Top 10 Best Taylor Swift Songs

This is it.

This is the list you've been waiting for.

Let me start by saying one thing: This list was very difficult to form. I have been listening to Taylor for a really, really long time so most of her songs spark certain memories and feelings from my life, as it does for all of her loyal listeners (which is one of the things that makes Taylor so special, right?). But trying to narrow down ALL of her amazing songs into a short list of 10?! It was hard. Maybe I should have done a Top 20. Or 30.

On the real, though, this list includes some opinion and personal experience, but I also really tried to separate myself and choose the most lyrically beautiful and uniquely Taylor songs, not just the ones I like to bop to or the ones that got the most radio time.

After poring over album after album, not only noting how each song makes me feel personally, but how well it's put together lyrically and thematically, I finally narrowed it down. I'll be honest, this list is a healthy mix of personal experience and objectivity. It is not a list of my top 10 favorites, but it does include most of them because I love it when Taylor is at her most raw and emotional, which I believe is when she creates her biggest masterpieces.

The point is: I am taking this SERIOUSLY.

Don't believe me?

Well, you don't have to believe me. I'm not going to sit here and try to prove myself as the world's biggest Taylor Swift fan or mention some deep cut, unreleased, hipster stuff (*cough* "Dark Blue Tennessee" *cough*) to prove that I truly "know the real Taylor."

You just kind of have to take my word for it.

Here are Taylor Swift's top 10 best songs.

DISCLAIMER: Cut me some slack, okay? Taylor has so many amazing songs. I did the best I could. And it hurts me that I had to cut some out. So, DON'T BLAME ME if your favorite didn't make it. I'm only human and looking back it was stupid to condense all of her discography into a Top 10 list... but anyway, enjoy.

10. "Tim McGraw" ('Taylor Swift')

If there's one thing that's certain, Taylor's debut album was a BANGER. I think it's also worth reminding that Taylor was only 16 years old when the album came out. She wrote most of these songs during her freshman year of high school. That's pretty amazing to think about, especially when you realize what you were doing during your freshman year of high school. Speaking for myself, I was too busy being awkward and dressing badly to write country hits.

"Tim McGraw" was her first single, and delivers so much nostalgia and naivety that you can't help but wish you had your own cute, country boy to think about when listening to it. It has us dreaming of simpler times when you'd cuddle in the back of his beat-up truck and look at the stars... wait, that's never happened to me. Well, the song sure makes it feel like it has. Also, let's not forget that Miss Swift just recently surprised an audience of 80,000 with Tim McGraw himself where they sang this song together. Excuse me while I cry.

BEST MOMENT:

"He said the way my blue eyes shinedPut those Georgia stars to shame that nightI said, 'That's a lie'Just a boy in a Chevy truckThat had a tendency of gettin' stuckOn backroads at night"

9. "Dress" ('reputation')

Talk about a shift from Tim McGraw. It feels strange putting those two so close together, but "Dress" has gotta take the number 9 spot.

This is arguably Taylor's steamiest song to date, and one of her most lyrically beautiful. Just thinking about this song makes me believe in passionate love. It's so breathy and whimsical and electric that I just want to close my eyes and turn it up to full volume. I have to admit, it took a while for this song to really grow on me. Don't get me wrong, I loved it when I first heard it but I listened to reputation all in one go, which caused this song to wrongfully be overlooked. However, after an evening of re-discovery (and watching her perform it live—GASP), it now deserves a spot in my top 10. Every time you listen to it, you find something new to marvel over. Also—you CAN'T beat that bridge.

It's so raw. So magical. So grown up. So passionate. The song convinces me that the love she sings about just may be The One...

BEST MOMENT:

"Inescapable, I'm not even gonna tryAnd if I get burned, at least we were electrified."

8. "Fearless" ('Fearless')

This. Song. Is. So. Great.

Fearless is one of those albums that will just transport you back to a time of childhood crushes and playing barefoot with your best friend in the summertime. This song has always been a classic T-Swift standout for me, mostly because I think the message of it has been so important in my life. Being the titular song, Swift stresses the importance of being fearless throughout her album (duh, it's in the name).

In the album, she paints pictures of first-kisses and first-heartbreaks, moments that swept her off her feet and times where she felt completely helpless. But it always comes back to this song. The song represents the idea of allowing yourself to dive head-first into life. It urges you to feel. To be reckless, passionate and, yes, even afraid. Being fearless may cause pain, but it also might make you feel like dancing in the rain, in your best dress. And this song shows there's no other way to live life except doing just that.

BEST MOMENT:

"In this moment now, capture it, remember it."

7. "Mean" ('Speak Now')

Talk about self-empowerment.

This song is one of Taylor's most successful, and I don't think that just because of its use of the banjo and blue-grass vibe. The song is so purely simple and REAL. Every single person who listens to it can identify a time in life where someone was just plain mean to them.

Well, Taylor is here to tell you she gets it all the time, too. She responds with confidence, calling every mean person out for what they are. And assuring you to look at the bigger picture. Some people are just... mean, but that doesn't mean that you won't be so much more than that. She re-asserts her worth and encourages her listeners to do the same thing.

Also, side note, another reason I love this song is due to the fact that she performed it at the 2012 Grammys and got a STANDING OVATION. It was one of her best live performances. She really stuck it to those mean fools.

BEST MOMENT:

"And I can see you years from now in a barTalking over a football gameWith that same big loud opinionBut nobody's listeningWashed up and ranting about the same old bitter thingsDrunk and grumbling on about how I can't singBut all you are is mean."

6. "Wildest Dreams" ('1989')

Wow. Just, wow.

This song really took me by surprise the first time I heard it on 1989. First of all, that album is incredible, and I might give it its own post someday. This song is probably the biggest clue to what reputation would bring. It showed that our little Taylor is growing up (tears). It's sultry, poetic, and very emotional in a way that makes you wonder if you'll ever feel love as passionate as this one.

I mean, this song is literally sang to a heartbeat. How cool is that?

Also, the "his clothes are in my room" line was about as steamy as Taylor had ever gotten, so points for that.

The song builds so subtly that you don't realize you're in the climax of the song until you're in it. After the bridge, it breaks down so that the words of the chorus are almost whispered... "say you'll remember me"....then it EXPLODES into a mess of emotion. Simply put, the song is an EXQUISITE tangle of steam and longing and the shining star of 1989.

BEST MOMENT:

"I thought heaven can't help me now...Nothing lasts foreverBut this is gonna take me down."

5. "Last Kiss" (Speak Now)

Okay—here's where we start to peel ourselves away from the rest of the pack. This song is breathtaking. It's not one of her most popular, but it truly is one of her most lyrically strong songs that she has written, and I have found that it's a fan favorite. I recommend listening to this song at night, in the dark, with good quality headphones on full-blast. It just might change your life.

It paints you a picture, from beginning to end, and makes you feel the pain she felt when she lost this person she loved. The imagery is so strong in the beginning, you can almost see the soft glow of lights on wet pavement. We go on a journey with her as she remembers this person. We understand it, and we recognize what she lost almost as if it were our own. The verses are really great, but the bridge of this song is what really sells it. Instead of pulling back, like many bridges do, she leans into it. The song develops and leads you crashing into the climax. It just hits you with so much at once (refer below for the best moment, 'cause this is definitely it).

Then, she pulls off and you're left with nothing except Taylor's shaky voice. Listen closely at 4:27, 'cause you can literally hear her holding back tears with a shaky breath. It's so powerful and emotional.

And it just breaks my little heart.

BEST MOMENT:

"So I watch your life in pictureslike I used to watch you sleep,And I feel you forget me likeI used to feel you breathe."

4. "New Years Day" ('reputation')

This was the last song on reputation and, my God, Taylor knew what she was doing when she chose this song to close the album out.

I recently watched a video of a group of college kids reacting to the entire album, they had their opinions throughout (some of them I DID NOT agree with), but by this song, every one of them had a look of heart-warmed nostalgia on their face—even a few of them got emotional. Even the girl who claimed she really did not like Taylor Swift allowed herself to love this song.

This one just really brings her back to her roots. It's so nostalgic, not only for long-time fans of Taylor, but also for anyone who listens to it. It's a nostalgic song. It makes you think about those people you love and the memories you've shared with them and you can't help but get emotional about it. It's so beautifully written. Incredibly simple, yet so powerful. Especially during an album filled with so much change and so many different emotions, she ends the only way she knows how, speaking from the heart. The lyrics are crisp and the harmonies tie it up in a beautiful little emotional bow.

The purity and beauty of the lyrics are what really make this song for me.

BEST MOMENT:

"Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere."

3. "Getaway Car" ('reputation')

Taylor robot voice: NO NOTHING GOOD STARTS IN A GETAWAY CAR.

Me: AHHHHHH YES

That's how I feel whenever this song starts. See, I think this is one of those moments where this list becomes a little more personal because I absolutely am obsessed with this song. I just really love the lyrics and all of the jet-set, on-the-run, car chase, Bonnie & Clyde imagery. Also the narrative throughout this song is golden. It's a fully-formed story with so much juicy subtext, especially if you are aware of who this song is about.

The pulsing 80s-esque beat in the back pushes the story along with our almost-angry-yet-sympathetic narrator basically saying "you should have known," but also "I'm really sorry."

This song is so complex. The lyrics are just wonderful and the tone of it holds a plethora of so many different emotions.

Guilt? Yes. Anger? Yes. Regret? Yes. Honesty? Yes.

But do I detect that this song is making peace as well? Yeah.

It's one of those songs you can dance around to, but also one of those songs that you could cry to.

All I can say is that my life will always feel incomplete if it never has a "Getaway Car" music video in it.

BEST MOMENT:

"Well he was running after us,I was screaming GO, GO, GO!"

2. "All Too Well" ('Red')

Like I said, I really love Taylor's piano ballads.

"All Too Well"...where do I even begin with this goldmine of a song?

I'm going to make a bold claim and say this is the most lyrically strong song Taylor has even written. The song is an incarnate hurricane of emotion, a snapshot of memories, a re-telling of tragedy, and a catharsis of anger, sadness and loss. It's so brutally honest that Taylor would absolutely hate playing it in concert because it forced her to re-live this tumultuous loss of someone she truly and deeply cared about. Now, that's one hell of a song if it causes the writer to re-feel those emotions that strongly when they sing it, even if they have sang it hundreds of times.

We experience her literal journey with her through this song. We start in the honeymoon phase of the relationship, delivered to us in snapshots of memories like dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light, or when she visits his family and they look at old scrapbook pages and fantasize about their future together.

The song begins so delicately, but with each verse she gets more emotional. The pain emerges out of this loss and creates a snowballing effect until we reach the bridge, the breakup, the climax, and she begins LITERALLY screaming at us: "hey, you call me up again, just to break me like a promise! So casually cruel in the name of being honest." It's a complete meltdown, and we are experiencing it with her.

Then, the eye of the storm comes along. The momentum crashes and she is left with nothing else. This is the aftermath. She lost him, and now she is dealing with it by revisiting these old memories with great sadness.

MAN. This song just really gets me. Not to mention, it's definitely a fan favorite, so she decided to play it for us during the 2014 Grammys. It was an extremely emotional performance that literally rocked my world. I remember being so excited that people would be able to experience this song.

BEST MOMENT:

Literally - the whole song. I'm not kidding.

1. "Long Live" ('Speak Now')

Okay, this song holds a really special place in my heart for multiple reasons. First of all, it was my favorite song from Speak Now, which is really saying something, because I was obsessed with that album (and still am). There was something about the epic-ness of this song that I was really drawn to. It became my anthem. The idea of being in a "band of thieves, with ripped up jeans" seemed to poetically enticing to my teenage self that I would listen to it on repeat before going to school to try and hype myself up for the dreariness of my middle school years.

"Long Live" became my confirmation that I was greater than the monotony of the school I hated. It confirmed that I was meant for something more than that, and that Taylor thought so too. Even today, Taylor is an example for the kinds of things I hope to achieve in life. She is a living illustration of the idea that I have always believed in: I am meant for more.

And that was before she dropped it in her reputation set list.

I saw her perform this live on piano during her reputation tour a few months ago, and to be honest, it blew me away. I did not see it coming, which made it even better. It brought me back to those middle school days where I would dream and pray for something more than what I had. The best part was when she said she wrote it about her fans, about me. It honestly brought me to tears.

This song essentially represents my love for Taylor Swift, and everything that she means to me, which means it a pretty damn special song in my book.

BEST MOMENT:

"Can you take a momentPromise me this:That you'll stand by me foreverBut if God forbid, fate should step inAnd force us into a goodbyeIf you have children somedayWhen they point to the picturesPlease tell them my name.Tell them how the crowds went wildTell them how I hope they shine."