Here Is Every Taylor Swift Track 5, Ranked (Critic’s Picks)

Taylor Swift’s diaristic writing lends itself to the poignant and emotive songs that run through her catalog. In particular, the tracks positioned in spot five on her albums have customarily been seen by fans as her most sensitive – something she later grabbed onto and ran with.

“Track five is kind of a tradition that really started with you guys,” Swift explained in a 2019 Instagram Live. “Because I didn’t realize I was doing this, but as I was making albums, I guess, I don’t know why, but instinctively I was just kind of putting a very vulnerable, personal, honest, emotional song as track five.”

“Because you noticed this,” she continued, “I kind of started to put the songs that were really honest, emotional and vulnerable and personal as track fives.” And during Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift elaborated on the pressure she feels when choosing a number five. “Picking a track five is sort of a pressurized decision,” Swift told her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff in the documentary.

On the 12 cuts, Swift employed a variety of co-writers, and penned two of them on her own (“Dear John” and “my tears ricochet”). Liz Rose and Max Martin each appear as writers on three songs (Rose with “Cold as You,” “White House,” and “All Too Well’; Martin with “All You Had to Do Was Stay,” “Delicate” and “Eldest Daughter”). Antonoff (“The Archer,” “You’re on Your Own, Kid”), Shellback (“Delicate” and “Eldest Daughter) and Aaron Dessner (“tolerate it” and So Long London”) each are credited on two. Dessner’s twin Bryce also joined for “tolerate it.”

Read below for all of Swift’s track fives ranked. (And while some count “How Did It End?” from The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology in the special club, it sits as number 21 on the second half of the double release – although the self-reflective cut certainly fits the theme.)