She had me at the opening lyric.
“Look, if you had one shot,” Taylor Swift declared, strumming her acoustic guitar, “or one opportunity.”
Kicking off a country music showcase with an Eminem hip-hop classic, “Lose Yourself,” takes a lot of courage and confidence even for a veteran. Swift, then 16, did this before her debut album was released. At the time, the single “Tim McGraw” was the only thing the crowd at K102’s Class of 2006 showcase at the Myth in Maplewood, Minn., knew about Swift. She seized her first opportunity to impress in the Twin Cities.
Since then, we’ve heard 10 Swift studio albums as well as two “Taylor’s versions” reimagining those records. She’s become an unstoppable cultural supernova, selling out stadiums, grabbing three prestigious album of the year Grammys and garnering the attention of Congress and President Joe Biden about rewriting ticketing laws.
With the ongoing Eras Tour providing an album-by-album survey of Swift’s career, we rank her records (original versions), worst to best.