Taylor Swift's ranking of the 25 best songs

Taylor Swift released her debut album in 2006 when she was 16 years old. The 33-year-old singer-songwriter has become the face of love, heartbreak and every emotion in between. The singer just released her 10th album — not counting her three releases to date, including July's "Now Speaks (Taylor's Version)" — and she's showing no signs of slowing down. Swift is currently on her journey to the times, where she picks 44 songs from her own catalog to perform for fans across the United States. In total, Swift has released more than 230 songs, and at POPSUGAR, we decided to rank only the 25 best Swift songs.

My approach is both highly scientific and highly personal. I looked through Swift's catalog of discography and put songs I thought might make the cut. The playlist ended up with 43 songs (none of them had Christmas songs, although I'm a big fan of Christmas Tree Farm). I made a new playlist and started the painful process of cutting 18 songs to get the last 25. I try not to think about which songs are my personal favorites; Quite a few songs I put on replays don't even meet the 43-song standard. But I think which ones are Swift's most important, which ones are her most impressive in lyrics or music, and which are her most iconic.

NEXT, THESE ARE POPSUGAR'S TOP 25 TYLER SWIFT SONGS.

25. "Out of the Trouble" by Taylor Swift

Swift is known for destroying her past relationships — and past partners — in songs, but "Out of the Woods" from 2014's "1989" is a great example of looking back with regret but without vitriol. Out of the Difficult Way is about how a relationship can't thrive in the spotlight and the pain that happens when you feel like you're always on the go. When the chorus ends for the last time, you can't help but scream along with it.

24. "Forever & Forever (Piano Version) by Taylor Swift (Taylor Version)"



The original version of "Forever & Forever" sets Swift's heartbreaking lyrics to a faster beat; The piano version really gave the suffering spotlight, and I'm thrilled that Swift has added a new rendition of the piano version to 2021's "Fearless (Taylor Version)." Swift sops in this song, and she perfectly captures the pervasive presence of heartbreak: "It rains when you're here, it rains when you're away." 2008's Fearless and 2010's Say Now play largely with the concept of story and fairy tales, while Forever & Forever is about when Once Upon a Time went wrong.

23. "The New Year" by Taylor Swift



Fame, released in 2017, gave us some of Swift's best love songs. What makes New Year different is how fragile it feels. Swift sings that she just had a wonderful Chinese New Year's Eve – the floor sparkling and the hall with shoes. However, while she enjoyed the afterglow of the night and the dawn of the New Year, she couldn't help but try to hold her lover a little tighter. "Please never be a stranger, I can recognize his laughter wherever he is," she asked, haunted by past losses and fearing that there might be more in the future. It's bittersweet romance. Plus, society always needs more New Year's songs. Provided by Swift.

22. "Magic (Taylor Version)" by Taylor Swift



"Enchanted" from 2010's "Say Now" (and 2023's "Taylor Version") is a theme song for desperate romantics. Swift perfectly describes the night you first meet someone and immediately depicts your lives coming together. But even in this grand, exaggerated story of escaping with romantic fantasies, Swift can't help but worry. "Please don't fall in love with someone else," she pleaded with her new love. We've all been through it.

A song from "1989," "The Wildest Dream," just missed this list, but the "Glamorous/Wildest Dream" mashup of 2015's "1989" tour is still one of her best live performances ever, and if she put it on the album, it would easily be in the top five on this list.

21. "Ivy" by Taylor Swift



Swift fans often complain that the artist didn't show enough love for her second album, Evermore, released in 2020, but she used her ERA tour to bring sunshine moments to many songs. "Ivy" is not on the program, which is a mistake. The song is about a married woman who falls in love with someone who is not her husband and reminds me of "Portrait of a Woman on Fire" or "Madame Bovary," an imposing, imposing, and moving song. The lyrics breathe new life into the core clichés of Ivy and Clover, filling them with pain and torment, but also love and lust.

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20. "Dancing with Our Hands" by Taylor Swift



Swift has quite a few songs about falling in love and having sex as a public figure, but "Reputation's" "Dancing with Hands Tied" is the sexiest of these songs. Whether you think it's about Swift's ex-boyfriend Joe Alvin or another relationship fan doesn't know, it's about getting together in private to explore each other and staying away from each other in public. The image of "dancing with hands tied" is both sad – they can't touch – and a little sexy.

19. "Nothing new (Taylor's version) (from vault)" Taylor Swift feat. Phoebe Bridges



I'm a big fan of Swift's re-recorded "From the Vault" songs that she wrote for albums that didn't make it to the final cut, which she recreated on her new album. Many are excellent, but 2021's "Red (Taylor Version)" is clearly "nothing new (Taylor Version)". Quickly with... Pairing Phoebe Bridges, this duet is about the fear of getting old and the uncertainty of time going by. "How long can I be cute when I cry in my room?" Bridges sings. Allow an adult woman to have an emotional, rich inner life, including grief? Can society get rid of the troubles of young people? There are no answers here, just a lot of questions.

18. "Holy Land (Taylor Version)" by Taylor Swift



Swift didn't get enough credit for her funny lyrics, and "Holy Land" from "Red" is a prime example. Swift has been criticized for rushing into a relationship, she quips at the beginning of the song. She enumerated all the things she did with her lover and said, "That's the first day." So much in a day? It's speed dial romance, and it's really, really fun, just like being in the "Holy Land."

17. Vogue by Taylor Swift



"Style", a song from "1989", is a great pop song. It will stay in your mind. Judging by the name, it seems about Swift's predecessor, Harry Styles, which is a fitting tribute to the ephemeral relationship between the two pop icons. "Style" and "1989" as a whole are also a good dividing point for the sexier, more sensual era of Swift records. She may have been famous since she was 16, but she's not a little girl anymore.

16. "Seven" by Taylor Swift



The next three songs — "Seven," "August," and "mirror ball" — also appeared in a row on Swift's 2020 album Folklore (Folklore), the best three of Swift's all-record songs. "Seven" is an emotional review of childhood, and things that didn't make sense when you were younger, but now become disgusting and upsetting. In The Bridge, she sings, "I've always wanted to tell you / I think your house is haunted / Your dad is always crazy, that's sure why," a glimpse of childlike logic, so heavy. You feel heartbroken when you realize that adults abuse you and your friends when you don't deserve to be treated that way at all.

15. "August" by Taylor Swift



"August" is part of the "Folklore" trio's song, and Swift says it shows three aspects of the same love triangle, as well as "Cardigans" and "Betty." But "August" comes from the girl who didn't get a happy ending in a love triangle, she had a golden summer, but watched everything slip away. Both painful and brilliant. There are many songs about the magic of summer love, but "August" is about the dullness of summer, the pain of the eighth month of the year.

14. "Mirror Ball" by Taylor Swift



Who knew a mirror ball could be so frustrating? In The Mirror Ball, Swift compares himself to a glittering globe that is the center of the party but is never actually a part of it. Swift sings about spinning to please others, about her vulnerability, about her fear of her identity. Like Swift's song, she really reached her realm on the bridge, singing, "I've never been born / All I do is try, try, try." Her anxieties were exposed, and she acknowledged them.

13. "Cowboy Like Me" by Taylor Swift



"Cowboy Like Me" is based on "Eternity", which nominally tells the story of two scammers who cheat rich people and try not to fall in love with each other. But when Swift sings, "Always the sweetest scam," it's clear it's actually about her fear of love. She is so confident in her "lover" in 2019 and so uncertain here. The real downside is that you can't talk about love at all, and love here is exciting, sharp, hard, scary.

12. "Bigger than the entire sky" by Taylor Swift



The addition of the song "Bigger than the entire sky" to the "3 a.m." version of "Midnight" in 2022 is devastating because it describes the devastation of the loss. Still, Swift never made it clear what the loss was, and many who struggled with miscarriage agreed with the song's lyrics — but her grief overwhelmed and beautifully rendered. Swift had a gift for turning her own pain into pain for all, creating space for everyone to just grieve without being ashamed, but she had never done so beautifully here.

11. "Fifteen (Taylor Version)" by Taylor Swift



I was a teenager when "Huo Yuanjia" came out in 2008, so of course "Fifteen" was one of my earliest favorite Swift songs. How could it not be? Pop music is for teenagers, but on her debut album and Fearless, Swift speaks to the real story of what teenagers have experienced, and 15 is a message for us. Swift chronicles the highs and lows of her high school year and points out that in the future, teen drama won't matter anymore — but that doesn't mean it's not important at all. This is one of the earliest examples of her superb storytelling skills.

10. "The Last Kiss (Taylor Version)" by Taylor Swift



"Too Good" may be the more famous lengthy quick breakup song, but the utter destruction of "The Last Kiss" can't be ignored. The Last Kiss, part of Say Now, explores the relentless grief of six minutes after the breakup. "The Bridge" is once again full of her best lines: "So I will observe your life with pictures, just as I used to watch you sleep." Earlier this year, the phrase sparked its own TikTok trend, with users mapping their losses onto Swift, yet another example of how she was able to make her pain greater than her own experience. Swift kept going, but the glorification of her heartbreak lives on.

9. "Clean" by Taylor Swift



Sometimes the thought of seeing Swift sing "Clean" himself on the "1989" tour makes me feel a little emotional. "Clean" is catharsis. A purifying rainstorm may not be the most unique metaphor in the world, but in this "1989" song, Swift gives new life to this contrast, bringing the album to a perfect end. Sarah Baleleus and Kelly Clayson both covered the song, and Swift made a stripped-down piano version on her "Reputation" tour, as its message of rebirth after loss is perfectly presented in Swift's lyricism. What really makes her lyrics sing is the fear of diving into it a little bit. "I think I'm finally clean," she sings — always opening up to the possibility that she's not clean yet.

8. "Lavender Mist" by Taylor Swift



It's hard to rank the songs from Swift's latest album because you have to worry about recent bias. The song is just novel, so do I rank it higher than it deserves? But the "haze of lavender" deserves its place. It's very catchy and funny, with smart, sharp lyrics. It resonates more emotionally with her breakup with Alvin (Swift previously said he inspired the song, though she recently deleted the video from her Instagram account). The "lavender haze" carries with it a hint of fear that they won't be comfortable in their relationship and that something will separate them. The fact that Swift was right gives the track a tragic color and makes it a little sweeter than its joy.

7. "It Could Be, Could, Should Be" by Taylor Swift



According to the lyrics, fans believe that "it would, might, should have been" is a revisit of the same area that Swift touched on in "Dear John" in "Say Now." Well, both are about her brief affair with John Mayer when she was 19 years old. "Renunciation" is long, sad and heartbreaking. "It should have been, could have been, should have been" is equally heart-wrenching — but also absolutely infuriating. It's about how bad things are that even if you want to get bad, they'll stay with you for many years more than you've already had. Swift looks back on the way she was treated, even more angry than she was then. It's one thing to feel like you've been abused at the age of 19; By the age of 32, you know in your bones that you are absolutely something else. "Could have been, could have been, should have been" is the best way to vent your anger.

6. "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift



"Cruel Summer" is a favorite song for many swifts, in part because of the light it never gains. Swift didn't make it a single for 2019's "Lover," which baffled some fans as it was written with "Summer Songs." Some speculated that the song was intended to be released as a single in 2020, but that plan was disrupted by the pandemic.

Regardless, Swift's Cruel Summer is one of her best works. She co-wrote the song with rockers St. Vincent and Swift's frequent collaborator Jack Antonov, and the end product was propulsion, very engaging, just simple fun. Meanwhile, the lyrics hint at some of the darkness behind the summer romance: the uncertainty of a casual relationship weighs down on her until she screams, "I love you, isn't that the worst thing you've ever heard?" The song was very powerful, she sang it again as an ending, and we always sang along.

5. "Love Story (Taylor Version)" by Taylor Swift



The song "Love Story" in "Huo Yuanjia" Taylor Swift singer-songwriter turned pop singer Taylor Swift. It looks like a brisk song that everyone knows. I remember someone joking that Swift's high school English class must have failed; She didn't know that Romeo and Juliet both died in the end?

But that's exactly what makes this song so great, symbolizing not only Swift's records, but her entire view of love. "Love Story" is a tribute to romantic optimism, and Swift is the queen of romantic optimists. Reimagining a classic love story with a happy ending is exactly what she should be doing. "It's a love story," she sings in every choir, and if her album has a title, that's it.

4. "Exquisite" by Taylor Swift



While writing this chart, I realized how many of Swift's songs were full of anxiety, and "Petite Didi" is a song of early love written for anxious people. It's when you tell someone you like them — very much — and then immediately aren't sure if it's too much. Chorus - "Am I saying these are cool?" Is it too early to do so? "—So fragile, but still hopeful. If she's not sure if the other person feels the same way, she won't say it, but it's still at the heart of the doubt.

3. "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift



"Blank" is when Swift fights back - not against anyone, but against everyone. Everyone who jokes that she's dated too many people, everyone who says she's obsessed with heartbreak so she can write more songs, is within her firepower. In Blank Space, she owns the label imposed on her and pushes it to a ridiculous, exaggerated ending. In addition to the genius lyrics, "Blank Space" is also very catchy, a perfect song to explode in your car on a long highway.

2. "Daylight" by Taylor Swift



"Lover" is a crime-underrated Swift album, and "Daylight" is in my opinion her most underrated song. But not today. Daylight is about growing up. Swift looks back at what she considers to be love—the "fiery" climax of the "red" era, the "black-and-white" anger of "fame" — and realizes that both are just substitutes for the real thing. "It's golden," she sang in the bridge—"like daylight." ”

It's the most romantic song in Swift's catalog and the perfect ending to the album for Lover.

1. "Too Good (10 Minute Version) (Taylor Version) (From the Vault)" by Taylor Swift



Of course, many readers first scroll here to see which song is number one, and they probably won't be shocked to see "Too Good (10-Minute Version)" at the top. "Great" — the five-minute original of 2012's "Red" — is already one of Swift's best. In a shortened version, Swift pulls away from the details of her doomed romance to create a heartbreak and painful song that resonates universally. In the 10-minute version (which she wrote first, although we won't hear it for many years), she puts these details back, reveals more about her, and turns the song into her greatest masterpiece.

The 10-minute version injects the passage of time. "I remember it too well," Swift sings in chorus, and it's clear that the song is about recovering memories and telling the truth about her experience. But when she focused entirely on her ex, the ending always hurt me. "Let's talk privately, did that relationship hurt you too?" She asked. Of course, there is no answer; Never. But she can still speak up about what happened to her, take back her pain, heartbreak and bitterness, and turn it into something greater than a failed relationship and the person who scarred her.