Happy Birthday, Taylor Swift!
The superstar turns 30 on Dec. 13, and we've been celebrating all week by listening to all seven of her best-selling albums, alternating between screaming along (sorry not sorry to our neighbors), dancing, ruminating, wishing AIM was still a thing so we could add lyrics to our away message catalog and crying, such are the five stages of listening to a Taylor album.
It was no easy task, but we highlighted 10 lyrics from each of Taylor's albums that still hit us in the feels—whether it's joy, sadness, romantic, nostalgic, angry, happy, etc. She's made us feel them all since her debut album in 2006.
So take a deep breath and prepare for an emotional rollercoaster, one only Taylor can take us on... (Note: we kept this list to just songs off of her seven studio albums, not including her 2007 Holiday EP or any songs she's written for other artists.)
Taylor Swift (2006)
"'Cause our song is the slamming screen door, sneakin' out late, tapping on his window. When we're on the phone and he talks real slow ‘cause it's late and his mama don't know." ("Our Song")
"You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray and I stood there loving you and wished them all away...you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." ("Cold As You")
"Take me back when our world was one block wide. I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried." ("Mary's Song")
"He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night. I said, 'That's a lie.'" ("Tim McGraw")
"When you think happiness, I hope you think that little black dress; think of my head on your chest and my old faded blue jeans. When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think of me." ("Tim McGraw")
"I guess it's true that love was all you wanted 'cause you're giving it away like it's extra change,hoping it will end up in his pocket." "(Tied Together With a Smile")
"And when you find everything you looked for, I hope your life leads you back to my door." ("Stay Beautiful")
"He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do..." ("Teardrops On My Guitar")
"Well, you drive me crazy half the time. The other half I'm only trying to let you know that what I feel is true." ("I'm Only me When I'm With You")
"Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission, but I'm ready to fly." ("A Place In This World")
Fearless (2008)
"Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday, but I realized some bigger dreams of mine. And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind and we both cried. ("Fifteen")
"He can't see the smile I'm faking and my heart's not breaking ‘cause I'm not feeling anything at all." ("The Way I Loved You")
"Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest? Made you run and hide like a scared little boy? I looked into your eyes. thought I knew you for a minute, now I'm not so sure." ("Forever & Always")
"Of all the girls tossing rocks at your window, I'll be the one waiting there even when it's cold." ("Hey Stephen")
"Maybe I was naïve, got lost in your eyes and never really had a chance. My mistake, I didn't know to be in love." ("White Horse")
"And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress. Fearless." ("Fearless")
"I'll love you for giving me your eyes, for staying back and watching me shine. And I didn't know if you knew, so I'm taking this chance to say that I had the best day with you today." (The Best Day")
"Why do you have to make me feel small, so you can feel whole inside? Why do you have to put down my dreams, so you're the only thing on my mind?" ("Tell Me Why")
"So babe if you know everything, tell me why you couldn't see when I left I wanted you to chase after me?" ("The Other Side of the Door")
"You've got a smile that could light up this whole town." ("You Belong With Me")
Speak Now (2010)
"You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter." ("Mine")
"The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm and I'm a house of cards." ("Sparks Fly")
"And I think about summer, all the beautiful times I watched you laughing from the passenger side. And realized I loved you in the fall." ("Back to December")
"You held your pride like you should've held me." ("The Story Of Us")
"The battle's in your hands now, but I would lay my armor down if you said you'd rather love than fight." ("The Story Of Us")
"He will try to take away my pain and he just might make me smile, but the whole time I'm wishing he was you instead." ("Haunted")
"All that I know is I don't know how to be something you miss." ("Last Kiss")
"All the girls that you've run dry have tired lifeless eyes because you've burned them out. But I took your matches before fire could catch me. So, don't look now. I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town." ("Dear John")
"But don't make her drop you off around the block. Remember that she's getting older too." ("Never Grow Up")
"Your hands are tough but they are where mine belong." ("Ours")
Red (2012)
ALL OF "ALL TOO WELL." (Jake Gyllenhaal, tattoo these lyrics on your body!)
"So you were never a saint and I've loved in shades of wrong." ("State of Grace")
"Your eyes look like coming home." ("Everything Has Changed")
"I bet you think I either moved on or hate you 'cause each time you reach out there's no reply. I bet it never ever occurred to you that I can't say ‘Hello' to you and risk another goodbye." ("I Almost Do")
"We're happy, free, confused, and lonely in the best way. It's miserable and magical." ("22")
"All those times that you didn't leave; it's been occurring to me I'd like to hang out with you for my whole life." ("Stay Stay Stay")
"You pull my chair out and help me in and you don't know how nice that is, but I do." ("Begin Again")
"Losing him was blue like I'd never known. Missing him was dark grey all alone. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met. But loving him was red." ("Red")
"All we are is skin and bone, trained to get along, forever going with the flow. But you're friction." ("Treacherous")
"What do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn't show?" ("The Moment I Knew")
1989 (2014)
"Oh my God, look at that face. You look like my next mistake. Love's a game, wanna play?" ("Blank Space")
"Got a long list of ex-lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane. But I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your name." ("Blank Space")
"'Cause, darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream." ("Blank Space," low-key one of her best and most self-aware songs ever!)
"'You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye and I got that red lip classic thing that you like." ("Style")
"The rest of the world was black and white But we were in screaming color." ("Out of the Woods")
"Why'd you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?" ("All You Had to Do Was Stay")
"You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can't wear anymore." ("Clean")
"We need love, but all we want is danger. We team up then switch sides like a record changer. The rumors are terrible and cruel, but honey, most of them are true." ("New Romantics")
"Please take my hand and please take me dancing and please leave me stranded. It's so romantic." ("New Romantics")
"Say you'll remember me standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe. Red lips and rosy cheeks, say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams." ("Wildest Dreams")
Reputation (2017)
"If a man talks shit then I owe him nothing. I don't regret it one bit 'cause he had it coming." ("I Did Something Bad")
"They're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one. They got their pitchforks and proof, their receipts and reasons. They're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one, so light me up." ("I Did Something Bad")
"It was the great escape, the prison break. the light of freedom on my face. But you weren't thinking and I was just drinking." ("Getaway Car")
"I'm yours to keep and I'm yours to lose. You know I'm not a bad girl, but I do bad things with you." ("So It Goes")
"The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama, but not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma." ("Look What You Made Me Do")
"Late in the night, the city's asleep. Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep. Change my priorities, the taste of your lips is my idea of luxury." ("King of My Heart")
"My love had been frozen beep blue, but you painted me golden." ("Dancing With Our Hands Tied")
"Even in my worst times, you could see the best of me. Flashback to my mistakes, my rebounds, my earthquakes. Even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me." ("Dress")
"I recall late November, holding my breath. Slowly I said, ‘You don't need to save me, but would you run away with me?'" ("Call It What You Want")
"But I stay when it's hard, or it's wrong or we're making mistakes. I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day." ("New Year's Day")
Lover (2019)
"I scream, 'For whatever it's worth, I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?'" ("Cruel Summer")
"Staring out the window like I'm not your favorite town. I'm New York City, I still do it for you, babe." ("False God")
"They would toast to me, oh, let the players play, I'd be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez." ("The Man")
I want to drive away with you, I want your complications too. I want your dreary Mondays." ("Paper Rings")
"Why'd I have to break what I love so much?" ("Afterglow")
"I take the long way home. I ask the traffic lights if it'll be alright. They say, 'I don't know.'" ("Death By a Thousand Cuts")
"With every guitar string scar on my hand, I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover. My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue. All's well that ends well to end up with you. Swear to be over-dramatic and true to my lover." ("Lover")
"I've been the archer, I've been the prey. Who could ever leave me darling...but who could stay?" ("The Archer")
"And I cut off my nose just to spite my face...then I hate my reflection for years and years." ("The Archer")
ALL OF "SOON YOU'LL GET BETTER." (OK, but particularly this: "And I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do if there's no you?")
Happy 30th, Taylor! Thanks for making us feel all of the feelings.