After multiple “songs ranked” instant reactions, it’s time to reflect on my biggest regrets, and champion the songs that were stronger than their initial rankings.
Taylor Swift performs at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 16, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia.
Graham Denholm/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
A few years ago, the Billboard staff began publishing “songs ranked” album reviews, as a fun way to provide an instant reaction to the week’s big new album releases. These reviews were inherently subjective — no one’s personal ranking of a 13-song album is going to be exactly the same as everyone else’s — and obviously preliminary, with only a few listens granted to projects that often took time to fully reveal their artistry. And of course, no one on the Billboard staff would argue against listeners wanting to experience an album in the order in which the artist intended to hear them, first and foremost. Yet these reviews are snapshots, designed to be based on our experts’ gut feelings about the songs you simply had to hear on a full-length, and destined to be debated endlessly online by fans who were furious about whichever song would be ranked last.
I’ve written extensively about every Taylor Swift album released to date, and began writing “songs ranked” reviews of her albums with Lover in 2019. And since then, I’ve had some rankings I wish I could take back — specifically, tracks that have grown on me considerably and made me go, “How did I place that one so low on my personal list?” Sometimes, those pangs arrive in a few days, and sometimes I get them after a few years. But on the eve of The Tortured Poets Department — and another “songs ranked” review, and later, more regrets over that ranking — I decided to look back at the ones that got away at the time, but have entered my wheelhouse in the time since.
Here are five Taylor Swift songs I ranked too low upon their releases, including her last four studio albums (Lover, 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and 2022’s Midnights), as well as her “From the Vault” songs.
“Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince”
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.
“My Tears Ricochet”
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.
“Champagne Problems”
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.
“Karma”
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.
“Castles Crumbling” (feat. Hayley Williams)
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.
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