By Teresa Ugarte
Taylor Swift has released over a hundred songs over seven albums in her 13-year career, recently adding 18 more with her newest album, “Lover.” Naturally, we all have to redo our Taylor Swift song rankings. Here’s an updated list of Swift’s best 50 songs of all time, with reasoning for their placement.
- “All You Had To Do Was Stay”
A little heartbreaking but still a huge bop, this song only suffers because it sounds so much like the rest of 1989.
- “Fifteen”
Ah, to be fifteen and dating a boy on the football team. Don’t worry Taylor, you’ve got bigger things (and better songs) ahead.
- “Don’t Blame Me”
A song with a weird message but stellar production.
- “Breathe”
Repetitive at times but not enough to deafen the sadness.
- “It’s Nice to Have a Friend”
A controversial track among fans, but one I really love. It makes you feel lonely and loved at the same time.
- “Getaway Car”
A jam that’s only blighted because it makes you feel bad for Tom Hiddleston.
- “…Ready for It?”
Swift’s rapping half works and half doesn’t.
- “Better than Revenge”
This song is a hardcore bop if you can get over 19-year-old Swift’s internalized misogyny.
- “Change”
A cheesy, but uplifting song about changing things for the better.
- “Hey Stephen”
Swift’s joy is so contagious in this song it’s hard not to love.
- “Begin Again”
Trying to love after heartbreak is hard, but it’s easier when he thinks you’re funny and is early for your date.
- “You Belong With Me”
This song feels a little dated, but it’s still hard to not jam along to the chorus.
- “You’re Not Sorry”
Giving up on someone is hard, but this song makes it feel like the end of the world.
- “Haunted”
This song is the darkest of Swift’s earliest albums, and it absolutely nails the production.
- “Clean”
You haven’t gone through it until “Clean” makes you cry.
- “Cold As You”
It’s hard to believe Swift was in high school when she wrote this because the lyrics cut like glass.
- “Holy Ground”
A bittersweet lookback at good times.
- “So it Goes…”
Another love-it-or-hate-it track that I personally love.
- “White Horse”
“White Horse” is about realizing life isn’t a fairytale, and that you don’t need the guy on the white horse anyway.
- “Picture to Burn”
If you need an angry song to get over your ex and his stupid pickup truck, look no further.
- “Dress”
The song that makes you realize Swift is an adult who does adult things.
- “I Wish You Would”
Jack Antonoff wrote the song, Swift wrote the lyrics. A match made in heaven.
- “Forever and Always”
This song is the hurt you feel when someone breaks the promise you knew they weren’t going to keep anyways.
- “Dear John”
Swift’s longest song to date is also home to one of her best bridges ever.
- “Last Kiss”
The imagery in “Last Kiss” is so rich, you feel like you’re heartbroken on her bedroom floor alongside her.
- “Red”
This song perfectly encapsulates “Red” as an album.
- “Wildest Dreams”
A standout track on “1989” for it’s haunting vocals and intense bridge.
- “King of My Heart”
This song is the essence of the exact moment you fall in love with someone.
- “Enchanted”
Swift wrote the entire “Speak Now” album by herself, which is how we got treasures like “Enchanted.” A co-writer might have tried to clip this song, but it deserves all five minutes and 53 seconds.
- “Mine”
This song is so romantic and lovely I can barely stand it.
- “Back to December”
You know when you make a huge mistake and you wish so badly you could go back in time and fix it? That’s “Back to December.”
- “The Story of Us”
The guitar solo alone pushes this song into the top 20.
- “I Think He Knows”
The ghost of Prince inhabited Swift when she wrote this song, and the result is a must-dance chorus.
- “Daylight”
Swift sheds every ounce of heartbreak and sadness from her six previous albums on the closer to “Lover.”
- “Afterglow”
One of Swift’s most mature songs yet with an absolutely devastating chorus.
- “Love Story”
This song manages to feel timeless in a way “You Belong With Me” just couldn’t. The most fun to play at parties because everyone still knows the words.
- “Tim McGraw”
Swift’s first single ever stands the test of time. One of her best country songs.
- “Fearless”
This song will make you feel like you’re flying.
- “Everything Has Changed”
Swift is so good at putting words to indescribable feelings. This song is about those moments where you know things will never be the same, but you can’t put your finger on why.
- “State of Grace”
Sometimes Swift tries out a new style of music just to prove that she can and then never touches it again. “State of Grace” is Swift’s dip into alternative rock, which she absolutely nails.
- “Death by a Thousand Cuts”
This may be my most controversial choice, but in my opinion the bridge catapults this song into the top 10.
- “Lover”
I’m not even in a relationship but this song is going to be the first dance at my wedding.
- “Cornelia Street”
Sometimes the idea of heartbreak enough to be heartbreaking.
- “The Way I Loved You”
The most underrated Taylor Swift song of all time. Crazy chaotic love wins out over the nice boring guy.
- “Cruel Summer”
Why Swift didn’t release this as a single for “Lover,” I will never understand. It’s an intricately crafted pop song with lyrics that cut to the bone.
- “Sparks Fly”
This song makes you want to get into a relationship just so you can kiss someone in the rain.
- “Our Song”
If you ever want to feel incompetent, just remember Swift wrote “Our Song” for her high school talent show.
- “Treacherous”
“Treacherous” is home to the most complex and interesting lyrics of any of Swift’s songs, along with my favorite of her bridges.
- “Delicate”
“This ain’t for the best/My reputation’s never been worse so/he must love me for me” might be the most heart-wrenching set of lyrics in Swift’s entire discography.
- “All Too Well”
Autumn leaves, a lost scarf, refrigerator light and feeling broken like a promise. The imagery and lyrics and the absolute heartbreak in Swift’s voice is what makes it her best song ever.
Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of Taylor Swift’s Facebook page.
Teresa Ugarte is a sophomore English major and can be reached at teugarte@terpmail.umd.edu.
