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How could you not show up to her birthday party! It’s hating Jake Gyllenhaal hours.

If he was there, he would be making her think he was in love. It was a two-month relationship, they were in the early stages, he realized it wasn't going to work, and he decided to finish it. It was also the moment he knew.

well it was a nice surprise getting an ask on this blog months after i finished posting on it!!

a) it's a tongue-in-cheek comment. i don't actually hate jake gyllenhaal.

b) you don't end a relationship by ghosting the other person on their birthday?! again, i don't hate jake gyllenhaal, and i'm sure taylor is over it by now given it was like 10 years ago, but it was undeniably a dick move on his part

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This countdown was riveting!! Thank you for taking all the time to sort it out it must've taken so long

Based on some of your comments abt evermore, perhaps we should all do it again in a 4-6 months when that recency bias wears off 🤔🤔🤔

aw i'm glad you enjoyed it!! i would definitely be open to hosting it again - i'm thinking after the rerecordings come out would be a good time to see if people's opinions about the older songs also change with the new versions

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I’m so surprised about safe & sound 👁👄👁 I mean, I think it’s a great song but Taylor has a lot of great songs and I just didn’t expect it to rank THAT high, I think it’s resurgence in light of its similarity to the folklore sound may have skewed the general opinion on it, a skew that hasn’t leveled out again yet. again, safe and sound is a great song and I do love it, its placement just surprised me

Oh it surprised me too!! I literally had to double check that I hadn't stuffed something up in Excel when I saw it in third place haha it was such a shock. And that's an interesting thought! It definitely has the folklore sound that the fandom is loving at the moment but at the same time doesn't really get enough attention for people to bring up criticisms of it either. Like I feel like a lot of beloved songs get so much attention that people start going "oh but wait, the song actually had these flaws" which causes some people to like it a little bit less but Safe & Sound doesn't really have that! Anyway that's my 2 cents on why it maybe rated so highly haha

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Well, that's that! I hope you all had fun ❤️ I really enjoyed putting this all together for you all and it makes me so happy to see that people were actually interested in it. who knows, maybe we can do it again in a year's time/after the rerecordings release/whatever

Full results (click here to see them from #165-1, I think this one will only work on desktop/in a browser)

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🥇1. Cruel Summer (9.291)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 7

*inhales deeply*

fever dream high in the quiet of the night you know that i caught it bad bad boy shiny toy with a price you know that i bought it killing me slow out the window i’m always waiting for you to be waiting below devils roll the dice angels roll their eyes what doesn’t kill me makes me want you more and it’s YOUUUU the shape of your body it’s BLUEEEEE the feeling i’ve got and OOOO WHOAAA OOOH it’s a CRUEEEEEL SUUUUUMMER it’s COOL that’s what i tell him no RULES in breakable heaven and OOOO WHOAAAA OOOH it’s a CRUEEEEL SUUUUMMER with you it’s a hang your head love in the glow of the vending machine i’m not dying you say we’ll just screw it up in these trying times we’re not trying cut the headlights summer’s a knife i’m always waiting for you to be waiting below devils  roll the dice angels roll their eyes what doesn’t kill me makes me want you more and it’s YOUUUU the shape of your body it’s BLUEEEEE the feeling i’ve got and OOOO WHOAAA OOOH it’s a CRUEEEEEL SUUUUUMMER it’s COOL that’s what i tell him no RULES in breakable heaven and OOOO WHOAAAA OOOH it’s a CRUEEEEL SUUUUMMER with you

I’M DRUNK IN THE BACK OF THE CAR AND I CRIED LIKE A BABY COMING HOME FROM THE BAR SAID I’M FINE BUT IT WASN’T TRUE I DON’T WANNA KEEP SECRETS JUST TO KEEP YOU AND I SNUCK IN THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE EVERY NIGHT THAT SUMMER JUST TO SEAL MY FATE AND I SCREAMED FOR WHATEVER IT’S WORTH “I LOVE YOU AIN’T THAT THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER HEARD” HE LOOKS UP GRINNING LIKE A DEVIL IT’S YOUUUU THE SHAPE OF YOUR BODY IT’S BLUEEEEE THE FEELING I’VE GOT AND OOOO WHOAAA OOOH it’s a CRUEEEEEL SUUUUUMMER IT’S COOL THAT’S WHAT I TELL HIM NO RULES IN BREAKABLE HEAVEN OOOOO WHOAAA OOOH IT’S A CRUEEEEEL SUUUMMER WITH YOU I’M DRUNK IN THE BACK OF THE CAR AND I CRIED LIKE A BABY COMING HOME FROM THE BAR SAID I’M FINE BUT IT WASN’T TRUE I DON’T WANNA KEEP SECRETS JUST TO KEEP YOU AND I SNUCK IN THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE EVERY NIGHT THAT SUMMER JUST TO SEAL MY FATE AND I SCREAMED FOR WHATEVER IT’S WORTH “I LOVE YOU AIN’T THAT THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER HEARD”

Let’s all bow down to our new supreme.

Highlighted comments: @everfolk: “This was also almost my 11 song. It's so incredible with the production, the lyrics, and the iconic Taylor Swift style ranting bridge” @corneliaavenue: “this is how cruel summer can still be a single” @breathinmaries: “She was paid DUST”  @leadinmeon​: “IM DRUNK IN THE BACK OF THE CAR!!!!” @itspeterlosingwendy: “best on the album”

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🥈2. All Too Well (9.166)

Highest score was 11 (@wesawbears); Lowest score was 4

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for.... and All Too Well is not in first place! Well, fun fact, it was actually in a tie with the song in first place when the deadline to submit ballots passed. BUT THEN a single late ballot came through and broke the tie, and All Too Well came off second best.

I feel like All Too Well has experienced a certain rise and fall within the fandom. It used to pretty much be the unanimous fan favourite - everyone sang this song’s praises, it was the “cool” choice of favourite Taylor song. If someone told you that All Too Well was their favourite Taylor song, you knew they were a True Fan. Taylor even performed this at the 2014 Grammys because the fans really wanted it.

But then, the critics and the GP began to latch onto it. Every single ranking published by any given website or magazine would list All Too Well as the best Taylor song. What used to be the fandom’s “little secret” suddenly became mainstream, and then came the backlash. Calling All Too Well your favourite Taylor song became the safe (and slightly boring) choice, and it could no longer be used as a marker of a True Swiftie. Among accusations of being overrated and overhyped, All Too Well became something of a sore point for many Swifties.

But you know what? This song is fucking good and deserves the praise. Is it my favourite Taylor song? No (as I said before, cardigan supremacy <3). But it’s top ten for me, and it’s so iconic that I can’t be mad at it placing so high here. Sure, it might be the safe choice now, but safe choices become safe for a reason. And let me just say, when I went to a Taylor Swift club night a couple of years back, this truly went off. It’s fun to have such a universally loved song in a fandom.

Highlighted comments: @leadinmeon: “it's overrated but it's not but it is but it's not. it's so good. i want it to not be the best. but it's great” @wesawbears: “I know, I'm basic but I liked it before it was cool” @yourivysgrows: “Her magnum opus for a reason” @liabilitys: “i think this song has become slightly overrated”

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🥉3. Safe & Sound (8.913)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 6.9

I jest, I jest. But as a folklore stan, I couldn’t resist the joke.

Safe & Sound making its way into top 3 was probably the biggest surprise for me in this whole thing. Granted, it’s always been well-regarded within the fanbase, probably being one of the most appreciated non-album tracks, and was sort of a proto-folklore. In fact, prior to folklore I think Safe & Sound was one of the key songs that people pointed to as a desired reference point for the soundscape of a future album. And we got it! And then you all proceeded to collectively rate this song above all 17 songs on that album. Funny.

I think this placing is very much a testament of how powerful consistency can be. No one gave this song an 11, and I imagine it would be somewhat difficult to find a person who would consider this song their absolute #1 Taylor Swift song (though I’m sure you are out there, and you are valid!), and yet I don’t think you’ll really find any detractors of it either. Safe & Sound is just a good song - in fact, it’s a great song if the numbers are to be believed (and I think they are). In some ways it feels wasted as a soundtrack single - while it was critically acclaimed and achieved moderate commercial success (well, moderate by Taylor’s standards), I can’t help but wonder whether it would have been more successful had it been attached to a larger campaign. It certainly would have been very deserving of an album slot.

Also, looking up this song on Wikipedia to aid with my write-up reminded me that The Civil Wars featured on it! I had forgotten that. So let’s extend a congratulations to them as well I suppose.

Highlighted comments: @yourivysgrows: “Folklore said hi back in 2012″ @corneliaavenue​: “folklore tease”

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4. Last Kiss (8.883)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 6

People always say Last Kiss is underrated, but it’s literally all we hear about come July 9th every year, and also, it’s in fourth place here, so it’s obviously quite universally loved! And you know what, it does deserve the love!

I go back on forth on whether I actually love Last Kiss, but the lyrics are undeniably excellent. The lyric “I do recall now, the smell of the rain / Fresh on the pavement, I ran off the plane” is a personal favourite of mine - partly because as an MBTI nerd (and an ISTJ), this is some of the most Si bullshit I’ve ever heard and I love it. Last Kiss is full of detail rich writing like this that places the listener directly into the scene that Taylor is describing (hello, July 9th! hello, 1:58!).

While the instrumental and production of this song might be considered a bit... slow... it does pay off once you get the bridge (Bridge Queen Taylor blesses us once again) when the emotion in the song really peaks. And the very, very end, where Taylor cuts off the final line before she says the “kiss”, is a brilliant little reference to how you never knew when the last kiss was going to be. Speak Now Taylor really was big brained.

Highlighted comments: @itspeterlosingwendy: “absolute lyrical masterpiece” @leadinmeon: “this was my fav ts song. it's very beautifully written, but musically a bit repetitive” @yourivysgrows: “A+ lyrics per usual”

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5. cardigan (8.881)

Highest score was 11 (@cardgian @itspeterlosingwendy); Lowest score was 5

I believe in cardigan supremacy! Now you all know this isn’t rigged, because if I was to rig it then this song would be on top. And honestly, for a while there at the beginning it was, but as time went on and ballots crept in, it slowly slid down to fifth place. However, it does reign supreme as the top song on folklore, so I’m willing to accept it.

cardigan was a big shock to us all, both in the sense that it was a surprise release along with the rest of the album and that for the first time in many years, Taylor had released a lead single that was genuinely excellent! Particularly in lyricism - there isn’t a single lyric in cardigan that doesn’t hit, to the point that I literally cannot pick out highlights from the song. The whole thing is just so good.

In an alternate universe where Taylor could (and wanted to) go on a full promo cycle, cardigan would have dominated the world and gone down in history as a classic, iconic Taylor song. As it is, I think it’ll always be an underground fave, one that Swifties constantly sing its praises for but that the GP won’t remember so much. Let’s just hope for/manifest a SOTY Grammy. She deserves it for this.

Highlighted comments: @itspeterlosingwendy: “best song she's written, almost solely for the verse "Tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy/I knew you/Leavin' like a father/Runnin' like water"” @yourivysgrows: “This one always just hits different”

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6. ivy (8.860)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 6

ivy is interpreted by many to be another Normalise Cheating song, but I would like to take this opportunity to provide my in depth lyrical analysis as to why ivy is actually about a widow falling in love with someone new, and feeling guilty about it:

“I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones” - she met her new lover while visiting her husband’s grave

“the old widow goes to the stone every day, but I don’t” - she’s stopped visiting her husband’s grave so much as she forms a new relationship with this new person, but she feels like she’s abandoning her husband

“my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand” - references the pain she feels from losing her husband, and how this new person makes her feel better

“magnificently cursed, he’s in the room” / “he’s gonna burn this house to the ground” - almost makes it sound like the husband is haunting them, rather than literally being there with them

There’s probably more I could draw from the song, but that’s what stands out to me! Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk <3

Highlighted comments: @yourivysgrows: “Also stuck in my head 2762727 times a day” @liabilitys: “normalise cheating yet again but its ok we can excuse it this time”

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7. Holy Ground (8.840)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 7

The level of competitiveness in this top 20 really shows when a song that did not get a single score below 7 doesn’t even make the top 5. The power that Taylor’s discography holds!

Anyway, Holy Ground is yet another fantastic song, and it a complete injustice that when I google “Holy Ground”, the first result is a Hillsong United song 😠 Holy Ground completes the Joe Jonas saga, seeing Taylor reminisce on the good parts of the relationship and letting go of the anger she felt at the break up. With fast paced verses and a persistent drum & guitar instrumental, the song is tied together by tight couplets that are beautiful in how much they say and with how effortlessly they say it: “And darling it was good, never looking down / And right there where we stood was holy ground” / “Tonight I’m gonna dance, for all that we’ve been through / But I don’t wanna dance, if I’m not dancing with you”.

So now, I pose the question that we ask of so many other songs: why was this not a single? In retrospect, it seems such an obvious choice - upbeat, catchy and just all-around brilliant. But alas, it wouldn’t be a Taylor album if there wasn’t at least one single that got away, and for Red I think it’s pretty safe to say that song is Holy Ground.

Highlighted comments: @leadinmeon: “we been knew this song is amazing” @yourivysgrows: “An underrated bop”

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8. Getaway Car (8.825)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 5

Before we were saying “here’s how Cruel Summer can still be a single”, we were saying “here’s how Getaway Car can still be a single”. But here’s the thing about Getaway Car - it was a single! Yep, in Australia and New Zealand it was a promotional single for the tour. I got ads about it on Instagram! And then Taylor had the audacity to look a fan in the face after they asked her where the Getaway Car MV was and say “it wasn’t a single”. This Oceania erasure, I won’t stand for it!

All jokes aside, Getaway Car truly was robbed. For me, it’s the easy standout on reputation. It has everything you could possibly want in a Taylor Swift song: magnificent storytelling, a breakneck bridge, Jack Antonoff production magic, and most importantly, a little bit of tea on her personal life. The perfect package! I also feel like this song deserved more of a cinematic performance on tour. The visuals were nice, but c’mon Taylor, if you weren’t gonna give us a music video, you could’ve at least given us a full production stage show acting out the storyline of the song! Give us a crumb here.

Highlighted comments: @itspeterlosingwendy: “its just fun....” @yourivysgrows: “I wanted a black and white, Bonnie x Clyde video 🥺” @liabilitys: “a bop but points off for normalising cheating”

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9. champagne problems (8.710)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 4

Miss Taylor, stop writing such great bridges. I’m running out of things to say about them! Anyway, this is another good song with a good bridge. I almost feel like this could’ve very easily been track 5 on evermore, it has a particular quality to it that just screams “Track 5″ to me.

Also, I know this has been discussed before, but it is truly unhinged that Taylor and Joe sat together and wrote a song about a woman rejecting a proposal from him. Literally if this song had been released 3 years ago we’d be sitting here like “omg, they broke up :( is she ok” but now we’re just like “oh Taylor and Joe are roleplaying their breakup again, good for them <3″. They are such a power couple artistically and I love them.

Highlighted comments: @yourivysgrows: “My favorite off evermore”

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10. Treacherous (8.575)

Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 3

Starting off our top 10 is an absolute classic track from Red! Treacherous can be considered a sister song to I Knew You Were Trouble, with Taylor confirming the tracks are about the same person - Treacherous representing the beginning of the relationship while IKYWT represents the end.

Treacherous is notable for its lyrics - for its time, it was a fairly risque song for Taylor. She even joked about the line “I’ll do anything you say, if you say it with your hands”, saying she could just say her cowriter came up with it to get her “off the hook” for writing sexually suggestive lyrics. Funny to think this is the same woman who would eventually write songs like Dress and False God! Treacherous was the blueprint <3

I feel like it’s getting a bit repetitive talking about the bridges in all these songs, but good god Taylor can write a good bridge, and Treacherous is yet another shining example. It builds and builds before eventually the production gorgeously explodes. It is just such a beautiful experience listening to it.

Highlighted comments:

@treacherousdemo: “the 0.1 is reserved for the demo (this would've worked better with the old url rip)” (the good news is that I took so damn long to get this done that your old url is back!)

@liabilitys: “lyrics are insane”

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halfway through the top 20, how are we feelin'?

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11. Out of the Woods (8.556)

Highest score was 11 (@areweintheclear, @thisismetryingtbh); Lowest score was 5

Poor 1989 just misses out on getting a song in the top 10, but it’s not for lack of trying! With two 11s, Out of the Woods takes out the crown as the highest rated song on 1989, and it’s well deserved.

I still remember when Out of the Woods was released. After Shake It Off had been released and was busy dominating the entire world, Taylor gifted us with Out of the Woods as a promo single. And where Shake It Off was a fun, catchy pop song - perhaps lacking in a little depth - Out of the Woods was an undeniable piece of pop perfection and really showed that Pop Taylor was not here to fuck around. I instantly loved it.

There are so many little details in Out of the Woods that really bring it together - the repetition in the chorus highlighting the constant anxiety Taylor felt in the relationship, the paper airplane necklace reference in case you hadn’t connected the Haylor dots, the recounting of the snowmobile incident being both a literal description of what happened but also a metaphor for how the relationship came to a crashing end. And if the studio version isn’t quite enough for you, there’s also the tour version with the second rendition of the bridge, or the piano version she performed at the Grammy museum.

Highlighted comments: @treacherousdemo: [gives song a 6.8] “..don't yell at me” @leadinmeon: [gives song a 5] “sue me” (i’ll see u both in court!!) @yourivysgrows: “REMEMBER WHEN YOU HIT THE BRAKES TOO SOON” @corneliaavenue: “haylor vehicular manslaughter”

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12. Dear John (8.522)

Highest score was 11 (@inweedsferociously); Lowest score was 4.8

Literally every single lyric in Dear John hits. It’s such a visceral listening experience. The very first line is “Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you” LIKE??? From the very first moment, you know you’re in for a hell of a dragging.

Dear John clocks in at 6 minutes 43 seconds, making it Taylor’s longest song ever, and it culminates in (of course) an absolutely explosive bridge, where Taylor just goes for John Mayer’s throat and declares herself to be “shining like fireworks” over his “sad empty town”. This, coupled with finally turning the tables on him, from saying she should’ve known he was no good to saying that he should’ve known she would absolutely eviscerate him in song form. God, what a power move. Queen shit right there.

Highlighted comments: @inweedsferociously: “From the deep and moody guitar licks, to the rich, metaphor-laden, self-penned lyrics, this song is a masterpiece. I've always loved how you can hear the pure anger and emotion in her voice. 'I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day' is an expert way to encapsulate what it's like to be with a dangerous and controlling person.” @corneliaavenue: “congrats taylor!!! you are now just as old as john when he did this to you!!!” @yourivysgrows: “God tier lyricism”