Every song Taylor Swift has released features her unique penmanship, but we can’t count out her collaborators—she doesn’t, anyway. Swift makes sure to give credit where credit is due, highlighting her producing partners and fellow songwriters every chance she gets. However, scattered across her albums are songs solely written by Swift. Arguably, these are her most powerful offerings.
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Early on in her career, Swift’s songwriting prowess was downplayed. Her naysayers chalked her success up to her hit-making co-writers. Swift has since proved them wrong in every sense of the word.
Perhaps there is something sacred about writing on your own that inevitably drudges up soul-baring truths. Whatever the cause, Swift’s solo writes seem to have a special sparkle to them. Take the four songs below as evidence to our claim that Swift is at her most powerful when she flies solo.
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“Enchanted“
What isn’t there to say about “Enchanted.” The sweeping ballad’s allure is almost undefinable. It’s more easily experienced than it is explained. But, giving it our best shot, we’d equate the song to the gut punch of falling in love. The song churns up the same butterflies and rushes to the heart in the same way falling hard and fast does. It’s attraction incarnate and a powerful case against tfor love at first sight. Swift writes from inside the moment she locked eyes with the subject of this song. Almost as if time stopped and she grabbed a pen and paper and jotted it down right then and there.
“Nothing New” (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
“Nothing New” comes from a deeply personal place—almost uncomfortably so. Admitting you’re afraid of being forgotten isn’t a message just any artist would tout with their head held high. Swift is always candid in an effort to make her fans feel like they can be too. She leans fully into that goal in this track. I know someday I’m gonna meet her, it’s a fever dream / The kind of radiance you only have at 17, she sings, worried about her future. We don’t think Swift is in any danger of being forgotten, but we admire her affinity for sharing her darkest thoughts in her songs. We need a superstar that isn’t afraid to level with her fans.
“my tears ricochet“
“my tears ricochet” combines all of Swift’s songwriting strengths into one. This track is emotionally wrought, cleverly crafted, and deeply relatable. Despite the story of death and mourning told in the lyrics, this song is a metaphor for the pain of losing a lover. Betrayal, heartache, and recuperation are all themes that Swift has tackled extensively, but she does so from an angle few others have chosen in this song. The lyrics feel spawned from some dark corner of Swift’s mind, where even she doesn’t dare to go often. She braves that dark corner in this song—and we thank her for it.
“Bigger Than The Whole Sky”
“Bigger Than The Whole Sky” seems like a story Swift hadn’t told before releasing this song. The lyrics give the impression she wants to tell this story once and then file it away. She, quite literally, sends the subject of this track a final “goodbye” and tearfully walks away. Cause it’s all over, it’s not meant to be / So I’ll say words I don’t believe, she sings more for herself than anyone else. Swift has told many powerful stories, but this one might take the crown for the most poignant.
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