Taylor Blog Epilogue: The Rankings

Photo: TAS Rights Management

When "The Life of a Showgirl" came out, fans on social media rushed to rank their favorite songs; I resisted this because I insisted that as a "no skips" album, all the songs were my favorite. I could no more rank them than I could rank my favorite pets or kids.

I can totally rank my favorite current pets: 1) Oscar (dog), 2) Loki (cat), 3) Bernie (cat), 4) Archie (dog), 5) Bailey (dog), 6) Penny (cat).

No, I'm not ranking the kids. 

But I am going to rank the songs on Showgirl with the caveat that I maintain that each song is worth listening to. These are indications of personal preference and not any sort of qualitative value judgment, which is why I'm not numbering them. If they deviate from yours, it's a subjective assessment only, and I invite you to share your own list if you wish.

Ruin the Friendship
CANCELLED!
The Fate of Ophelia
Opalite
Wood
Elizabeth Taylor
Actually Romantic
Eldest Daughter
Father Figure
Wi$h Li$t
Honey
The Life of a Showgirl

A friend I mentioned in the opening post of this series, Steve Lewis, has been ranking his Top 100 favorite songs since he was a teen, and he updates them every few years. If you go back to May 2019 on this blog, you'll see my one-and-only Top 100 post. I've been thinking it's time to update my list, but I have a problem.

I'm going to have too many Taylor Swift songs. If it's a Top 100, at least 25 songs, if not more, are going to be Taylor's. Let's take a look in reverse chronology, and I'm only listing my essential favorites:

The Tortured Poets Department
Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, Guilty as Sin?, The Black Dog, Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, So High School, thanK you aIMee (7)

Midnights
Anti-Hero, You're on Your Own, Kid, Vigilante Shit, Bejeweled, Karma, Hits Different (6)

evermore
'tis the damn season, no body, no crime (2)

folklore
the 1, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, august, betty (5)

Lover
Cruel Summer, Lover, The Man, You Need to Calm Down, ME! (5)

Reputation
...Ready For It?, Don't Blame Me, Delicate, Look What You Made Me Do (4)

1989
Blank Space, Style, Shake It Off, New Romantics (4)

Red
22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (2)

Speak Now
Mine, Back to December, Long Live (3)

Fearless
Fearless, Fifteen, Love Story, White Horse, You Belong With Me, Forever & Always (6)

Nothing on Debut...sorry. But even if you cut "Showgirl" down to my top six songs, that leaves me with—OMG is that right?—50 songs. Fifty songs? So half of my top 100 will be Taylor songs? But I have way more than 50 non-Taylor songs that I want in my top 100?

Alright. Fine. Okay.

Top 200 it is.

Coming in late December!