Music

Ranking Taylor Swift’s albums, from her self-titled debut to Reputation


Pictures: Amazon

On October 24 2006, a curly-haired 16-year-old singer-songwriter called Taylor Swift burst on to the country music chart with her debut album.

Now, 13 years and nearly seven albums, she is one of the world’s biggest artists with each album outselling the previous, and her lyrics moving from teenage angst to a more adult and nuanced sound.

In recent years she has moved away from the country music scene that so warmly welcomed her into their fold and received near-unanimous acclaim for her 2014 album 1989 which saw her finally break out with an unabashedly brilliant pop record.

After a rocky few years in the public eye, she returned in 2017 with Reputation, an album of two halves, but with each of her six records the global superstar has grown and changed as an artist.

So ahead of the release of album number seven, Lover – which she has branded ‘a love letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory’ – we ranked her past efforts from decent to best album ever…

6. Taylor Swift

Released: October 24 2006

Her debut album (Picture: Big Machine)

Every single song on Taylor’s self-titled debut album is a song about romance and heartache, broken hearts, unrequited love – and it began Taylor’s public love affair with singing about the men in her life.

With lyrics including ‘He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night’ (Tim McGraw) and ‘And you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you’ (Cold As You), the album is an absolute homage to teenage angst but proved straight away that Tay was a songwriter to be admired.

Still, despite it being a strong debut album this album comes last in our ranking for two reasons.

1. It tries slightly too hard to be chart-friendly, and there are several songs that may have been better without the extra production (Outside).

2. We’d much rather listen to the others.

5. Speak Now

Released: October 25 2010 

Speak Now, released in 2010 (Picture: Big Machine)

Speak Now is perhaps the most savage of all of Taylor’s albums.

By 2010 when Speak Now was released Taylor had begun to court the press and her relationships with famous men, including John Mayer (Dear John), Taylor Lautner (Back To December), and Joe Jonas (Last Kiss), can all be easily pointed to on this album.

Because of this, some of the lyrics often feel too on-the-nose – Dear John springs to mind – and although the music continues to show Taylor growing as an artist there’s something about the album that actually feels more immature than Fearless, her sophomore album.

4. Fearless

Released: November 11 2008

Fearless, released in 2008 (Picture: Big Machine)

Fearless is a classic country album, continuing the theme’s set out in Taylor’s debut album but taken to dizzying new levels.

There is a maturity in Fearless despite the lyrics continuing to sound like they’ve come straight from a teenage girl’s diary, but even songs that feel very age-specific (Fifteen) retain their magic because of the beauty of the lyrics that continue to evoke the memories of what we all go through (‘Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realised some bigger dreams of mine’).

Tay’s sophomore album is filled with hits, from the title track to You Belong With Me and Love Story – oh yeah, and it won the Album Of The Year Grammy, making Tay the youngest ever winner of the accolade.

3. Reputation

Released: 10 November 2017

Reputation, released in 2017 (Picture: Big Machine)

Reputation saw Taylor dive headfirst into new genres – rap (End Game) and trap (I Did Something Bad) – and the decision to include swearing in her lyrics with middling results, but it also heralded a return to Taylor Swift songs about romance, betrayal and lust.

The first six tracks on the album were a huge change of pace for the singer, with a clash of EDM beats, synth and drum machines – with the exception of track 5 Delicate – but the remainder of the album saw the then-28-year-old return to slower dreamy pop tracks, albeit still with drum machines and heavy bass.

1989 may be Taylor’s first ‘pop’ album but Reputation saw a new era of Taylor, one that didn’t give a f**k, was going to say what she wanted (This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things) and was all grown-up (Dress).

2. 1989

Released: October 27 2014

1989 marked Taylor Swift’s shift to total superstar (Picture: Big Machine)

With the release of 1989 in 2014, Taylor had finally completed her transition from country star to full-blown international superstar.

By Taylor’s own admission this album was her ‘first documented official pop album’ and it’s very easy to see how, with it’s liberal use of synthesizers, a pulsating bass and processed vocals (New Romantics).

The album went on to win Taylor her second-ever Album Of The Year at the 2015 Grammy Awards and even saw acclaimed indie star Ryan Adams release a cover of the entire album – but the reason 1989 doesn’t make it to the top spot is that, unlike the number one album, there are several missteps.

Despite being home to several absolute bangers from moody and brilliant Out Of The Woods to the bonus track, You Are In Love, which is one of the best love songs from this decade, there are several tracks which push this down to number two.

Bad Blood, which opened up a now ongoing feud with Katy Perry that seemed pointless at the time – and appears to have set in motion a series of events that have left the celebrity world trying to tear Taylor down – is one of them, while Wildest Dreams sounds like a straight rip off on a Lana Del Ray track.

What places it above Reputation though are the deluxe edition tracks – Wonderland, This Love and New Romantics – and the three voice recordings which allowed fans to dive into how Taylor begins the process of writing her tracks.

1. Red

Released: October 22 2012

Red wins it for Tay (Picture: Big Machine)

From the anthemic State Of Grace which kicks off the album through to the drum n’ bass inspired I Knew You Were Trouble, the absolutely gorgeous All Too Well to the ultimate pop song Holy Ground, let’s be honest, there isn’t really a duff song on this entire album.

Red saw Taylor finally begin to truly move away from her country music roots musically, even though the lyrics remain personal and diary-like, stories of love and lust and heartbreak.

This album dropped in 2012 at what was then the peak of the media’s obsession with her love life, and each song can be traced back to a suitor, with many about her romance with Jake Gyllenhaal (State Of Grace, Red, All Too Well, The Last Time).

However, in what was a sign to come with 1989, there are also hints of songs about friendship (22) and moving on (Stay Stay Stay, Sad Beautiful Tragic).

It is, in this author’s opinion, one of the most perfect albums from the last decade, a slice of musical genius that straddles several genres and never feels messy.

Lover is out on 23 August.

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