Will we ever see another pop spectacle as epic as Taylor Swift’s Eras tour? As the singer prepares to bring her zeitgeist-defining show to Dublin for three nights at the Aviva Stadium, she has already sold an estimated six million Eras tickets, generating a blockbusting $1 billion box office so far.
With six months – and likely another $1 billion – yet to run, Eras is by some distance the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. It has also literally caused the earth to move: the British Geological Survey revealed that stomping by Swifties at one of her gigs in Edinburgh this month registered on its seismic-activity detectors.
How far Swift has travelled since June 2006, when, aged just 16, she released her debut single, Tim McGraw. Written about a high-school sweetheart – they both loved the country singer – it got to number 40 in the United States, where it was greeted as the work of a fresh voice in country music. Little could anyone have suspected that it also represented the first baby steps by an artist soon to bestride 21st-century pop.
In the 18 years since then the singer has released 11 albums that have navigated country, pop, folk and rock while at all times sounding quintessentially Taylor Swift. (There are also four Taylor’s Versions re-recordings of earlier LPs, a project she embarked on after falling out with her first record label.) In April she shared perhaps her most ambitious record yet – certainly her longest – with The Tortured Poets Department, which clocks in at 31 tracks in its fullest form.
How does it compare to the rest of her repertoire? Hold on to your friendship bracelet as we bring you the ultimate, though in no way definitive, ranking of Swift’s catalogue.
11: Taylor Swift (2006)
Swift was still attending high school in suburban Nashville when she released her self-titled first album. Clocking in at 40 minutes, Taylor Swift is crammed with tales of rejection, romantic yearning and her fandom of the country star Tim McGraw. Having grown up loving artists such as The Chicks (then the Dixie Chicks) and Stevie Nicks, she was still firmly in the country-rock milieu. (There are lashings of fiddles and banjos.) But her talent was clear, and for Swifties who have been with the artist since the start, this formative release from an artist still finding her voice will forever hold a special place.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: She has largely glossed over Taylor Swift while on the road, though she has performed Our Song, Tim McGraw and Teardrops on My Guitar during the “surprise songs” segment of her Eras tour set.
10: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2008/2021)
Written on the road in 2007 and 2008, Fearless was a leap forward for Swift, as underscored by the propulsive singles Love Story and You Belong With Me, a wallflower anthem that was nominated for three Grammys in 2010. The album was mildly controversial because of its shift towards a pop sound – a critique Swift was quick to dismiss. Whether “you tell stories about how you live on a farm and cherish your family and God, or whether you tell stories about being in high school and being cheated on, they’re stories about your life”, she said. “That’s what makes me a country artist.”
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Fearless, You Belong With Me, Love Story.
9: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2010/2023)
Swift’s first two albums were huge hits, but it was with Speak Now that she ascended to superstardom. Written in the aftermath of Kanye West crashing her 2009 VMA Awards acceptance speech, it heralded the dawn of the Taylor Swift “famous boyfriend” era, with Dear John widely believed to be about the singer-songwriter and guitarist John Mayer. Musically, she continued on her trajectory towards a fully realised pop identity. The 2023 Taylor’s Version re-recording includes a guest turn from Hayley Williams of Paramore, the Nashville emo rockers who open for Swift at the Aviva.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Castles Crumbling, Enchanted.
8: Reputation (2017)
Reputation was arguably the first substantial setback in Swift’s career. The consensus was that Swift had fallen into the cliche of a famous person complaining about the trials of celebrity – and had glazed her latest batch of songs about heartache with off-putting vitriol. “The woman who built a career on family-friendly romances ... now turns her gaze to the darker side of passion: obsession, jealousy, lust, the loss of control,” Pitchfork said in a review that epitomised the critical response. Seven years later, however, and with the acrid whiff of her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian having dissipated, we can look at Reputation in a new light and recognise that it’s stuffed with bangers, including the hyper-pop bulldozer ... Ready for It? (produced by the chart alchemists Max Martin and Shellback) and Getaway Car – a co-write with Jack Antonoff that’s regarded as a spiritual precursor to Cruel Summer (from Lover, her 2019 album). It’s one of her angriest records – but fully deserving of its rehabilitation and prominent placing in the Eras set list.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: ... Ready for It?, Delicate, Don’t Blame Me, Look What You Made Me Do.
7: Evermore (2020)
The second of Swift’s peak-lockdown “indie” albums recorded with Aaron Dessner of The National. It treads softly, but its best bits are gorgeous: the swooning Gold Rush, the slow-burning Marjorie (about Swift’s opera-singer grandmother, Marjorie Finlay) and the beautiful Willow: essentially Swift’s Lady Galadriel of Lothlórien “cottage-core” phase.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Willow, Champagne Problems, Marjorie.
6: Red (Taylor’s Version) (2012/2012)
The moment Swift broke her ties with country and began working with big pop producers such as Max Martin, Shellback and the Dubliner Garret “Jacknife” Lee. She was ready to come into her kingdom as a mainstream star via standouts such as We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and the epic All Too Well – rumoured to be about Jake Gyllenhaal, and one of her finest moments, powered by a swooning melody and diaristic lyrics that bring a gritty, fly-on-the-wall perspective to young heartbreak. (The 10-minute Taylor’s Version recording is considered definitive.)
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: 22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble, All Too Well.
5: The Tortured Poets Department (2024)
Fans are still at the getting-to-you-know stage of their relationship with Swift’s 11th album, which, in its double-disc edition, clocks in at a breathtaking 31 tracks. It’s a record of two halves, the first a suite of minimalist pop produced by Jack Antonoff, the second an artisanal indie revue with contributions from Aaron Dessner of The National. The real question it poses is: Can you have too much of a good thing? It’s a matter of individual opinion/attention span – but, at its best, The Tortured Poets Department is a work of stunning maturity and melancholy and a scorched-earth kiss-off to Swift’s deeply annoying ex Matty Healy, of The 1975.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: But Daddy I Love Him/So High School, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?, Down Bad, Fortnight, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.
4: Midnights (2022)
This down-tempo 3am fever dream became one of the biggest smashes of Swift’s career thanks to noirish masterpieces such as Anti-Hero and Lavender Haze. Musically, it is a quiet curveball, with Jack Antonoff’s restrained production giving Swift’s stark lyrics about self-doubt and romantic disillusion space to breathe.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Anti-Hero, Bejewelled, Karma, Lavender Haze, Mastermind, Midnight Rain, Vigilante Shit.
3: Lover (2019)
After the perceived underperformance of Reputation, her 2017 album, Swift needed to come back in winning fashion, and she did exactly that with the exquisite Lover. It contains the slow-burn smash Cruel Summer, which became a hit four years after its release, as well as the rumbling feminist torch song The Man and the epic Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince – the dusky ballad with which she kicks off her Eras tour performances.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, Cruel Summer, The Man, You Need to Calm Down, Lover.
2: Folklore (2020)
Taylor Swift didn’t need the respect of the global indie-dad community to confirm her status as a major artist. But that’s what she achieved with the mist-shrouded, wonderfully downbeat Folklore, an album that arrived in lockdown’s early gloom and stayed with us through the long, strange days that followed.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: August, Betty, Cardigan, Illicit Affairs, My Tears Ricochet.
1: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2014/2023)
The moment it all came together: Swift’s Joshua Tree, Born in the USA, Hounds of Love and Black Album rolled into one. The perfect mash-up of mainstream pop and confessional rock with some bonus spice thrown in: Bad Blood, rumoured to be about Katy Perry, gave us the pop-star megafeud we didn’t know we needed. The extended Taylor’s Version, including flawless bonus cuts such as Now That We Don’t Talk, is even better. This is Swift operating at the height of her powers, firing off hits for fun.
Tracks to expect at the Aviva: Bad Blood, Blank Space, Shake It Off, Style, Wildest Dreams.
