Regardless of how you feel about Taylor Swift, there is a song you know by her and there is a song you secretly love. It’s inevitable. Even if you don’t want to admit it, you love Taylor and you love her music. Songs like ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’, ‘Blank Space’, and ‘Shake It Off’ are extremely catchy. You know them, you love them and you dance in your room to them. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But, if you only stop to listen to her singles then you’re missing out on a lot of great music. Swift has much more to offer than the attention grabbing ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ or the country tune ‘You Belong With Me’.
When you hear others speak of Taylor as one of the best songwriters of our time, they aren’t wrong. She’s paving a path for artists everywhere to make their mark. She’s a living legend who knows how to pull at everyone’s heartstrings with songs like ‘All Too Well’ and ‘Never Grow Up’. Don’t be fooled when someone tells you that she’s all about the break ups and the make ups because it’s just not true. Swift is in her own league, and many of the songs she’s written are about growing up, finding a place in the world, bullies, finding yourself, pain and of course, finding love. There’s a song for everyone. The overrated songs are the songs that most people know. The underrated songs are the hidden gems that everyone needs to hear.
Here’s our list of the 10 most underrated Taylor Swift songs that you need to add to your playlist right now.
Sweeter Than Fiction:
The song was in the movie ‘Once’ and it’s a track that you can apply to your life in any given situation. Feeling down? Feeling like you won’t ever be able to accomplish what it is you are setting yourself out to do? ‘Sweeter Than Fiction’ encourages you to continue to move forward because you will get there and you will make people proud.
Lyric highlight: What a sight, what a sight when the light came on. Proved me right, proved me right when you proved them wrong. And in this perfect weather, it’s like we don’t remember that rain we thought would last forever and ever.
Holy Ground:
“Holy Ground” is a song that Swift wrote in remembrance of something being good in her life and appreciating it for what it was. “I wrote this song after years have gone by and I finally appreciated a relationship for what it was rather than being bitter about what it didn’t end up being. After I saw him, I started to think about it and realized that ‘you know what, that was good. That was good to have that in my life,” she said in an interview during release week for RED. The song was produced by Jeff Bhasker and written by Taylor and it’s a song of brilliance percussion and cadence that points to acts like Bruce Springsteen. It’s genius and it’s a song that will get stuck in your head for days. Give it a listen, you won’t regret it.
Lyric Highlight: I was reminiscing just the other day while having coffee all alone and Lord, it took me away. Back to a first-glance feeling on New York Time. Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme.
Never Grow Up
Moving out of your parents’ house? Going to college? Going through any kind of transition can be difficult. It’s a significant change in one’s life and Swift has a song for it. ‘Never Grow Up’ is the epitome of what you’re feeling right now. It’s nostalgic, sad and a great reminder to love your family, take in the moment and not wish your life away too soon. It’s about growing up, moving forward and looking backward. You think Taylor’s all about the heartbreak break up songs? Think again. ‘Never Grow Up’ will quickly change your mind.
Lyric Highlight: Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room. Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home. Remember the footsteps, remember the words said and all your little brother’s favorite songs. I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone.
Long Live
“Long Live’ isn’t about the heartbreaks. It’s a love song to her band, the fans, and the magical relationship she built with the people who made her career what it is today. Simple as that. If any artist knows how to write a love song to their fans, it’s Swift.
Lyric Highlight: I said remember this feeling. I pass the pictures around of all the years we stood there wishing for right now. We are the kings and the queens. You traded your baseball cap for a crown. When they gave us our trophies and we held them up for our town. And the cynics were outraged screaming ‘this is absurd!’ Cause for a moment a band of thieves and ripped up jeans got to rule the world.
All Too Well
‘All Too Well’ could possibly be the greatest song Swift has ever written. It’s a beautiful masterpiece lyrically and vocally while it equally breaks your heart because you probably relate to it more than you want to. It’s a fan favorite because of its emotional complexity and what’s to be considered her most detailed lyrics yet. Swift weaves the story of a relationship in a matter of six minutes and it’s beautiful. If any song will change your mind about Swift, it’s ‘All Too Well’.
Lyric Highlight: Maybe we got lost in translation. Maybe I asked for too much. Maybe this thing was a masterpiece before you tore it all up. Running scared. I was there. I remember it all too well. Yea, you call me up again just to break me like a promise. So casually cruel in the name of being honest. I’m a crumbled up piece of paper lying here ‘cause I remember it all too well.
State of Grace
It’s the opener to RED with lyrics that detach themselves from narrative and stretch over to storytelling from Swift like no one has heard before. The song is deepened with phrases like ‘twin fire signs’, ‘hands of fate’ and ‘Achilles heel’. These phrases make the song along with simple lyrics that flourish and transform everything. It’s important because although RED is known as Swift’s heartbreak album, this song shows some optimism. ‘State of Grace’ is also the first song that entered into the pop category and Swift wasn’t even trying. It’s a beautiful piece of poetry and is simply one of the most underrated Swift songs to ever be recorded.
Lyric Highlight: So you were never a saint and I’ve loved in shades of wrong. We learn to live with the pain; mosaic broken hearts. But this love is brave and wild.
Clean
“Clean” is one of those hidden gems that the rest of the world will probably never know about but we wish they did. It’s a track about sobriety and moving on from past addictions and ex-lovers. Swift co-wrote the track with the quirky but talented Imogen Heap and it’s beautiful vocally and lyrically. It doesn’t matter what those past addictions that once owned your life were, ‘Clean’ is a song that anyone can relate to. Mistakes don’t define who we are, and we are not damaged goods, which is a message that is portrayed in perfect form.
Lyric Highlight: The water filled my lungs. I screamed so loud but no one heard a thing.
This Love
‘This Love’ is one of the least popular songs off of 1989 but the question is why? The song is a lyrical masterpiece that tells a beautiful story of love leaving and coming back again. It’s a beautiful story of what it looks to like watch love come back to you after its left. In the bridge, Swift speaks of always coming back to what you need, and it’s so true.
Lyric Highlight: Your kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave. Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees. When you’re young, you just run but you come back to what you need.
Enchanted
Anyone would be lucky enough to have ‘Enchanted’ written about them. Swift even named a fragrance after the magical tune. It’s about a meeting filled with unfulfilled wishes, secrets, Wonderstruck and a magical night. Everything about ‘Enchanted’ is a fairytale dream, and it’s one we want to live in. Have mentioned how fantastic the lyrics are? Give it a listen. You won’t regret it.
Lyric Highlight: Walls of insincerity, shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face.
Come Back… Be Here
This is falling in love in the cruelest way. No, seriously. This song is why we love Swift. It’s a hidden gem with lyrics that relate in a big way, especially if you’re wishing someone would come back to you. It’s not fair if you haven’t heard this song because it’s a beautiful taste of what you could be missing from Swift.
Lyric Highlight: This is falling in love in the cruelest way. This is falling for you when you are worlds away.
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