djfrosty

Album: Lover
Preliminary Ranking: No. 16

At this point, ranking “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” so low on Lover looks especially foolish, considering its cultural impact: not only does Swift open her Eras Tour with part of the song, but her 2020 Netflix documentary also takes its name from the track. Perhaps most importantly, a direct connection can be made from the stormy synth-pop here and the sound of Midnights three years later, as the programmed drums, keyboard stabs and ambient haze help tell the story of cracked-open disillusionment. Swift tries a lot of different styles across Lover, and “Miss Americana” now stands as one of its biggest sonic and conceptual successes; “Cruel Summer” was the song went stunningly viral years later, but this one will continue to age quite well, too.

Album: Folklore
Preliminary Ranking: No. 17

“My Tears Ricochet” didn’t connect at all for me upon my first listens to Folklore, feeling like an eerie momentum-killer on the tracklist in between the towering spectacles of “Exile” and “Mirrorball.” Now, the song that I ranked dead last on Folklore is probably one of the three or four songs on the album I return to most often when diving in for a quick trip instead of a full listen. Chalk this one up partially to the Eras Tour, which features “My Tears Ricochet” as a ghostly centerpiece where backup dancers slowly envelop Swift and seal her fate — but also, the layered vocals and quaking percussion just take a few spins to fully land as the seesaw that provides the uneasy foundation of Swift’s gothic tale of woe. If you were cursing my name at my initial ranking here, in hindsight, I don’t really blame you.

Album: Evermore
Preliminary Ranking: No. 12

Another song that benefited from prime Eras tour placement — it’s difficult not to be affected by a song played on a moss-covered piano while everyone sings along in a stadium! — “Champagne Problems” serves as the necessary swoon following the falsetto-laden highs of “Willow” at the top of Evermore. I previously discounted the gut punch of Swift’s storytelling, as she reflects on an “I don’t” following a marriage proposal and the pain that honest feelings can cause; what first sounded like a too-muted piano ballad later revealed itself as the other side of the coin to a song like “Speak Now.” “Champagne Problems” deserved to be multiple notches higher on my Evermore assessment, although I’m glad that Swift has since given the track the live showcase it deserves.

Album: Midnights
Preliminary Ranking: No. 12

Sometimes, you can’t see the forest for the trees… and in the case of “Karma,” I discounted a five-alarm banger due to some questionable wordplay. “Not every metaphor lands,” I wrote upon the release of Midnights, when I slotted the song in next to last — but a few months later, “Karma” was all over the radio, flexing on me like a GD acrobat as I sang along to every word.

Fully harnessing the chilled-out synth-pop aesthetic of Midnights, “Karma” finds Swift naturally playing the part of unflappable superstar, rolling her eyes at doubters in the verses before blowing them out of the water in the hook. “Anti-Hero” remains the best song on Midnights, but “Karma” may be the purest distillation of Swift’s most recent imperial phase, as every naysayer or enemy has seemingly received a comeuppance while she stays on top.

Album: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
Preliminary Ranking: No. 20 of all “From the Vault” songs

I wasn’t too high on this team-up with Paramore’s Hayley Williams upon the July 2023 release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and still wasn’t a few months later, when ranking all of the “From the Vault” songs from the four Taylor’s Version re-records released thus far. Now… I’m not sure why I wasn’t? The song is a wonderfully self-aware slow burn from a pair of pros, both of whom became famous as teenagers and are now navigating the internal and external expectations of their adult careers. Swift and Williams complement each other — a country and pop-punk star, both still afraid of burning too bright — and “Castles Crumbling” boasts a chorus that earns its heightened drama. Out of all the “From the Vault” tracks, this one took the most time to unfurl as a gem for me.