The New Listener’s Guide to Taylor Swift’s Album Collection

By Austin Price, Editor in Chief

Taylor Swift is one of the most elite, successful, and well-known musical artists in our world today. Swift made history with her seamless transition between the genres of country music and pop music. In addition, Swift has also explored the indie and folk musical genres. She has received accolades for her songwriting, artistry, and entrepreneurship, all of which have majorly influenced the music industry and popular culture. Taylor Swift has released 10 original studio albums, 4 re-recorded studio albums, 5 extended plays, and 4 live albums. With such a massive amount of published material, I would argue that Taylor Swift is a genre all on her own. She certainly has enough music to support it.  

As a die-hard Taylor Swift fan, I understand that her vast amount of music can be overwhelming and hard to follow. And so, I present to you a beginner’s tour of Taylor Swift’s work. You might say that I present to you a listener’s guide to Taylor Swift’s extensive album collection. Hopefully, this will break down her infinite catalog of work, and help dissect this wide library of songs, filled with heartbreak, hope, love, and joy.  

The albums will be in chronological order, but with the Taylor’s Version albums replacing the original recordings. So, while the date may be different, the records are listed in the order that they were released, but with Taylor’s Version albums in place of the initial albums. This means we will go through 10 albums. Let’s get started.  

Album: Taylor Swift 

Release date: October 24th, 2006  

Vibe: Childhood innocence 

Personal favorites: Picture to Burn, Our Song, Should’ve Said No 

Best lyric: “Was it worth it? Was she worth this?” (Should’ve Said No) 

Summary: Kicking it off with our first album, Taylor Swift, Taylor shows her country music roots with songs of childhood innocence, adolescent feelings, and immature emotions as she writes a narrative of a young, country girl, finding love for the first time.  

Click here to listen 

Album: Fearless (Taylor's Version)  

Release Date: April 9th, 2021 

Vibe: Highschool crush 

Personal favorites: White Horse (Taylor’s Version), You Belong with Me (Taylor’s Version) 

Best lyric: “Now it's too late for you and your white horse to catch me now.” (White Horse) 

Summary: This is the ultimate high school album. With songs dreaming of running away with the high school quarterback and comparisons to the timeless love story, Romeo and Juliet, this album is perfect for that teenage angst when you think you know everything about love.  

Click here to listen 

Album: Speak Now (Taylor's Version)  

Release date: July 7th, 2023 

Vibe: Young love  

Personal favorites: Mean (Taylor’s Version), The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version), Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version), Haunted (Taylor’s Version) 

Best lyric: “I've never heard silence quite this loud.” (The Story of Us) 

Summary: This album takes us from the chaos and drama of high school to the stage in your life where you’re technically an adult, but you still wish you were a kid. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) brings songs of broken fairytales, shattered dreams, and lost promises, all of which were destroyed by the harsh realities of the real adult world. 

Click here to listen 

Album: Red (Taylor’s Version)  

Release date: November 12th, 2021  

Vibe: Day-to-day life in love  

Personal favorites: Red (Taylor’s Version), I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor’s Version), We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor’s Version), Holy Ground (Taylor’s Version), Sad Beautiful Tragic (Taylor’s Version), All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) 

Best lyric: “And I guess we fell apart in the usual way and the story's got dust on every page.” (Holy Ground) 

Summary: Just as the seasons of weather change, so do the seasons of love. Red (Taylor’s Version) breaks out of the imaginary love ballads and enters a more realistic, day-to-day romance with a reflection on the seasons of life and how change impacts love. It is a bittersweet album.  

Click here to listen 

Album: 1989 (Taylor's Version) 

Release date: October 27th, 2023  

Vibe: Beach party with your lover  

Personal favorites: Blank Space (Taylor’s Version), Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version), Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version), Wonderland (Taylor’s Version), 

Best lyric: “Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.” (Blank Space)  

Summary: 1989 is arguably Taylor’s top party playlist. With upbeat lyrics, fast paced tempos, and clever narrative, this album is the musical embodiment of the “it couple”.  

Click here to listen 

Album: Reputation  

Release date: November 10th, 2017  

Vibe: Revenge  

Personal favorites: Don’t Blame Me, Gorgeous, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things  

Best lyric: “You’ve ruined my life by not being mine.” (Gorgeous)  

Summary: Reputation is the ultimate revenge playlist. Complete with soundtracks for sabotage and schemes, Reputation is the badass of the album collection.  

Click here to listen 

Album: Lover  

Release date: August 23rd, 2019 

Vibe: Puppy love in the honeymoon phase  

Personal favorites: The Archer, Paper Rings, Death By A Thousand Cuts  

Best lyric: “All the king's horses, all the king's men, couldn't put me together again.” (The Archer) 

Summary: Lover is an album written by someone in love, for those who are in love. Lover hosts meet-cute love stories, reflections on society’s stereotypes, and a feeling of joy colored with shades of bubble gum pink. 

Click here to listen 

Album: Folklore  

Release date: July 24th, 2020 

Vibe: Fables and fairytales  

Personal favorites: the last great american dynasty, august, invisible string 

Best lyric: “Time, mystical time, cutting me open, then healing me fine.” (invisible string) 

Summary: Folklore is the perfect album for rainy days and walks in the forest. Taylor tells fictional tales of whimsy and wonder in this fantasy album, built for fables and folktales to be shared around the campfire.  

Click here to listen 

Album: Evermore  

Release date: December 11th, 2020 

Vibe: Cabin in the woods  

Personal favorites: Willow, Champagne Problems, long story short, marjorie 

Best lyric: “Never be so kind, you forget to be clever. Never be so clever, you forget to be kind.” (marjorie) 

Summary: This album was built for Colorado girls. Wrap up in a cozy flannel, make some hot chocolate, and enjoy this magical album with tales of witchcraft, true love, and life lessons. The album is complete with gentle vocals and haunting melodies. 

Click here to listen 

 Album: Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition)  

Release date: May 26th, 2023 

Vibe: Late night thoughts  

Personal favorites: Vigilante Shit, Mastermind, The Great War, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve 

Best lyric: “Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man.” (Vigilante Shit)  

Summary: Midnights is a compilation of late-night thoughts, deep regrets, new ideas, and most of all dreams, both good and bad. Undertones of maturing revenge and parting thoughts give this album both a nostalgic look at the past and a hopeful view of the future.  

Click here to listen 

Taylor Fest: The Ultimate Taylor Swift Dance Party

By Austin Price, Editor in Chief

I am fully convinced that Taylor Swift is the ultimate queen of pop music. Taylor Swift is a singer, songwriter, performer, director, artist and entrepreneur. In simple words, Taylor Swift is an icon. Since the start of her career, Taylor Swift has been nominated for over 500 awards and won 324. According to Taylor Swift Fandom, these awards include 10 Grammy Awards, 8 Country Music Awards, 23 American Music Awards, 23 Billboard Music Awards, 10 iHeart Radio Music Awards, and 68 BMI Awards, among others. If those numbers don’t scream success to you, I don’t know what would.  

Fans of Taylor Swift are known as “Swifties” and are known for their enthusiastic and unwavering loyalty to Swift. I have immense amounts of respect for Taylor. She is truly one of the most talented, hardworking, courageous, and glorious performers of all time. She’s also a badass in so many ways. To call her a woman of many talents would be the understatement of the century. She is an inspiration in her career and in her personal life.  

While Taylor Swift continues to headline in her record-breaking and unbelievable show, The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift fans look to find new ways to celebrate her work with fellow members of the Swift fandom. Luckily, a new experience catering specifically to Swift fans passed through Denver. This experience is officially known as Taylor Fest.  

The Taylor Fest logo gleamed in the dark theater. Photo by Austin Price.

According to AXS.com, Taylor Fest is “a party for Swifties, by Swifties. Where everyone is the main character. Come party with us as we dance the night away to all of Taylor Swift's eras”. On Saturday, January 6th, Taylor Fest came to Denver with the ultimate Swiftie experience at the Bluebird Theater. I was lucky to attend this event which I would describe as a club that only plays Taylor Swift and is filled to the brim with Swifties.  

Upon arriving at the theater, the line was out the door, and these were the attendees with prepaid tickets. The event was sold out with nearly 600 attendees. However, despite the chilly air and busy clattering of Colfax Street, I immediately felt the atmosphere change upon getting in line. Every single person there was dressed to impress the Swiftie community. Many were decked out in Taylor Swift merchandise, yours truly included, and others were in Taylor Swift costumes, following the different outfits and styles she donned in her different musical eras.  

While waiting outside, everyone was joyful. Swifties were trading bracelets, taking photos with one another, complimenting each other’s outfits, and making connections, all within the first 10 minutes of arriving. I don’t know how to adequately describe how electric and inclusive this environment felt. Everyone there was welcome, celebrated, and loved. It’s extraordinary that all this communal love and support was generated by Taylor Swift.  

The entire party consisted of Taylor’s music, and only her music. The neon lights matched the lyrics, and the entire theater was Taylor Swift themed. With an overpriced merchandise table, which I admittedly spent way too much money at, and featured drinks that matched Taylor’s lyrics, this small theater became an oasis for Swifties, and the ultimate Taylor Swift party.  

The view from the bar at the back of Bluebird Theater as the party started. Photo by Austin Price. 

As the group entered the theater, fans were immediately singing. Standing in the entryway, people were singing. At the bar, people were singing. In the line for the bathroom, people were singing. At the merchandise table, people were singing. Everywhere you looked, fans were belting out the lyrics to everyone around. Complete strangers began to sing together. If you were there and singing, you were automatically embraced and loved by the powerhouse fandom.  

Fans took the stage by storm as they sang along with Swift. Photo by Austin Price.

The theater was packed with people. Swifties were gathered around the stage, on the balcony, and a small group at a time were allowed to sing on the stage, with the DJ and host of the party. I got the chance to sing onstage towards the end of the night when many people had cleared out, and it was amazing.  

I know it sounds childlike and crazy, but I felt like Taylor when belting out the lyrics, off key and full of undeserved confidence. I looked out into the sea of people and could see everyone watching me and singing with me. Now, normally my introverted self would hate this with a passion, but I felt so welcomed and embraced by this group of strangers, as we bonded over the soundtracks to our lives. I watched them when they were on stage, and they watched me when I was on stage. It was a surreal experience that I will never forget.  

The view from the stage of the Bluebird Theater. Photo by Austin Price.

I attribute this free spirit, and uncaring and bold attitude of mine to Taylor. Her music tells many stories. Stories that every listener can relate to and sympathize with. Stories that have pulled so many fans out of dark places and gave them a place to bond and love one another, fearlessly and unashamedly.  

Taylor Swift is many things. She is strong-willed, determined, clever, kind, courageous, empathetic, selfless, and one of the most influential people of our time. Despite these countless accolades, I think that Taylor’s biggest strength is her ability to connect people. Taylor Fest hosted people of various ages, races, and genders, each with their own memories, experiences, and histories. However, Taylor Swift connected these hundreds of strangers through her art, and that is an ability that few can achieve.

Midnights: The Taylor Swift Album to Rule them All

By Sandra Vo, Staff Writer

At midnight on October 21, Taylor Swift released her tenth studio album “Midnights”, to a world who had long been awaiting her return. Under the power of a dedicated fanbase, “Midnights” crashed Spotify upon its release and sold over a million copies in just one week. For Swifties everywhere, “Midnights” was the culmination of everything that Swift represented: love, heartbreak, self-realization, and raw, personal emotion. 

But what exactly makes “Midnights” a distinctly Taylor Swift album? For one, the usage of musical elements from Swift’s previous music breathes both new life and nostalgia into her latest tracks, reviving the pieces of Swift eras long gone. 

In “Anti-Hero”, Swift embraces the gated reverb, a muted electronically modified drum sound that originated from the 1980s. As a result, the song becomes reminiscent of her 1989 album, her previous ode to the funky pop of the 80s. She juxtaposes the upbeat pop melody with lyrics about how her own self-confidence wavers in her day-to-day life. Her music video portrays two versions of herself that interact with each other in a mentor-mentee relationship, where one Swift teaches the other about the cynicism and the fact that she, herself, is the problem in all of her relationships. At the end, three Swifts convene on a rooftop to share a drink, resolving her struggles with self-esteem with a simple toast.  

This interaction between multiple versions of herself isn’t contained to just “Anti-Hero” however. Swift also addresses herself again in “You’re On Your Own, Kid” which initially appears to be about her naivete as a young woman and the bitterness that she has developed in her later years. However, later in the song, Swift subverts her original narrative by saying that her independence is actually a strength that’ll allow her to move past any moment by herself as she sings, “You’re on your own, kid. Yeah, you can face this. You’re on your own kid. You always have been.” Swift fans who can recall the song “Fifteen” from her namesake album will immediately spot the similarities to the ending of “Fifteen” where she tells her former 15-year-old self to “Take a deep breath girl. Take a deep breath as you walk through the doors.” The theme of her future self reassuring her former self of their resilience pervades throughout her experiences and journey as a musician. 

In “Snow On The Beach” (ft. Lana Del Rey), Swift and Rey sing about dreamlike romances and surreal moments during love. Both of them have a light, airy melody line that aligns with the theme about being in the hypnotic clutches of love. Combined with the soft, lower-pitched instrumentals that accompany their voices, this song sounds a little bit like it belongs in her “Evermore” and “Folklore” albums. She utilizes the same gentle rhythms and tender percussion to give “Snow On The Beach” a comforting, warmer feeling. 

And perhaps the most obvious nod to her former music is the song “Vigilante Sh–” The spoken, monotone words followed by a bass drop is definitely an element that she explored in her “Reputation” album. Knowing that “Reputation” embodied the idea of being a “bad b—-,” it’s no surprise that the message of “Vigilante Sh–” is all about revenge and independence. 

But even despite the wide range of musical elements and themes, Swift wraps her Midnights album nicely with one overarching theme: the simultaneous ending and beginning of her journey. She reflects on her previous experiences (“Midnight Rain” and “Question..?”) but also notes the direction that she wants to move forward (“Labyrinth” and “Lavender Haze”). And perhaps there has never been anything more “Taylor Swift” than to know that reflection does not trap a person in the past, but instead, gives them an avenue to move forward. 

Why Taylor Swift is Re-recording

By: Sarah Gomez, Staff Writer

As many of you may have noticed, whether through TikTok trends or ex-girlfriend’s dm, Taylor Swift has released a re-recorded version of her album Fearless. The album, first released in 2008, was Swift’s first album of the year and acts as the first of many upcoming re-recorded albums.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the first of five upcoming re-recorded albums we can expect from Swift in the coming year, a sixth being eligible for re-recording next year. Swift has been working on re-recording these albums since 2019 and is rumored to be releasing her second album of the year, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) later this year. 

Though at first glance this may seem like a ploy for extra money without doing any new writing, the reasoning behind Swift wanting to re-record goes beyond simply finances. Taylor Swift's first 6 albums are currently owned by Ithaca Holdings and offered to trade her masters for her first album with brand new ones. They essentially offered to give her back what belongs to her if she gave them something new of hers. Swift rightfully refused the offer, but that left her masters with Ithaca. 

The solution? Though the masters belong to someone else, Swift still owns all the rights to the music itself. By re-recording her music, which she legally owns, she can regain artistic ownership over her past work. In re-recording, Swift is able to reduce the value of the original and once again own her original songs. The re-recording will not only have the re-recorded classics loved by fans but also incentives put into place to make Taylor’s version more appealing than the original.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was not merely the same songs recorded, but the addition of never-before-heard songs. Swift released the single “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” one of the never-before-heard songs and has seen a remarkable response both on the charts and various social platforms. The added songs were written at the same time as the rest of the album but simply did not make the initial cut. This added to the appeal of the new version, increasing the appeal through the exclusive content. These types of never-before-heard songs are going to be a common theme as Swift re-releases her remaining albums. 

Women are back on the charts, but will they stay?

(Photo: Olivia Bee)

With the release of Taylor Swift’s, “Look What You Made Me Do,” a woman has made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time this year. For 12 weeks this summer, the top five featured only men. That’s three whole months with no female artists anywhere close to number one, the longest drought of this nature since 1972. In April, female artists didn’t even make it into the top 10. The last time this happened was in 1984, the year Apple released their first ‘personal computer.’

A similar drought has also been seen in Billboard’s other main list of the top 200 albums. In June, Halsey broke the over six-month female lull in the Top 200 albums, with the release of Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. In the past several weeks, both Lorde and Kesha have topped the album charts with Melodrama and Rainbow respectively. Neither of them made it anywhere close to the top of the top 100 singles chart.

So what does this mean for women in the music industry? Or for women in the world in general right now? It is a coincidence that this drought began in the months following the U.S. 2016 election? We know women are creating phenomenal music. So where is it? Why aren’t we hearing it even half the amount of times we hear “Despacito”? Women are back for now, but are they here to stay?

Ali Meehan
Staff Reporter