After a tumultuous few years of Taylor struggling to find a cohesive sound, with a lot of different ideas and styles spread across her albums, I think on Folklore she finds a level of focus that goes unmatched across the rest of her discography. It has everything else her previous records had to offer and more. The story she tells across Cardigan, August, and Betty is entrancing, and the songs where she's in despair really truly feel like she's in despair. I feel like her vision for ... read more

Marking the end of her pop-forward era, this isn't a terrible send-off. There are a few tracks that grew old pretty quick, but the glittery pop anthems are a lot more tolerable here than they were on her previous two records. The singles were by far and away the weakest part of this album, and at 18 tracks it feels a little bloated, but it was not a bad sendoff to this series of eras for Taylor.

One of her weaker albums with her leaning into some odd stylistic choices. There's still a glimmer of hope with songs like Delicate, Dress, and New Year's Day, but overall there were some strange creative directions she took her music in, and I don't think much of it sounds that good.

Continuing the trend of her previous record, 1989 finds Taylor playing around with a wide range of sounds and styles. Like Red, some of it worked, but a lot of it falls a bit flat compared to her previous works. It lacked the punch and spark that she had been come to know for.

I cannot let the grandeur of All Too Well fool me into thinking that as a whole this was a good album. There's some really great highlights, but in between it all are some really forgettable, dare I even say, sometimes obnoxious tracks. The singles for this record were designed to be catchy, to turn heads, and start conversation. If there's anything Taylor does best, it's find herself in the middle of controversy, oftentimes self imposed. That being said, the singles on this ... read more

On her third record, I think Taylor's country pop sound has never been better. It's the perfect mix of simple, catchy, pop country tunes, mixed in with some endearing songwriting and memorable melodies. While the back half of the album is by far the weaker portion, it still contains some great songs like Enchanted, Last Kiss, and Long Live.

A step up from her debut record. It's still a bunch of simple pop ballads, but at least they're catchy.

I mean it was pretty clear even from her debut that she was destined to be a star. While this definitely isn't some of her best music, it's obviously infectious and kept folks around to hear what else she would come up with.

An otherwise great record held back by some songs that see the band struggling to define their sound with some new ideas. Some of it's good, but most of it was just fine.

Hayley's vocals get the stage to shine on this follow up album, not only that, but as a whole the band seems to have really caught a stride with just about every element of this album being an improvement from the sounds of their debut.

Not a bad debut, but Hayley's vocals were definitely the highlight, and at times felt a bit underutilized.

I mean it's technically impressive, but it pails in comparison to the band's preceding works.

Continuing off the success of their previous record, this album sees them incorporating their more structured approach to songwriting, but this time adding in even more dreamy and ambient elements, along with some of their signature twists and turns. Some of this worked really well, but as time has gone on, I find myself uninterested in tracks like Midnight City, and Steve McQueen. They're fun, catchy, synth pop tracks, but feel out of place against the rest of this landscape. Those ups ... read more

Following their 2007 album, this record see the band return to form with music that feels much more like 2003, and 2005 records. Structurally, these songs have more weight to them with catchier melodies that the band leans heavily into. While I think their sound thrives is in a bit more chaos, this is still some really fun syth pop.

Here the band leans into more sweeping ambient tunes, which are pretty good if not a bit sparse in their presentation.

It's not bad as a debut, but you can definitely tell the band is trying to find its footing.

Stylistically, this album is a bit scattered when compared to DCRS&LG, but it's still a really solid collection of tracks, some of the best songs the band every put together in fact.

I don’t know why I spent so much time with Hurry Up, We're Dreaming when this masterpiece exists. I truly believe that this was the best collection of tracks the group ever put together. I just don't feel any of their albums as a whole manage to wow me like this one does.

I mean, yes, it's very, very different from their previous sound, but that doesn't mean it's not catchy as fuck. Is this the band's best album? Personally, I don't think so. Is it still a really fun and well made collection of pop rock songs? No doubt.

A near perfect sendoff to the band's pop-punk era. Four years after their debut, the band took everything that had worked and just distilled all of those ideas down into this record, an absolute masterpiece and essential listen of the early 2000's pop punk era.