But if I Had a Choice I Would Be Like Me Again

From "I hope y'all call up of me" to "all'due south well that ends well to end upwardly with you," Taylor Swift's lyrics have "enchanted" usa for more than than a decade.

Taylor Swift's years in the spotlight have taken listeners from her land roots in 2006's self-titled "Taylor Swift" to the moody surprise quarantine albums "Folklore" and "Evermore" and now a triumphant return to her past with her "Cherry (Taylor'south Version)" rerecording.

Crossing genres and countless style choices, Swift has taken her place as a music icon. Longtime listeners know her discography all too well: They associate certain albums with specific periods of their lives and tether some of her nearly memorable lines to moments of their ain.

"I have this formula for music. If I continue to write songs almost my life, and my life is always changing, and so my music will always be changing," Swift told USA TODAY in 2010. She was right.

We ranked Swift's 62 best song lyrics from over the years – some heartbreaking, some triumphant – all works of lyrical genius that her biggest fans tin can't assistance but to sing again and once more.

62. "Lord, what will become of me / One time I've lost my novelty?" – "Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor'due south Version)" from "Red (Taylor's Version)"

Likewise the states every time we update this article. Thanks for reading, everyone!

More:Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and the pressure – and shaming – of celebrity women changing their paradigm

61. "Don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled / I'1000 fine with my spite and my tears, and my beers and my candles" – "Closure" from "Evermore"

A line that will become downwardly in Swift's breakup vocal hall of fame.

60. "No amount of freedom gets you make clean / I've still got you all over me" – "You All Over Me (feat. Maren Morris) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)" from "Fearless (Taylor's Version)"

We can never run away from our issues; Swift (and Morris) articulate that like the land queens they are.

59. "Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in" – "Hoax" from "Folklore"

Believing in "faithless" dearest?! Nosotros accept no choice just to stan a paradoxical queen.

58. "The skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to f--- this up" – "Cowboy Like Me" from "Evermore"

Two people finding beloved against all odds: we dear to meet it.

57. "You understand at present why they lost their minds and fought the wars / And why I've spent my whole life trying to put it in words." – "You Are in Dearest" from "1989 (Deluxe Edition)"

Putting specific and universal feelings into words: What Swift does best.

56. "Y'all play stupid games, you win stupid prizes" – "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince" from "Lover"

All other games and prizes are canceled.

55. "Sorry, I tin can't see facts through all of my fury" – "Happiness" from "Evermore"

Self-aware cocky-correction: archetype Swift.

'Evermore' review: Taylor Swift returns to the wood for a spellbinding 'Folklore' companion

54. "Clover blooms in the fields / Spring breaks loose, the time is near" – "ivy" from "Evermore"

Jump breaks? Get it? Nosotros sure do.

53. "Did yous hear nearly the girl who lives in delusion? / Breakups happen every mean solar day, you don't have to lose it / She's all the same 23 inside her fantasy" – "Right Where You Left Me - Bonus Track" from "Evermore"

Another instance of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness from the queen of breakup songs reminds us that we're totally fine living inside the fantasy of Swift's discography.

52. "I had a marvelous time ruining everything" – "The Final Great American Dynasty" from "Folklore"

Go alee and salvage this 1 for your adjacent Instagram explanation.

51. "Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere" – "New year's day'due south Solar day" from "Reputation"

Squeeze our hand three times, why don't you.

50. "How tin can a person know everything at eighteen / But nothin' at twenty-2?"  – "Cypher New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor'due south Version)" from "Reddish (Taylor'south Version)"

Spoiler alarm: It but gets messier from there. Nosotros see you lot and cheers, Taylor.

49. "Untouchable, burning brighter than the sun / And when y'all're close I feel like coming undone" – "Untouchable" from "Fearless"

Snappy, romantic, poetic: The Taylor Swift trifecta.

Review: 'Folklore' is the album Taylor Swift was born to make

48. "You lot drew stars around my scars simply now I'chiliad bleeding" – "Cardigan" from "Folklore"

OK, the rhyming of "stars" and "scars" on its own is enough to send our hearts all a-flutter. Only the violent shift to "bleeding" shows how fifty-fifty though we may heal, it doesn't accept much to transport united states of america spiraling now and again. We're bleeding (metaphorically) with you lot, Taylor.

47. "Barefoot in the kitchen / Sacred new beginnings / That became my religion, listen" – "Cornelia Street" from "Lover"

Swift's storytelling works best with tiny details like these.

46. "I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me" – "New Romantics" from "1989"

This is a very tall castle, if y'all recollect about Scooter Braun, Katy Perry and Kimye.

45. "My castle crumbled overnight / I brought a pocketknife to a gunfight / They took the crown just it's alright" – "Call It What You Desire" from "Reputation"

Referencing your own lyrics? Ultimate power move.

44. "Back so we didn't know / We were built to fall autonomously / We broke the condition quo / Then we bankrupt each other'south hearts" – "The Very First Dark (Taylor'due south Version) (From The Vault)" from "Red (Taylor's Version)"

Could this be the prequel to "Out of The Woods?" Over again, referencing your own past lyrics is simply iconic, legendary beliefs.

43. "He's got my past frozen behind glass / But I've got me" – "It'due south Time To Go - Bonus Rails" from "Evermore"

This melancholy summation of Swift'southward public battle against music executive Scooter Braun for her masters (the reason she's rerecording her offset six studio albums) is heartbreakingly weary. Luckily, her rerecordings accept begun to serve as a triumphant reclaiming of the old works that got her here.

42. "Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my middle / Now I send their babies presents" – "Invisible Cord" from "Folklore"

From exposing your teenage ex-boyfriend for dumping you over the phone to sending gifts to his newborn: That's forever and always for you.

41. "He says he's so in love / He'south finally got it correct / I wonder if he knows he's all I call up about at night" – "Teardrops on My Guitar" from "Taylor Swift"

No,you'recrying over a musical instrument.

Review:Taylor Swift is a kid once more on 'Lover,' a big, messy embrace of a new anthology

xl. "Back and so I swore I was gonna ally him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine / And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who inverse his mind" – "15" from "Fearless"

Bigger dreams? Try 11-time winner and 41-time nominee at the Grammys, two-time Time 100 Most Influential People recipient and 2019 American Music Awards Artist of the Decade honoree. Wish yous could go back and tell yourself that.

39. "Back when yous fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme" – "Holy Basis" from "Cherry-red"

In the first moments of her starting time pop-but-not-technically-pop album, Swift proved to naysayers that her lyrical genius isn't divers to one genre.

38. "I once believed love would exist burning red / But it'due south aureate" – "Daylight" from "Lover"

Acknowledging she's grown from "Scarlet" but appreciating it as a office of her past enough to include information technology on her latest album? Nosotros don't know a better person.

37. I retrieve I've seen this flick before / And I didn't similar the ending / Yous're non my homeland anymore / And so what am I defending at present? – "Exile" from "Folklore"

A classic fantabulous Taylor Swift lyrical run. Defend us, Taylor, please!

36. "He said the way my blue eyes shined / Put those Georgia stars to shame that dark / I said, 'That'south a lie'" – "Tim McGraw" from "Taylor Swift"

No offense to Georgia stars, obviously.

35."I desire auroras and deplorable prose / I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet / 'Cause I haven't moved in years / And I want you lot right here" – "The Lakes" from "Folklore"

Swift waxes poetic about finding happiness in quiet moments of solitude with her "lover," and nosotros couldn't be happier for her.

'Reputation' review:A fully-formed look at Taylor Swift in love, and in control

34. "It takes everything in me just to go up each solar day / Simply it'due south wonderful to see that you're OK" – "Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault) from "Fearless (Taylor's Version)

The sarcasm jumped out and did a backflip. How perfect(ly fine).

33. "I snuck in through the garden gate / Every night that summertime just to seal my fate" – "Cruel Summer" from "Lover"

Who wouldn't want to traipse effectually through gardens all summer long?

32. "I never grew up, it's getting so old" – "The Archer" from "Lover"

In which Swift lays out in eight words just how aware she is of all the criticisms thrown at her (and likewise sneaks in a reference to "Never Grow Upwards" rail from "Speak Now").

31. "Yous booked the night train for a reason / So you could sit there in this injure"  – "Champagne Issues" from "Evermore"

We imagine this is what it would sound like if Journey actually did cease assertive.

30. "And I was never good at telling jokes, but the punchline goes / I'll get older, but your lovers stay my age" – "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor'southward Version)"  from "Red (Taylor's Version)"

Hell hath no fury like a Taylor Swift scorned. Of all the daggers she'southward written over the years about sometime flames, this is ane of her most pointed.

29. "But I took your matches before fire could grab me / And then don't look now, I'thou shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town" – "Beloved John" from "Speak Now"

Talk virtually a Dear John letter. Ouch.

More:All the new songs, notable lyrics and biggest changes on Taylor Swift's rerecorded 'Fearless'

28. "Take the words for what they are: A dwindling, mercurial high / A drug that only worked the first few hundred times" – "Illicit Affairs" from "Folklore"

"Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me" – us, later listening to Swift sing nearly the destruction of feeling like yous're losing the person you love.

27. "You did a number on me / But honestly, baby, who's counting?" – "So It Goes..." from "Reputation"

Taylor reinvented math with 11 iconic words. Who is counting?

26."I fabricated you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life" – "Tolerate Information technology" from "Evermore"

Death by a one thousand cuts in a single sentence, from, yep, the vocalist of "Expiry Past a Thousand Cuts." Honorable mention to the line that follows: "Cartoon hearts in the byline," which we tin only presume was virtually us.

25. "I knew yous dancing in your Levis, drunk under a streetlight" – "Cardigan" from "Folklore"

Swift loves writing these tiny details about knowing someone intimately. And we dear her for information technology.

24. "That dark we couldn't quite forget / When nosotros decided to move the furniture so nosotros could dance / Baby, like we stood a adventure" – "Out of the Woods" from "1989"

Getting lost never sounded and then good.

23. "Information technology never ever occurred to you lot / That I can't say 'hi' to you lot / And take chances another cheerio" – "I Almost Do" from "Red"

Those chills you feel? Yeah, nosotros become those reading these every time. "Howdy" and "goodbye" never seemed so loaded.

22. "And if I go burned, at least we were electrified" – "Dress" from "Reputation"

This daughter is on burn, indeed.

Taylor Swift promisesto re-record music after losing rights to Scooter Braun

21. "Merely between us, did the love affair maim you likewise?" – "All As well Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor'south Version)"

Lines like this in the 10-infinitesimal version have united states of america feeling all too unwell.

20. "Should've kept every grocery shop receipt / 'Cause every scrap of you lot would be taken from me" – "Marjorie" from "Evermore"

From the woman who brought you lot "I'm a crumpled upward piece of newspaper lying here," we bring you this glorious run. This song hits particularly unlike during the coronavirus pandemic every bit a nation overrun with morbidity turns to music for solace.

nineteen. "I didn't have it in myself to go with grace / 'Cause when I'd fight, you used to tell me I was brave – "My Tears Ricochet" from "Sociology"

The "used to" does all the work here. Our tears haven't stopped ricocheting since listening.

18. "The monsters turned out to be just trees / When the sun came up you were looking at me" – "Out of the Forest" from "1989"

"Where the Wild Things Are" got the rewrite it never asked for, and we are non complaining.

17. "The night you danced similar you knew our lives would never be the same / You lot held your head like a hero / On a history book folio / It was the end of a decade / But the start of an age" – "Long Live" from "Speak Now"

Production on this album began in 2009, the year Swift turned 20, and wrapped in 2010. What a decade – and an age – the 2010s take been for her.

Looking back on 'Fearless':On its x-year ceremony, Taylor Swift'southward 'Fearless' is even so a archetype

16. "'Cause I hear he'southward got his arm 'round a make-new daughter / I've been pickin' up my heart, he's been pickin' up her" – "Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault) from "Fearless" (Taylor's Version)

We're non sure how Swift pulled this off but she actually picked up our hearts and threw them on the ground while nosotros listened to these lyrics. All "Mr. Perfectly Fine" fellas out there should take notes.

15. "I tin't decide if it's a pick: getting swept away" – "Treacherous" from "Cerise"

*Swoons*

xiv. "With every guitar string scar on my hand / I have this magnetic forcefulness of a man to be my lover" – "Lover" from "Lover"

For longtime Swifties, there's nothing sweeter than hearing her triumphantly declare she's in love.

13. "And you wanna scream, 'don't telephone call me kid, don't call me infant / Wait at this godforsaken mess that you made me'"  – "Illicit Affairs" from "Folklore"

If you lot're not screaming along to these lyrics every time, you're doing it wrong.

12."The road not taken looks real adept now" – "'Tis the Damn Flavor" from "Evermore"

Robert Frost who? Anyone else's spin of the often-referenced poem would come off as cliché. But Swift'south aesthetic plow of phrase has us over hither thinking about our (non-toxic) exes.

11. "They say all's well that ends well, but I'one thousand in a new hell / Every time y'all double-cantankerous my mind" – "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor'southward Version)" from "Cherry-red (Taylor'southward Version)"

The WORDPLAY. William Shakespeare himself could never.

ten. "Fourth dimension won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it / I'd like to be my old cocky again, only I'g still trying to find it / After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your ain / Now y'all post dorsum my things and I walk home alone" – "All Too Well" from "Ruddy"

It's a testament that we tin't cutting this down any shorter. "All Too Well" – and its extended cut – wins everything. Terminate of story.

nine. "Y'all held your pride like y'all should accept held me" – "The Story of Usa" from "Speak At present"

Savage, before savage became a role of our mainstream dictionary. Swift is the queen of the snappy turn of phrase.

eight. "But she wears brusk skirts / I article of clothing T-shirts / She'southward cheer captain / And I'm on the bleachers" – "You Vest With Me" from "Fearless"

Earlier "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince," there was "You Belong With Me." Swift captures the high school feel and so effortlessly it's like we never graduated.

7. "They told me all of my cages were mental / And so I got wasted like all my potential" – "This is Me Trying" from "Sociology"

Another beautifully written turn of phrase. She's still got information technology, x years later.

vi. "Yous kept me like a secret, but I kept yous like an oath" – "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version)" from "Reddish (Taylor'south Version)"

We cannot wait to scream this in a (fully-vaccinated) crowded bar ASAP. At present that'due south an oath.

5. "I'g still a believer but I don't know why / I've never been a natural / All I do is try, effort, try – "Mirrorball" from "Folklore"

That repetitive "try, try, try" sends the states spinning. We recommend checking out the Las Culturistas assay of "Folklore" rails-by-track, if you haven't already, for an apt take on "Mirrorball" and Taylor Swift'south incredible work ethic.

4. "You said it was a great love, 1 for the ages / Just if the story'southward over, why am I still writing pages?" – "Death Past a M Cuts" from "Lover"

The queen of breakup songs used to worry nearly what would happen when she was happily in a relationship, but rejoiced when she woke up 1 solar day with lyrics in her heed that would eventually go "Cuts."

"I was similar, 'it's yet hither! Yes!" she said in her NPR Tiny Desk Concert. "This song is my proof. I don't have to stop writing about heartbreak and misery. Which, for me, is incredible news."

3. "You tin plan for a alter in weather condition and time / Merely I never planned on yous changing your mind" – "Last Buss" from "Speak Now"

Don't heed us, merely we'll get sit on the floor, listening to this one on repeat.

ii. "You fabricated a insubordinate of a careless man's careful daughter / You lot are the best matter that's ever been mine" – "Mine" from "Speak Now"

Eat your hearts out, careless men.

1. "You telephone call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of existence honest" – "All Likewise Well" from "Crimson"

This jewel of a lyric has everything you could possibly want. Simile? Alliteration? Heartbreak? Check, bank check, check.

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/12/13/taylor-swift-songs-30-best-lyrics-all-her-albums/4179419002/

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