Taylor Swift, Tiered: The ‘Lover’ Era
Your Latest Official Tiering of Every Taylor Swift Song
Fanboys gonna fan fan fan fan fan! I’ve sat with the exquisite Lover long enough now that I can live with the opinions I’m going to offer here — at least until TS8 — so it’s time to update one of my least controversial tierings. At this point, it’s tradition.
Feel free to revisit the Reputation-era tiering and the original version. As always, passing time may bring recalculations.
TIER I: It’s Golden
The Queen, the Goddess, my Inspiration.
Our Song, Fearless, Love Story, You Belong with Me, Forever and Always, Back to December, Dear John, Enchanted, Red, Treacherous, All Too Well, Blank Space, All You Had to Do Was Stay, Getaway Car, Dress, New Year’s Day, Cruel Summer, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, Cornelia Street, Death by a Thousand Cuts
TIER II: That’s a Knockout
Taylor’s second-best is still almost anyone else’s unreachable.
Teardrops on My Guitar, Invisible, Fifteen, Hey Stephen, Breathe, Mine, Mean, Last Kiss, Long Live, If This Was a Movie, State of Grace, I Almost Do, Begin Again, The Moment I Knew, Out of the Woods, I Wish You Would, This Love, I Know Places, Wonderland, I Don’t Wanna Live Forever, Delicate, King of My Heart, Lover, The Archer, Soon You’ll Get Better, Afterglow, It’s Nice to Have a Friend, Daylight
TIER III: Grinnin’ Like a Devil
Fun as hell.
Picture to Burn, Should’ve Said No, I’m Only Me When I’m with You, I Heart Question Mark, The Way I Loved You, The Other Side of the Door, Sparks Fly, Speak Now, Better Than Revenge, Eyes Open, Twenty-Two, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Girl at Home, Shake It Off, How You Get the Girl, Look What You Made Me Do, Gorgeous, I Forgot That You Existed, I Think He Knows, London Boy
TIER IV: Bless My Soul
There is just so much good stuff in the Swiftian œuvre.
Tim McGraw, Cold as You, Mary’s Song (Oh My My My), White Horse, Come In with the Rain, The Story of Us, Innocent, Haunted, Safe and Sound, Ronan, I Knew You Were Trouble, The Last Time, Sweeter Than Fiction, Style, Wildest Dreams, Clean, New Romantics, I Did Something Bad, So It Goes…, Dancing with Our Hands Tied, Call It What You Want, The Man, False God
TIER V: Overdramatic, and True
Corny, but we love it anyway.
Stay Beautiful, The Best Day, Change, Jump Then Fall, Superstar, Never Grow Up, Ours, Today Was a Fairytale, The Lucky One, Welcome to New York, …Ready for It?, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Paper Rings, You Need to Calm Down, Me!
TIER VI: I Ask the Traffic Lights If This Song Is All Right; They Say “I Don’t Know”
Hey, not every track can be a banger.
A Place in This World, A Perfectly Good Heart, Christmas Must Be Something More, Tell Me Why, You’re Not Sorry, Superman, Stay Stay Stay, Holy Ground, Come Back… Be Here, You Are in Love, Don’t Blame Me
TIER VII: I Forgot That You Existed
Not terrible songs; I just don’t think of them too often.
The Outside, Tied Together with a Smile, Beautiful Eyes, Christmases When You Were Mine, Untouchable, Crazier, Everything Has Changed, Starlight
TIER VIII: You Play Stupid Games, You Win Stupid Prizes
Actively bad.
Sad Beautiful Tragic, Bad Blood, End Game
Puzzlements? Quibbles? Nuclear takes? Fight me in the comments.
