Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Taylor Swift Songs
Earlier this week, Taylor Swift released her fourth studio album, Red. Like the 22-year-old singer-songwriter herself, it shines in its eclecticism: there are guitar wailers, pop jams and even a dash of dubstep. But where do T-Swift's new jams rank in her pantheon of past hits? We recently asked you to name your favorite songs from Swift's entire catalog – and while you've been down with seemingly all of her moves, it's her Speak Now classics that hit home the hardest. Click through to see the results.
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10. ‘Safe and Sound’ (with the Civil Wars)
Swift's meditative, breathy vocals stand at the center of this tear-jerking ballad from the T-Bone Burnett-produced Hunger Games soundtrack. The singer is joined here by the folk duo and fellow Nashville natives the Civil Wars, to whom she previously gave a major career boost by proclaiming them one of her favorite musical acts.
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9. ‘Red’
The title track from Swift's new album covers all the musical bases: it's a soft-rock, country-inflected stomper that even manages to work in some Top 40 electronic vocal effects. Perhaps as a result of its heavy current promotion, the song is one of only two new cuts to find their way onto this list of fan favorites.
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8. ‘Our Song’
Written and first performed at her ninth grade talent show, Swift's massive breakout single, a country classic featured on her 2006 eponymous debut album, reflected the singer's beyond-her-years maturity: "He's got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel/ The other on my heart," she sings.
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7. ‘Back to December’
This swirling, elegiac ballad is packed with orchestral flourishes and was featured on Swift's third album, Speak Now. It was the first that the singer – generally one to have the last laugh – has admitted to be an apology to a past lover. Rumors have swirled that it's aimed at past fling Taylor Lautner, but neither he nor Swift have confirmed this to be true.
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6. ‘Long Live’
This Speak Now epic is classic Swift: charming, over-the-top and every bit a pleasure. Sure, in reality, the singer may have dropped out of high school, but she sells this tale of being crowned prom queen with so much conviction, damned if you weren't there helping her slip on her tiara.
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5. ‘Enchanted’
"There I was again tonight/ Forcing laughter, faking smiles," Swift sings on this tale of catching that one dude's eye – if only for a fleeting, butterflies-inducing moment. Despite never being promoted as an official single, the Speak Now song nonetheless has become one of Swift's live staples.
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4. ‘Haunted’
Swift sheds her country innocence and slips on a pair of rugged rock boots on this Speak Now breakup ballad; she even brings along a full string section to amp her anguish. "Can't turn back now," she pleads, speaking both to the song's antagonist and her evolving musical tastes.
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3. ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’
Skepticism arose after Swift revealed she'd worked with pop hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback on this lead single from Red. However, the singer's hook-minded collaborators only amplified her charm, as well as her commercial success: this snarky song became the singer's first to hit Number One on the Billboard 100.
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2. ‘Love Story’
Before her infamous love affairs with Hollywood bad boys, Swift was just another aimless, heartaching Tennessee teenager. For Fearless' lead single, a classic in her still-growing canon, she compares her unrequited love to (duh!) Romeo and Juliet. "This love is difficult, but it's real," she confesses.
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1. ‘Mean’
Something about Swift calling out chumps just feels right. On this banjo-inflected gem from Speak Now, the singer pulls no punches as she blasts a thickheaded critic. "Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city… and all you'll ever be is mean," she sings, laughing as she leaves all music critics to contemplate their chosen career.