I’m just gonna say it: Taylor Swift is undoubtedly one of the most talented songwriters of our time. Her songs tell picture-perfect stories. When you sit back and truly listen to her music and appreciate how well she articulates emotions your jaw will hit the floor, especially if you’re an English lover like me.
If you don’t like Taylor Swift, there’s a chance it’s because you have only heard her catchy songs on the radio and haven’t taken the time to listen to her most lyrically genius songs. Regardless, I know for a fact that you can relate to at least one of her lyrics. So, as a gift to you, I have compiled a list of the most underrated Taylor Swift songs that will surely put you in your feels in one way or another. Give ‘em a listen and thank me later.
1. Dear John
A song about how cruel and life-altering young love can be. Not to mention the title is a killer metaphor.
Best Lyrics: “I took your matches before fire could catch me, so don’t look now, I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.”
2. All Too Well
This is the one that gets me screaming at the top of my lungs. This song hits me hard no matter what situation or state of mind I’m in. Clearly, the entire thing is highly quotable.
Best Lyrics: “Maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much, but maybe this thing was a masterpiece til you tore it all up… you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest… time won’t fly it’s like I’m paralyzed by it, I’d like to be my old self again but I’m still trying to find it.”
3. I Did Something Bad
Perhaps her most badass song about giving manipulative boys a taste of their own medicine. A top car jam, for sure.
Best Lyrics: “If a man talks sh*t then I owe him nothing, I don’t regret it one bit ‘cause he had it coming.”
4. Begin Again
This song tells the story of falling in love again. The great adventure that is your second love. The beginning of something you know is going to be great. When you finally stop comparing everyone to your toxic ex.
Best Lyrics: “And for the first time what’s past is past.”
5. Last Kiss
This one genuinely hurts to listen to. It is the most heartbreaking song because it is about the very beginning stages of a breakup when you literally don’t know what to do with yourself.
Best Lyrics: “And I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day but something reminds you, you wish you had stayed, you can plan for a change in weather and time but I never planned on you changing your mind.”
6. Clean
This song is about one of the best feelings known to man: the moment you realize you are going to be okay.
Best Lyrics: “When the butterflies turned to dust they covered my whole room… Ten months older, I won’t give in, now that I’m clean I’m never gonna risk it, the drought was the very worst when the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst.”
7. All You Had To Do Was Stay
This song is for that ex that handles your relationship like a light switch. It epitomizes the strength you feel when you are finally able to resist his counterfeit charm.
Best Lyric: “People like you always want back the love they pushed aside, but people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye.”
8. Treacherous
Because we’ve all gotten ourselves into something we knew would never work out. But in the moment it’s so fun and carefree and tempting, so you just go for it anyways.
Best Lyric: “I can’t decide if it’s a choice getting swept away, I hear the sound of my own voice asking you to stay, and all we are is skin and bone, trained to get along, forever going with the flow, but you’re friction.”
9. The Moment I Knew
This song is about the moment when you’re forced to face the fact that he really isn’t a great guy and you should stop justifying his selfish, manipulative behavior. It proves how much power the boy you love can have over you and your emotions without any control.
Best Lyric: “And what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn’t show?”
10. New Years Day
I love this one because it’s just so happy and cute and lighthearted. It’s about being carefree and just living in the moment.
Best Lyric: “Don’t read the last page, but I stay when it’s hard or it’s wrong or we’re making mistakes.”
Honorable Mentions:
Haunted
Starlight
Sad Beautiful Tragic
You’re Not Sorry
Enchanted