Taylor Swift is known for her “track 5’s”. On all of her 9 albums, the 5th track is usually the most emotional, deep song on the record. In excited anticipation of her next album, Midnights, I am here to rank the track 5’s we already have. The newest album releases on October 21st, 2022, and I’m exhilarated to see where Midnights track 5 falls.
What can I say? It is simply a cult classic. The fan-favorite became a #1 hit single. The lyrics display honest, raw emotion. For example the lyrics, “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest” breaks my heart in two every time I listen. It is a great song to pair with heartbreak.
This song is a different type of sad than the traditional heartbreak anthems. For Swift, it is about the deep loss she felt after losing rights to her original masters to Scooter Braun. For an average listener like me lyrics like, “You wear the same jewels that I gave you /As you bury me” are haunting.
I am a bit biased with this track choice. I love Taylor Swift’s album Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Although I love all the songs on this album, White Horse displays a youthful outlook on falling in love and being disappointed. The naive view of heartbreak makes it sadder to listen to, knowing no one that young should experience that type of emotional break-up pain. Lyrics like, “I’m not a princess, this ain’t a fairy tale” are so innocent, it becomes so depressing.
I will give it to Ms. Swift, it is difficult to make a pop song such a sorrowful song. Heartbreaking lyrics like, “Had me in the palm of your hand/ Then why’d you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?”, are intermixed with a pop melody.
The Archer is such an honest song. For example, “They see right through / Can you see right through me?” lyrics are brutally truthful about anxiety. Its rhetorical questions immerse the listener in the song.
This song is about doing your absolute best in a relationship just to be tolerated. It is heartbreaking to hear about not being enough. The lyrics, “Use my best colors for your portrait / Lay the table with the fancy sh*t / And watch you tolerate it” portrays such a depressing image of perseverance just to be denied.
7. Dear John
The beautiful song details Swift’s breakup with singer John Mayer. It is so painfully sad to see how she was in a relationship at such a young age with an older man. The lyrics, “So don’t look now, I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town” display triumph after detailing sorrowful words.
8. Delicate
Delicate is about being fearful in a new relationship. Similarly to all these songs, it is brutally honest. The lyrics, “My reputation’s never been worse, so / You must like me for me”. It sits so low as it has been too overplayed on the radio for me.
9. Cold as You
The song is from Taylor Swift’s debut album. It details a love that is cold and unreciprocated. Lyrics like, “What a rainy ending given to a perfect day” are innocently depressing. It is very naive and Taylor Swift did not perfectly have her footing in creating her track fives.