list. Frankly, I loved it. She’s having fun tearing down the people who made 2016 so miserable for her, and honestly if you can’t learn to laugh at your toughest moments then what’s the point?

Best lyric: “Here’s a toast to my real friends / They don’t care about that he said, she said”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 43

152. False God (Lover, 2019)

Taylor tried to make this happen. I think the hazy production helps create a vibe, but it’s not one I want to feel every day. Is it about religion? Oral sex? What does it mean to be New York City? Am I not mature enough to appreciate the nuance? Idk but every time I hear this song I’m left a little bit more confused.

Best lyric: “I know heaven’s a thing / I go there when you touch me, honey / hell is when I fight with you”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 43

151. Safe and Sound (The Hunger Games, 2012)

Maybe the first real hint Taylor could pull off something like folklore, this soundtrack collaboration is a soft but affecting song that let Taylor play with subject and vocals in an era when she was playing with everything.

Best lyric: “Don’t you dare look out your window, darling everything’s on fire”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 43

150. Crazier (The Hannah Montana Movie, 2009)

This slow spinning love song stole the show in Hannah Montana’s movie and proved to be a nice entrant into Taylor’s collection of ballads. There are pieces in here she borrows in later songs (the color blue, seeing something no one else can), but perhaps that’s what makes it a bit forgettable now.

Best lyric: “I’ve never gone with the wind, just let it flow”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 43

149. Mary’s Song (Taylor Swift, 2006)

If Taylor Swift hadn’t become a global superstar, we probably would have found her writing fanfic just like this on Wattpad about all of her elderly neighbors.

Best lyric: “I dared you to kiss me, and ran when you tried”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 3 / Total: 43

148. Better Than Revenge (Speak Now, 2010)

She tried to clean this up with her rerecording- (which we don’t talk about), but the guilty pleasure of this song is how well Taylor wears spiteful. This has some of her sharpest, most brutal burns of all time and, while its all unearned by the subject of the song, sometimes it feels good to just revel in that quick wit I would hate to be on the wrong side of.

Best lyric: “She thinks I’m psycho cuz I like to rhyme her name with things”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 44

147. Dear Reader (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

The cleverness of calling her fans readers rather than listeners elevates this song straight away. I just wish it had followed through in a more satisfying way.

Best lyric: “You should find another guiding like / but I shine so bright”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 2 / Total: 44

146. End Game (reputation, 2017)

This feels more like a vehicle for Future to show off and Ed Sheeran to share his engagement while Taylor comes in and attempts another rap. She gives us a whole vibe in the chorus and some of her one liners are clever, but it’s another disparate track that struggles to find its focus.

Best lyric: “I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put them.”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 44

145. The Lucky One (Red, 2012)

Taylor is a master at telling tales and spinning stories, even about real people, but this weary track about the woes of fame doesn’t quite hit the mark so much as make a case for the listener to turn on Britney Spears’ “Lucky” instead.

Best lyric: “Chose the Rose Garden over Madison Square”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 45

144. cowboy like me (evermore, 2020)

Unpopular opinion but: literally wut?

Best lyric: “never wanted love / just a fancy car”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 1 / Total: 45

143. Tied Together with a Smile (Taylor Swift, 2006)

This song is always cited when people complain that Taylor oNlY wRiTeS aBoUT bReAkUpS and for good reason. This dedication to a friend with an eating disorder showed an emotional maturity on the debut album that she has carried with her throughout her career. You just have to listen.

Best lyric: “Seems the only one who doesn’t see your beauty/Is the face in the mirror looking back at you”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5/ Total: 45

142. London Boy (Lover, 2019)

It’s an over-the-top, name-droppy love song dedicated to her adopted hometown and she’s having fun with it and I say we should let her.

Best lyric: “They say home is where the heart is / But God, I love the English”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 46

141. The Moment I Knew (Red, 2012)

This is raw, ripped from the pages Taylor. Does that mean it’s fairly unpolished? Yes. The story is literal (that birthday song shout out), not quite lyrical. But it still gives us a whole epic moment, play-by-play, and it’s one I’m more than happy to sing along to in the shower on any given day.

Best lyric: “What do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn’t show?”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 46

140. Untouchable (Fearless, 2008)

Because this was a cover, I didn’t even give it a lyric score. They’re not Taylor’s lyrics! But it’s a beautiful cover and probably the most listenable that Taylor’s voice was at this stage in her career.

Best lyric: “Untouchable burning brighter than the sun / and when you’re close I feel like coming undone”

Lyrics: 0 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 48

139. Only the Young (Miss Americana, 2020)

Why is this so high when we basically watched her write it in three minutes and, really, it doesn’t make all that sense lyrically? I guess because I’m a sucker for a well-utilized children’s choir.

Best lyric: “They aren’t gonna help us / too busy helping themselves”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 48

138. That’s When (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

It’s not saying much of anything, but isn’t that just how a love song goes sometimes?

Best lyric: “I knew my words were hard to hear / And harder to ever take back”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 48

137. Bad Blood (1989, 2014)

Saved by great production, this song is definitely basic. Its lyrics are simplistic, its imagery over-the-top, and it’s really the only song in Taylor Swift’s discography that is improved through a remix (featuring Kendrick Lamar). But even for all its victim-ey lamentations, don’t pretend you’re not bopping to it every time it comes on at the local Target.

Best lyric: “You live like that, you live with ghosts”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 48

136. Message in a Bottle (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

A vault track from her days working with Max Martin and Shellback, it’s another earworm but easy to see why they went with their other hits on the original album

Best lyric: “Replaying your laughter / disaster”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

135. Ours (Speak Now, 2010)

This is a quiet love song that started to show some of that emotional maturity that haters argued she lacked. Plus, the music video is cute.

Best lyric: “Don’t you worry your pretty little mind / people throw rocks at things that shine”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

134. I Forgot That You Existed (Lover, 2019)

If “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” closed off reputation proving Taylor very much still cared, this opener to Lover showed just what sweet relief looks like when you actually let it all go.

Best lyric: “Lived in the shade you were throwin / til all of my sunshine was gone, gone, gone”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

133. Begin Again (Red, 2012)

I understand the appeal of this soft-spoken closing track, especially for an album as bombastic as Red. She captures the hope of a new romance after utter heartbreak, and she does it with sweet details and a clear storyboard.

Best lyric: “I’ve been spending the last eight months / thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

132. The Man (Lover, 2019)

A feminist anthem that ultimately feels a little too specific to Taylor’s very privileged, very unique life, it nonetheless scratched an itch for feminists everywhere.

Best lyric: “When everyone believes you, what’s that like?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

131. it’s time to go (evermore, 2020)

Shout out to boundaries! This ode to letting go of the people that no longer serve you is exactly the energy we needed going into 2021.

Best lyric: “He’s got my past frozen behind glass / but I’ve got me”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 50

130. I’d Lie (Unreleased, 2006)

Why is this in here? Because, frankly, I just discovered it and have since then decided it is a BOP. This is one of those surprises I hope Taylor works into her re-recordings because the people deserve to hear it. Are the lyrics her sharpest? No. But it’s still catchy as hell thanks to some brilliant production.

Best lyric: “If you ask me if I love him / I’d lie”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 50

129. White Horse (Fearless, 2008)

This song seems like it would come at the hands of a more mature lyricist than some Nashville teen only on her sophomore album. It’s a deconstruction of romantic tropes with a mature self-awareness that proved Taylor Swift was always destined for greatness.

Best lyric: “My mistake I didn’t know to be in love / you had to fight to have the upper hand”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 50

128. mad woman (folklore, 2020)

This is like the older sister of “The Man,” and probably the rage she was aiming for in reputation. It’s like our baby graduated to Feminism 301 and celebrated with this goth track of sharp lyrics (including the long-awaited F* bomb!) and a haunting harmony.

Best lyric: “Does she smile? / Or does she mouth, “Fuck you forever”?”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

127. Come Back…Be Here (Red, 2012)

I always forget this song exists, but I’m always happy when it comes on shuffle. This bonus track is all about long-distance love and (like most bonus tracks) the lyrics aren’t anything special…but the production here is everything.

Best lyric: “This is falling for you and you are worlds away”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 50

126. Welcome to New York (1989, 2014)

Another tour guide the cynics can rip apart, but speaking as someone who also moved to New York and felt her whole life change just because of pretty buildings and crowded streets: I am here for this.

Best lyric: “Walking through a crowd the village is aglow / kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 51

125. Daylight (Lover, 2019)

The solo-written closer on Lover, this song has her literalizing her growth over the last few years by stealing lyrics from “Red” and reimagining them with her new, true love in mind.

Best lyric: “I once believed love would be burning red / but it’s golden”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 51

124. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince (Lover, 2019)

I’m glad she found her political voice. And I love a good use of high school imagery. But this doesn’t work as seamlessly as I think she thought it would.

Best lyric: “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 3 / Total: 51

123. I Almost Do (Red, 2012)

An interesting conceit but a forgettable moment in such an expansive docket of songs about exactly this.

Best lyric: “It never occurred to you / that I can’t say hello to you and risk another goodbye”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 51

122. Snow on the Beach (Midnights, 2022)

Even with the more Lana del Ray version she was pressured to release, this song is just weird enough to slink past more memorable moments in her discography.

Best lyric: “I’ve never seen someone lit from within”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10/ Total: 52

121. When Emma Falls in Love (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)

Baby’s first girl crush :) :) :)

Best lyric: “And all the bad boys would be good boys / If they only had a chance to love her.”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 52

120. right where you left me (evermore, 2020)

I know this is a fan favorite, but nothing about this bonus track is working for me.

Best lyric: “They expected me to find somewhere / some perspective, but I sat and stared”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 2 / Total: 52

119. willow (evermore, 2020)

Like her music video, the story doesn’t make total sense. But it’s kinda groovy, kinda sexy, kinda mysterious, kinda…just okay.

Best lyric: “I come back stronger than a ’90s trend”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 53

118. All You Had to Do Was Stay (1989, 2014)

She claims to have dreamed up one of the most memorable musical moments on 1989, much like the ra-da-da-da on reputation. Here it’s that high-pitched “STAY!” that takes this song from mundane to memorable.

Best lyric: “I’ve been picking up the pieces of the mess you made”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 53

117. I Know Places (1989, 2014)

Now this is a concept that Taylor takes to its extremes with great success. Hunters, foxes; celebrity, popularity. It is a brilliant story matched by brilliant production, but it is after all…a pretty unrelatable song.

Best lyric: “Love’s a fragile little flame, it could burn out”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 53

116. Speak Now (Speak Now, 2010)

Only Taylor would have a whole fantasy of stopping a wedding to tell a guy “you belong with me.” But she pulls it off with just enough snark about the bride and just enough heart about the boy definitely marrying the wrong girl.

Best lyric: “I am not the kind of girl / Who should be rudely bargin’ in on a white veil occasion”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 54

115. Gorgeous (reputation, 2017)

Like “Delicate” or “Out of the Woods” before it, this song is about so much more than the words on the page. No, these lyrics do not cut glass, but through some brilliant musicality featuring a triangle *ding* she does manage to capture that feeling of newfound obsession perfectly.

Best lyric: “You should take it as a compliment / that I’m talking to everyone here but you”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 54

114. Jump Then Fall (Fearless, 2008)

I love a cheesy pop moment, and Taylor goes all in on this love song, trusty banjo still in hand.

Best lyric: “We’re on the phone and without a warning / I realize your laugh is the best sound I have ever heard”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 54

113. Forever Winter (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

With how deeply intimate and tragic this subject matter is, it’s no shock she left it off her most anticipated album at the time.

Best lyric: “Too young to know it gets better”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 54

112. Lavender Haze (Midnights, 2022)

I love the refrain, I love the sheer vibes churning through this track, but stand it under scrutiny against a catalogue like Taylor’s and it’s bound to take some hits.

Best lyric: “The only kind of girl they see / is a one night or a wife”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 55

111. Cold As You (Taylor Swift, 2006)

Who hurt her? This brutal breakup track is another surprise on the teenager’s debut where she showed up ready to play. And she hasn’t stopped since.

Best lyric: “And you come away with a great little story / of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 0 / Total: 55

110. Sad Beautiful Tragic (Red, 2012)

Taylor is a great lyricist and that’s proven in almost every line here, but unfortunately it’s absolutely squandered over a painfully slow melody that gives far less than it takes.

Best lyric: “You’ve got your demons, and, darling, they all look like me.”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 55

109. Babe (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

Her pop-adjacent production is even better than Sugarland’s original country version.

Best lyric: “What a waste / taking down the pictures and the plans we made”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 56

108. Breathe (Fearless, 2008)

A very pretty duet that makes a strong argument for why Taylor should sing with women more often.

Best lyric: “People are people and sometimes we change our minds”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 56

107. Afterglow (Lover, 2019)

This song is a whole vibe and she sounds great here singing about a fight she started and one she hopes she can end with a little, uh, tender loving care.

Best lyric: “I lived like an island, punished you with silence”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 56

106. Dancing With Our Hands Tied (reputation, 2017)

If I read this song, I love this song. But there’s something about its production that fails to stick the landing.

Best lyric: “I’d kiss you as the lights went out / swaying as the room burned down”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 6 / Total: 56

105. Karma (Midnights, 2022)

What can I say? Me and Karma vibe like that.

Best lyric: “Karma’s a relaxing thought / aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 57

104. I Wish You Would (1989, 2014)

An absolute classic from her Jack Antonoff songbook, this sad song keeps its upbeat façade so you can dance along to every thing this boy didn’t think to do.

Best lyric: “We’re a crooked love / in a straight line down”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 58

103. tolerate it (evermore, 2020)

Another Track Five, and some call it her most brutal. But, musically, this song about a neglected partner in a marriage that changed halfway through doesn’t measure up to some of her more memorable deep cuts.

Best lyric: “Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life”

Lyrics: 38 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 0 / Total: 58

102. Today Was a Fairytale (Valentine’s Day, 2010)

This is a sweet song best described as peppy. And its 4-minute runtime is better than the entire movie it was written for.

Best lyric: “Can you feel this magic in the air? / It must have been the way you kissed me”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 59

101. I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker, 2017)

This was a sexy turn for the usually demur star (though its telling it didn’t end up in any of the hotter scenes of the R-rated film). The battle between her and Zayn definitely ends in Taylor’s favor with how she carries her voice over the falsettos in the chorus and even gives us a quintessential growl in that bridge.

Best lyric: “I’ve been looking sad in all the nicest places”

Lyrics: 10 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 60

100. …ready for it? (reputation, 2017)

This is all over the place sonically, with almost two different songs happening between the verses (dubstep strikes again), the choruses (what an island breeze though), and even the bridge (what game exactly?). Still, she has fun with her quasi-rap all about her and her lover’s reputations.

Best lyric: “And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 60

99. Don’t You (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

I’m a sucker for Jack Antonoff’s production here, but it’s also sweet to hear old school Taylor thoughts played out with a more breathless sort of hope.

Best lyric: “Don’t you say you’ve missed me if you don’t want me again”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 60

98. Teardrops on My Guitar (Taylor Swift, 2006)

A quintessential Taylor track that Taylor herself would eventually manage to outdo.

Best lyric: “He’s the only one who’s got enough of me to break my heart”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 60

97. Back to December (Speak Now, 2010)

Taylor Swift takes blame for a breakup? BIG NEWS. HUGE. But this affecting track works in a lot of way because Taylor packs on the details — from missed birthdays to neglected phone calls — to prove she won’t shy away from admitting she’s the bad guy sometimes.

Best lyric: “You gave me roses, and I left them there to die”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 0 / Total: 60

96. seven (folklore, 2020)

This folksy, dreamy ode to childhood has some of the prettiest music on her latest album, and her voice matches it perfectly.

Best lyric: “And just like a folk song / our love will be passed on”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 60

95. The Very First Night (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

I’m a you/her rhyme truther. I’m sorry. It’s a delightful song made more delightful by the queer readings.

Best lyric: “We broke the status quo, then we broke each other’s hearts”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 61

94. Long Live (Speak Now, 2010)

This is over the top in the best way, and there’s a reason fans keep coming back to it: cuz it’s ours. And in the years Taylor has had since penning this track, it feels more true than ever. So why not turn the volume up and pump your fist a bit and pretend you’re back in the arena screaming along with Taylor for its entire five minutes and fifteen seconds?

Best lyric: “A band of thieves / In ripped up jeans got to rule the world”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 61

93. no body, no crime (evermore, 2020)

Haim is undoubtedly wasted here, but Country Taylor is back for a walk down true crime lane — and she’s having a blast eating up every syllable on this conspiratorial track.

Best lyric: “She says, ‘That ain’t my merlot on his mouth’”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 62

92. Castles Crumbling (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)

An early draft of dozens of songs to come. Monsters. Castles. Self-loathing. Self-doubt. Speak Now Taylor was going through it.

Best lyric: “And you don’t want to know me, I will just let you down”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 61

91. this is me trying (folklore, 2020)

A brilliantly penned confessional hyped by a saxophone of all things and featuring one of the most powerful bridges on folklore.

Best lyric: “They told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted like all my potential”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 7 / Total: 62

90. Anti-Hero (Midnights, 2022)

Everybody is a sexy baby. The girls that get it, get it.

Best lyric: “It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 8 / Total: 63

89. All of the Girls You Loved Before (Lover Bonus Track, 2023)

I’m dying to know why she decided to formally welcome this bastard child (albeit a lovely one) into her catalogue three years after the original album’s release…and about two days before her breakup was announced.

Best lyric: “I wanna teach you how forever feels”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 63

88. Sparks Fly (Speak Now, 2010)

It took a long time for this song to find its way onto an album, which just proves sometimes Taylor is wrong and the fans are right. She might write about rain a lot, but this is the one we remember. Full of one liners no teenager has the right to pen but no one else could pull off, this is a sumptuous ode best heard live.

Best lyric: “Gimme something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 63

87. Bejeweled (Midnights, 2022)

The Potential Breakup Song of our tiktok era. We love a smart bop and she is exacting in her imagery and bright eyed threats here. It’s a knife to the throat of her maybe-partner, but it’s a sparkly one. Nice!

Best lyric: “I made you my world, have you heard? I can reclaim the land”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 63

86. Dress (reputation, 2017)

She’s written about dresses before, but this song felt almost explicit in the way she sings her way through this slinky anthem about taking it all off.

Best lyric: “I don’t want you like a best friend”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 3 / Total: 63

85. Better Man (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

We’ve heard this before, so it’s nice to finally hear it from her mouth.

Best lyric: “”I waited on every careless word / Hopin’ they might turn sweet again, like it was in the beginning”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 2 / Total: 63

84. You’re On Your Own, Kid (Midnights, 2022)

This autobiographical track pulls back the curtain on what Taylor was thinking before her career took off.

Best lyric: “Something different bloomed / writing in my room”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 5 / Total: 64

83. gold rush (evermore, 2020)

Taylor being the insecure one in a relationship? Sounds fake but okay. This song is fun and sweet (and definitely about being ~friends~ with one very tall blonde you can’t change my mind).

Best lyric: “I don’t like that falling feels like flying ’til the bone crush”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 7 / Total: 64

82. Shake It Off (1989, 2014)

Yes, I did dance to this in Taylor Swift’s kitchen. Yes, that does probably make me biased. But yes, this is a bop and a half. #hatersgonnahate

Best lyric: “Just think while you’ve been getting down and out about the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world / you could have been getting down to this sick beat”

Lyrics: 5 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 65

81. Tell Me Why (Fearless, 2008)

A great melody that hinted at the pop Taylor to come, this is a familiar subject matter but its nonetheless fun to listen to even now.

Best lyric: “I told you I’m not bulletproof / now you know”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 65

80. Red (Red, 2012)

If Red is the album of her career, “Red” is its thesis statement explaining exactly what you were going to get: which is a little bit of everything.

Best lyric: “Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you’ve never met”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 65

79. Foolish One (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

The queen of unrequited love starts to listen to that little voice.

Best lyric: “You know how to keep me waiting / I know how to act like I’m fine”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 65

78. King of My Heart (reputation, 2017)

I don’t know why a song with so many moving parts works for me but it does. And it all comes to a head with a bridge that proves Taylor is always all in the details.

Best lyric: “You try on callin’ me, baby, like tryin’ on clothes”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 65

77. I Think He Knows (Lover, 2019)

This well-produced track is irresistible thanks to the snaps, some clever talky verses, and a high-pitched chorus that makes you want to skip down 16th Avenue, too.

Best lyric: “He got that boyish look that I like in a man”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 66

76. evermore (evermore, 2020)

Listening to her sing this acoustic on tour just proves this would have been better without the feature. It’s a distinct musical moment of anxiety and the sudden release as she finds her happy ending. It is a time she’s already explored a lot, but it feels like a new perspective here.

Best lyric: “In the cracks of light / I dreamed of you”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 10 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 66

75. The Other Side of the the Door (Fearless, 2008)

Even if the subject is one we’ll hear a hundred times more, this song packs a punch in its stunning outro to save it from mediocrity.

Best lyric: “If you know everything, tell me why you couldn’t see / When I left I wanted you to chase after me”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 67

74. Call it What You Want (reputation, 2017)

I’ll be the first to admit these lyrics aren’t her greatest (jokers, jet streams, TRUSTING HIM LIKE A BROTHER), but there is something so calm and collected about this song that makes it irresistible.

Best lyric: “You don’t need to save me / but would you run away with me?”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 68

73. Midnight Rain (Midnights, 2022)

There’s something so satisfying about Taylor admit she’s okay with sometimes being a little cutthroat.

Best lyric: “I broke his heart cuz he was nice”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 69

72. ivy (evermore, 2020)

One day we’re going to take the time to unpack just why Taylor has become so obsessed with songs about infidelity. But that is not this day.

Best lyric: “I can’t / stop you putting roots in my dreamland”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 69

71. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Red, 2012)

This was Miss Taylor’s first number one hit and it’s easy to see why. The hyper, almost-joyful breakup track sees Taylor at her snarkiest as she turns her voice into the beat, thanks to her work with Max Martin and Shellback. It was a match made in earworm-heaven then, and it’s still a bop today.

Best lyric: “I used to think that we were forever ever / and I used to say “never say never””

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 70

70. I Can See You (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)

You just know mama swift thought this was too M for Mature to be on Taylor’s 2010 album.

Best lyric: “Hide away and I will start behaving myself”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 70

69. Look What You Made Me Do (reputation, 2017)

This song was a cultural reset. Not only is it one of her most known and most hated songs of all time, it’s also one you can’t get out of your head even two album cycles later. And that’s the point. There are one liners in here that will pepper IG captions and parodies to come. I’m sorry she can’t come to the phone right now? Yeah, because this song made everyone look like boo boo the fool as they hated it to the top of the charts. I could write a treatise on why this song is actually brilliant — and, in fact, I did. So go educate yourselves and then try to tell me you don’t get chills breaking down the masterful pettiness of every reference Taylor manages to squeeze into this hyperbolic bastion of a banger.

Best lyric: “The world moves on another day another drama, drama / but not for me all I think about is karma”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 5 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 70

68. The Archer (Lover, 2019)

A slow burn that took everyone by surprise, this self-reflective track showed Taylor at her rawest and most self-aware over a quiet track that builds into an emotional crescendo.

Best lyric: “I never grew up, it’s getting so old”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 7 / Total: 70

67. Timeless (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)

The way she sings “1958” scratches my brain. It’s Mine and Mary’s Song and Starlight all rolled into a much more effective package.

Best lyric: “Time breaks down your mind and body / Don’t you let it touch your soul”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 70

66. Fifteen (Fearless, 2008)

She gives us a journey through high school with her best friend, Abigail. Sometimes nitpicked over the whole ~gave everything she had~ lyric, this is still an affecting ballad about crushes and hopes and dreams and wondering how life will all play out looking at it from when you’re fifteen.

Best lyric: “Back then I swore I was going to marry him someday / but I realized some bigger dreams of mine”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 15 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 70

65. I Bet You Think About Me (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

Snarky Taylor is one of my favorite Taylor’s. It’s salty and flippant and reminiscent of every post-breakup debrief when the girl can finally just say “What a dick.” Bonus points for adding a full twang just to piss the pretentious douche off.

Best lyric: “oh my god. She’s insane. She wrote a song about me.”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 70

64. Tim McGraw (Taylor Swift, 2006)

Who had the foresight to name her first single after a country star way bigger than her? The girl who would go on to become a bigger star than he could ever hope to be, of course. And she did it with a song that still stands out today.

Best lyric: “He said the way my blue eyes shined/Put those Georgia stars to shame that night/I said, ‘That’s a lie.”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 70

63. The Way I Loved You (Fearless, 2008)

This is an epic narrative that finds Taylor in a healthy relationship pining for the unhealthy one she ended months ago — a similar theme covered in Miley Cyrus’s “7 Things” from the same year, or 10 Things I Hate About You if we want to go even further back — and I’m absolutely obsessed with every made-up detail she squeezes in. Teenage Taylor imagining a boy talking business with her father? Not real. But missing screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain at 2am? That’s real Taylor.

Best lyric: “He’s charming and endearing, and I’m comfortable / but I miss screamin’ and fightin’”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 71

62. Cornelia Street (Lover, 2019)

Another solo-written track from the Queen of being In Her Feels, this song finds her worrying this love story will end like all the rest: her alone with a slew of sad memories to sing about. This sort of future nostalgia isn’t her strongest writing, but its nonetheless a compelling would-be heartbreaker filled with details none more important than the street where she fell in love.

Best lyric: “Baby I get mystified by how this city screams your name”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 5 / Total: 71

61. Last Kiss (Speak Now, 2010)

This six-minute song is a punishingly beautiful track that makes sure to put all its focus on the lyrics.

Best lyric: “All that I know is I don’t know how to be something you miss”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 71

60. Paper Rings (Lover, 2019)

This is an absolute banger serving me serious punk rock girl band vibes. Her deceptively straightforward lyrics carry an emotional punch with every mention of the simple things (hanging with friends, painting bedrooms, reading favorite books) while she layers on the similes and gives us a chorus that seriously makes me miss what could have been with the Lover tour.

Best lyric: “I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 72

59. peace (folklore, 2020)

She said folklore was mostly fiction, but this song is clearly all about her and her anxieties about being Too Much™ for her love. It’s full of beautiful one-liners elevated by her own way of singing them all a little bit differently throughout the song.

Best lyric: “Our coming of age has come and gone”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 8 / Total: 72

58. Don’t Blame Me (reputation, 2017)

This sexy Hozier-inspired anthem is Taylor’s first foray into religious imagery. It was a standout at first, but it’s hard to stay at the top when Taylor just keeps outdoing herself.

Best lyric: “I once was poison ivy but now I’m your daisy”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 73

57. long story short (evermore, 2020)

This is basically a TL;DR on the entire reputation album.

Best lyric: “I always felt I must look better in the rear view”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 74

56. Mean (Speak Now, 2010)

On one hand, the lyrics aren’t great. But this song is popular for a reason: it is catchy as hell. I mean, heck.

Best lyric: “Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing / all you are is mean”

Lyrics: 15 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 75

55. Delicate (reputation, 2017)

This is all about production, and on an album that featured more parody than honesty, this was a welcome exploration of vulnerability. So as the kids say, 1,2,3, let’s go bitch.

Best lyric: “I pretend you’re mine all the damn time / cuz I like you”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 75

54. I Knew You Were Trouble (Red, 2012)

Featuring baby’s first dubstep, this was a big pop moment for Taylor and it worked in a surprising way. People were into this song exactly because Taylor managed to fit a story into something that could just as easily fit a screaming goat meme-ification. That’s range.

Best lyric: “He was long gone when he met me/and I realize the joke is on me”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 75

53. Wildest Dreams (1989, 2014)

I’m fine with this obvious Lana Del Rey copycat track because Taylor’s voice is everything here. It’s one of those 1989 tracks people looked over on first listen — I think because there was so much happening on her pop debut, but it’s absolutely enchanting now.

Best lyric: “Someday, when you leave me / I bet these memories / Follow you around”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 75

52. Picture To Burn (Taylor Swift, 2006)

I always forget this was on debut. It feels like quintessential Taylor: petty, brokenhearted, but all the stronger for it.

Best lyric: “Watch me strike a match on all my wasted time”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 75

51. Style (1989, 2014)

Unapologetically unsubtle, this song about someone with a James Dean look mostly works thanks to the mature perspective it gives to a relationship that keeps getting messier even as they both can’t keep away.

Best lyric: “So it goes, he can’t keep his wild eyes on the road”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 75

50. You’re Losing Me (Midnights Late Night Edition, 2023)

RIP Toe.

Best lyric: “How long could we be a sad song?”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 5 / Total: 75

49. Treacherous (Red, 2012)

This underrated track is one of Taylor’s sexiest, finding Taylor sighing all the way down about the power of touch.

Best lyric: “I can’t decide if it’s a choice: getting swept away”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 75

48. New Years Day (reputation, 2017)

If lines could kill, this song has more than a couple contenders. A love song still shadowed by a bit of insecurity, this simple piano moment was a welcome respite on the bombastic reputation and proof that the ballad-loving, romance-believing Taylor was still there, just getting better all along.

Best lyric: “Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 76

47. You’re Not Sorry (Fearless, 2008)

Another dramatic kiss-off to a boy who did her wrong, but this one makes sure you know he deserves every word.

Best lyric: “And now you’re asking me to listen / cuz it’s worked each time before”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 77

46. illicit affairs (folklore, 2020)

folklore is fun because of all the things she tries with her voice, most notably the lilt she adds here as she whisper-sings about a torrid affair that was always going to mean more to her than it does to the unnamed figure in the song. The fact that Taylor went from singing something like “Better than Revenge” to such a sympathetic look at the “other woman” — that’s called growth.

Best lyric: “Don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby / Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 20 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 77

45. I Did Something Bad (reputation, 2017)

This snarky, tongue-in-cheek track is irresistible thanks to its attention to detail, a meticulous beat, and an obvious nod to her “Blank Space” persona.

Best lyric: “I fly ’em all around the world and I let them think they saved me”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 78

44. Mastermind (Midnights, 2022)

You know what’s Machiavellian? The way she continues to build these little plot twists in her final verse and it still feels like the first time.

Best lyric: “”I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since / to make them love me and make it seem effortless”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 78

43. betty (folklore, 2020)

We love a high school romance and this return to country features Taylor giving us something that, on the surface, feels like a John Hughes movie meets the key change from “Love Story.” But read between the lines, or layer it with its love-triangle counterparts, and you realize this is a clever takedown of the “boys will be boys” mentality that allows teenagers like James to think showing up at a doorstep is enough to excuse bad behavior.

I stand by this no matter what Taylor says.

Best lyric: “I don’t know anything but I know I miss you”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 78

42. ’tis the damn season (evermore, 2020)

This story of a holiday rebound needs a Netflix treatment stat.

Best lyric: “Time flies / messy as the mud on your truck tires”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 78

41. Clean (1989, 2014)

This song led to tears on the 1989 tour and a whole slew of tumblr posts dedicated to her “Clean Speech.” It is a brilliantly executed metaphor not just of love being a drug, but of the emotional detox needed after a bad breakup. Imogen Heap adds a lot to the production, but it’s the co-written lyrics that pack a punch.

Best lyric: “You’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 5 / Total: 78

40. the 1 (folklore, 2020)

A great album opener that fits almost any mood thanks to the breezy-like quality of its production.

Best lyric: “We never painted by the numbers baby / but we were making it count”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 79

39. exile (folklore, 2020)

Lauded as her best feature of all time, it’s hard to disagree. Justin Vernon from Bon Iver matches Taylor’s plaintive reflection as they argue one over the other about who’s to blame for their breakup. It’s tragic and messy, but if such a story inspired this song then this is a fight I’m happy to witness.

Best lyric: “I’m not your problem anymore / so who am I offending now?”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 5 / Total: 79

38. 22 (Red, 2012)

Taylor Swift proved she can own an entire year, thanks to this iconic track full of relatable one liners to spruce up your IG game. And if you didn’t feel everything about this song then, I’m sorry, you just haven’t been 22 yet.

Best lyric: “Everything will be alright, if we just keep dancing”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 80

37. Love Story (Fearless, 2008)

This should be higher for icon status alone. The production of this track is EVERYTHING. The fact that she wrote this in five minutes is UNBELIEVABLE. But it just speaks to how strong her catalogue is now that one of her most important tracks still couldn’t break the top 20. The lyrics are simplistic, the story cheesy, but man does she know how to produce a bridge with a key change to another world where Shakespeare’s tragedies get happy endings just because a teenage girl wanted to stick it to her parents. Nothing but respect for MY Romeo and Juliet.

Best lyric: “This love is difficult, but it’s real”

Lyrics: 20 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 80

36. Mr. Perfectly Fine (Fearless (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

THE KEY CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best lyric: “I’ve been pickin’ up my heart, he’s been pickin’ up her”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 80

35. Out of the Woods (1989, 2014)

This song proves how crucial a partner production can be in telling a story. This song is all about the anxiety of feeling insecure in a relationship, and while the repetitive lyrics add to that, it’s the way this song builds to a maddening crescendo that really carries it over into “god-tier” territory.

Best lyric: “The rest of the world was black and white / but we were in screaming color”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 80

34. Mine (Speak Now, 2010)

In any other artist’s hand such a wordy song could risk being a mouthful. But Taylor makes it feel natural to pack so much into a daydream about a whole life playing out after just meeting a guy. She has always been a romantic and this song is her at her most sincere.

Best lyric: “I was a flight risk with a fear of falling”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 80

33. invisible string (folklore, 2020)

The production of this song deserves all the props. It’s plucky, sincere, romantic, and, like so many songs on folklore, a crucial supporting actor in the broader story she’s trying to tell. Here she reflects on the subtle twists of fate that brought her and her love together — and her own growth over time that finds her sending ex’s baby presents. It’s a tender and ultimately mature look at just what power time can yield.

Best lyric: “Time, mystical time / cutting me open then healing me fine”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 8 / Total: 80

32. august (folklore, 2020)

This was her folk album’s pop moment and it paid off in a brutal bridge and a sad reminder that love isn’t always sweet.

Best lyric: “So much for summer love, and saying “Us” / ’cause you weren’t mine to lose”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 81

31. Fearless (Fearless, 2008)

It’s hard to believe this is just her sophomore album. And we’ve gotta give respect to her title track, which features multiple tropes that would become Taylor Swift staples — from rain to distracted drives and pretty dresses, first kisses. It’s a beautiful ode that builds to a soft crescendo all about the magic of young love.

Best lyric: “It’s the first kiss, it’s flawless, really something, it’s fearless.”

Lyrics: 25 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 8 / Total: 82

30. Hits Different (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

Why Taylor insists on hiding her best tracks on bonus albums is one of life’s great mysteries. This bridge goes hard. Like a Taylor on mojitos goes hard.

Best lyric: “You were the one that I loved / don’t need another metaphor, it’s simple enough”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 82

29. Forever and Always (Fearless, 2008)

This was a late addition to an already packed album. But can you imagine Fearless without this banger of a breakup track? She again mixes the literal (Tuesdays and missed phone calls) with the metaphorical (rain? in the bedroom?) and a healthy dose of righteous indignation until you’re screaming along, too. Because, after all, he did say forever and always.

Best lyric: “Was I out of line? / Did I say something way too honest?”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 83

28. The Story of Us (Speak Now, 2010)

This deserves all the points, just for the way she eviscerates her ex with a flippant “next chapter.”

Best lyric: “But you held your pride like you should have held me”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 3 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 83

27. Holy Ground (Red, 2012)

This is one of my favorite songs, and if I’d had my way it would have been top three for sure. But y’all have no taste, so allow me to explain: Taylor is a master of making sad songs seem peppy. And this reflection of a relationship that left her reeling in a town that once belonged to her and him is aching with a need to move on and find something new to dance to. But spoiler alert: she doesn’t want to dance if she’s not dancing with him. And what’s more sad than that?

Best lyric: “Back when you fit my poems like a perfect rhyme”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 0 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 83

26. Our Song (Taylor Swift, 2006)

This is Taylor at her twangiest, country-est, and probably corniest, but damn if it doesn’t work. It’s bonkers a girl her age was able to write a hook this good (and I can’t wait to hear her sing it again).

Best lyric: “Our song is the slamming screen door / sneakin’ out late tappin’ on your window”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 85

25. cardigan (folklore, 2020)

I can fully acknowledge the songwriting prowess on display with this song. But there was something about it that never quite caught on for me. Maybe the music, maybe the somber lilt to her voice, or maybe the fact that I wasn’t sure exactly how the cardigan simile was meant to be read. Still, this bridge carries the song far — and her play on narrative perspective with the love triangle is absolutely one of the best parts of folklore.

Best lyric: “I knew you tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 85

24. The Great War (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

She buried her best tracks on the 3am version, especially the ones with the superior Aaron Dessner whose production perfectly matches the sweeping imagery at play in this more vulnerable sequel to Afterglow. Even if — spoiler alert — turns out they did not survive.

Best lyric: “We’re burned for better”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 8 / Total: 85

23. Nothing New (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

The fact that at 22 she penned this track and now, 10 or so years later, we’ve watched it play out exactly as she predicted? Chills. Phoebe Bridgers is put to excellent work here and it is a perfect track. Personal to taylor yet somehow vulnerable enough to feel relatable to us plebs.

Best lyric: “But I wonder if they’ll miss me once they drive me out”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 87

22. Bigger Than The Whole Sky (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

She penned a beautiful tale of grief and loss, pregnancy or otherwise, personal or not, and it will forever be one of her most heartbreaking tracks.

Best lyric: “It’s not meant to be / So I’ll say words I don’t believe”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 5 / Total: 87

21. mirrorball (folklore, 2020)

I had a friend tell me this is Taylor at her most vulnerable and it’s easy to see why. So much of her early career was projecting strength, indifference, indignation. There was a familiarity in her snark and sarcasm and quick wit protecting her. But here she sheds it all to say that maybe she needs us to like her after all. This almost-whispered song is a beautiful reminder to us and to herself that it’s okay to admit you care a little bit more than she may have first let on.

Best lyric: “I’m still a believer but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural / all I do is try, try, try”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 2 / Personal: 10 / Total: 87

20. my tears ricochet (folklore, 2020)

A breakup anthem not for a boy but for the record label that broke her heart. It’s not surprising then that this fantasy of an “embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral” carries an emotional punch you can hear in every melancholic cry Taylor’s serving us on vocals.

Best lyric: “But what a ghostly scene / you wear the same jewels / that I gave you / as you bury me”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 88

19. Cruel Summer (Lover, 2019)

Taylor packs some of her best writing onto the front end of her 7th album, and she goes absolutely wild with this complicated love song that finds her not pining for but obsessing over a secret romance even as she realizes she can’t stay quiet much longer. Then you have her roaring the great twist of the tale: “he looks up grinning like the devil” — because of course he knew; she’s never been good at keeping secrets.

Best lyric: “I love you / ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 7 / Total: 88

18. Enchanted (Speak Now, 2010)

What other song so brilliantly captures the inexplicable way a crush can burrow into your mind until you too are whispering “please don’t be in love with someone else” over and again? But perhaps the best part of this song was that Taylor got over this crush so quickly she didn’t even respond when the subject finally reached out. #relatable

Best lyric: “My thoughts will echo your name, until I see you again”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 88

17. Maroon (Midnights, 2022)

Is it a “legacy to leave” or a “legacy, to leave?” We may never know but I’ll never stop vibing to this.

Best lyric: “I wake with your memory over me / that’s a real fucking legacy”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 4 / Personal: 10 / Total: 89

16. You Belong With Me (Fearless, 2006)

Talented. Brilliant. Incredible. Amazing. Showstopping. Spectacular. This is the song that launched Taylor Swift into certain crossover stardom. And it remains one of the most iconic, unskippable songs in her repertoire exactly because it’s a simple story, but it proves what Taylor does best: a story.

Best lyric: “She wears high heels, I wear sneakers / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers”

Lyrics: 30 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 90

15. Blank Space (1989, 2014)

Tbh I sometimes forget about this song — it’s a me problem, I know. But when you sit down and really listen to this, you can see her stretch that snarky muscle of old-Taylor diss tracks and scratch that embittered itch more fully realized in reputation. But here she puts some of her best lyrics to date on display as she gives the people what they wanted: a song that paints her as the villain, not the victim.

Best lyric: “Darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 90

14. Dear John (Speak Now, 2006)

People think this was unfair to John Mayer. And to that I say…did you listen to the song? Cuz it sounds like he deserved it. So go off, Taylor.

Best lyric: “I took your matches before fire could catch me / so don’t look now”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 5 / Total: 90

13. Getaway Car (reputation, 2017)

Knowing the story behind this song is half the fun, sure, but the way she pens this retelling of Bonnie and Clyde is a masterclass in melodrama that never feels close to cliché. Instead, what you get is an epic narrative of a messy rebound that was never going to work and a bridge so confident you walk away actually believing that motels have bars, too.

Best lyric: “I knew it from the first Old Fashioned we were cursed / we never had a shotgun shot in the dark”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim:10 / Popularity: 0 / Personal: 10 / Total: 90

12. happiness (evermore, 2020)

This is a bittersweet song that allows Taylor to once again dunk on anyone who says she only ever plays the victim. Rich with visual and sonic cues that let us know how much she’s grown, this sad song about the vulnerability that comes with losing the person that mattered most to you should have been a Track Five. And that’s a hill I’ll happily die on.

Best lyric: “When did all our lessons start to look like weapons?”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 91

11. Should’ve Said No (Taylor Swift, 2006)

We love a pissed off Taylor. And this song is absolutely brutal in its takedown of a bad boyfriend, proof not only of what was to come but also just exactly what kind of word play Taylor was capable of even in her early days.

Best lyric: “It was a moment of weakness and you said yes”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 25 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 7 / Total: 91

10. Would’ve Could’ve, Should’ve (Midnights 3am Edition, 2022)

She reframes the entirety of her Dear John experience, singing from the perspective of a woman realizing there’s a lot more he should’ve done differently. Dear John is child’s play compared to this evisceration.

Best lyric: “Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts / give me back my girlhood it was mine first”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 1 / Personal: 10 / Total: 91

9. the last great american dynasty (folklore, 2020)

Taylor Swift is not only a great songwriter, she’s a great storyteller. She can make four minutes feel like a full movie with characters, arcs, rising and falling action and, of course, a great final twist. This song is presented as a straightforward biography of the kind of misunderstood woman Taylor would root for but it reaches dizzying heights of poetic justice when you get to the final verse and realize: of course this was who owned Taylor’s house before her. It’s a delicious turn in a delightful song and it proves yet again how Taylor is always in the details.

Best lyric: “And then it was bought by me”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 93

8. marjorie (evermore, 2020)

There will always be a part of Taylor that is unrelatable, but this song about her late grandmother, wondering what pieces of her she still carries is a beautifully human reflection on life and loss. It is a brilliant track that captures all of Taylor’s talents perfectly: her vulnerability, that penchant for tangible details, and those stunningly simplistic one-liners that make you wonder why anyone keeps trying to top her. It is a flawless song and one that will be hard to push out of her top ten, no matter what is to come.

Best lyric: “All your closets of backlogged dreams / and how you left them all to me”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 93

7. champagne problems (evermore, 2020)

The storytelling here is on another level. The details, the characters, the bridge. Like, yes, ma’am, you really are f*cked in the head to be able to pull off a story like this based on: who knows what? It has nothing to do with Taylor Swift, and yet I can’t imagine another singer pulling this off.

Best lyric: “November flush and your flannel cure”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 93

6. Death By a Thousand Cuts (Lover, 2019)

BRIDGE CITY HAS A NEW MAYOR. This song is packed to the brim with sharp writing, gorgeous images, and heartbreak too pretty to be mad about. And the fact that Taylor decided to write this full-fledged breakup track while in the longest and best relationship of her life? That’s a power move.

Best lyric: “My heart, my hips, my body, my love / trying to find a part of me that you didn’t touch”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 3 / Personal: 10 / Total: 93

5. Lover (Lover, 2019)

This gorgeous single took everyone’s breath away — and for good reason. The instrumentation, the play on wedding vows, the way she makes you more than happy to say lover unironically. It’s an old-school Taylor ballad with new-Taylor maturity. And she wrote it all by herself. This is a victory and a reassurance that, even with her pop persona in full force, Taylor can still write a damn good song.

Best lyric: “With every guitar string scar on my hand”

Lyrics: 35 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 95

4. State of Grace (Red, 2012)

One of the best album openers in her career, this beltable arena rock anthem feels like the sort of song you pull off sixty years into your career, not six. But Taylor’s always managed to be surprising and this dedication to capital-L Love feels like something close to timeless.

Best lyric: “So you were never a saint / and I’ve loved in shades of wrong / we learn to live with pain mosaic broken hearts”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5/ Personal: 10 / Total: 95

3. New Romantics (1989, 2014)

Forget every scandal, every misstep: the craziest thing Taylor ever did was relegate this nearly perfect song to a bonus track. This is pure 80s pop perfectly matched to Taylor’s sing-talky style and it is full of lyrical details that every person in their 20s can relate to.

We’re all bored? We’re all so tired of everything? Yes, Taylor. FACTS ONLY. Suddenly the heartbreak and hate that comes with growing up sounds fun. So turn up the bass, pick up those damn bricks, cuz the happy, free, confused days of “22” are gonna pay off in bathrooms and on dance floors.

Best lyric: “We show off our different scarlet letters / trust me, mine is better”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 10 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 95

2. All Too Well (Red, 2012)

A perfect score for a perfect song. This epic masterpiece is the gold standard, not only for Taylor Swift, but for anyone hoping to pen a timeless ballad. She takes her time to tell a story, build a bridge to another dimension, and leaves us with details so intimate people are still commenting on Jake Gyllenhaal’s scarf.

Best lyric: “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 100

1. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)

The piece de resistance. An absolute tour de force that earns every extra second on this vault track. Do I believe this was the original draft exactly as is? No. Does it matter? Also no. We willed this 10-minute version into existence by an act of sheer will and thank god for our blind persistence.

She changed the premise on one of her most haunting, plaintive songs and instead pulled back the curtain on male ego and the girls so often left in their wake.

Best lyric: “You kept me like a secret / but I kept you like an oath”

Lyrics: 40 / Production: 30 / Acclaim: 15 / Popularity: 5 / Personal: 10 / Total: 100