The Definitive List Of Taylor Swift’s Albums As Seasons

There’s a Taylor Swift album for every era — and season — of your life. The singer has released 11 studio albums (one of them being a 31-song double album) that span several genres, emotions, and songwriting techniques, all showcased beautifully at the record-breaking Eras Tour.

While many fans make seasonal playlists from their favorite artists’ catalogs, the breadth and variety of Swift’s discography means that Swifties already has the perfect album for every season and time of year.

This topic often arises among my Swiftie friends and family, causing passionate debate about which album belongs to each season. Some eras, like 1989 and Folklore, have very obvious prime times for listening, while other albums’ more varied moods lend themselves to multiple seasons.

Luckily, I’ve had enough of these discussions to declare which Swift album is perfect for your seasonal moods and yearly transitional periods. For the sake of brevity, all albums on this list are the “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings — even the ones that haven’t come out yet.

Taylor Swift: Early Spring

Swift’s 2006 self-titled debut album has the aura of new beginnings because it was for the then-17-year-old singer. Back then, she stayed true to country music sounds and storytelling, and her tales of young love and teenage insecurities still make for the perfect spring day soundtrack 18 years later.

Fearless: Spring

Like its predecessor, Fearless is also spring in nature — just a bit more grown-up. From sitting on the bleachers in “You Belong With Me” and “kissing in the rain” in “The Way I Loved You” to the Romeo & Juliet-inspired “Love Story,” Swift’s coming-of-age tales on her sophomore album could only happen in spring, right before school lets out for the summer.

Speak Now: All Seasons

Speak Now cannot be bound to any calendar. The excitement of new love in “Mine” and “Sparks Fly” reflects spring, while “Last Kiss” and “Better Than Revenge” tell tales of messy summer flings. “Haunted” is the definition of a fall anthem, and “Dear John” is winter melancholy and despair at its finest. Swift’s third album has multiple songs for every season, but if you must narrow it down to one, go with winter for “Back to December” alone, which may as well be a Christmas song.

Red: Fall

If you haven’t blasted “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” while driving through a forest of autumn foliage, you’re not doing fall correctly. Red was Swift’s first showcase of her genre-bending abilities, spanning pure pop, stadium rock, indie-folk, classic country, and on the title track, all of the above. But through it all, she maintains a melancholy, pensive, and reflective sound that’s perfect for fall.

1989: Summer

Swift’s beach-y imagery for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was slightly misguided (most Swifties agree that it’s a city album), but it does affirm it’s a summer album through and through. Sure, she reflects on winter trauma in “Out of the Woods,” but her first foray into full-fledged pop has populated summer playlists for over a decade, from “Welcome to New York” to “Style.”

Reputation: Fall, But Specifically Halloween

When Swifties heard the first menacing sounds of “Look What You Made Me Do” in August 2017, it became clear that Reputation was meant to be a Halloween album. The single recalls the electroclash beats of Peaches’ “Operate,” which soundtracks the Halloween party in Mean Girls. The album’s hard-hitting synths, tales of revenge, and secret rendezvous only cement its... reputation.

Lover: Late Spring Into Summer

An album that has “Cruel Summer” on it couldn’t be anything but a summer album. Swift even said she envisioned performing the Lover album outside at open fields and festivals in the backdrop of a summer sunset, which were her canceled 2020 plans (R.I.P. Lover Fest). However, strong undertones of spring are also present in the glistening ballad “Daylight” and the wedding dance anthem “Paper Rings.”

Folklore: Late Summer Into Fall

As indicated by “august,” Folklore is built for the sweltering humidity of late summer, which feels more intense with songs like “this is me trying” and “illicit affairs.” Plus, when else would Swift spend time at the holiday house in “the last great american dynasty”? But towards the end, she gets angry and reflective in a way only fall can bring, leading to the brittle cold of its sister album.

Evermore: Winter

Evermore was made for the times you could bear stepping out into the freezing cold for a brisk walk (at least in my experience). There’s even a whole song about going back home for the holidays, “‘tis the damn season,” which could (and should) be made into a Hallmark movie. Thankfully, there are also enough folk ditties and campfire jams to keep us warm while wandering outside in the winter.

Midnights: Late Fall Into Winter

Midnights has a lot of weather motifs, from the contradiction that is “Snow on the Beach” to the fall of “Midnight Rain,” which bring up lovestruck and reflective moods that arise at the end of the year. Combined with the festive spirit of “Bejeweled,” cozy vibes of “Sweet Nothing,” and the devastating 3AM Edition tracks, Midnights is an early winter album made for the holidays.

The Tortured Poets Department: Summer

The Tortured Poets Department fittingly captures the blazing heat and pervasive humidity of a Florida summer. (After all, it includes a song called “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine). The alt-country sounds of “Fresh Out the Slammer,” synth-pop desperation of “Down Bad,” and club madness of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” is the perfect soundtrack to summer chaos.

The Anthology: Winter

While The Anthology is technically the second part of The Tortured Poets Department, it has an entirely different seasonal mood. Much like Folklore and Evermore, it is the winter to Tortured Poets summer, filled with dense, introspective ballads that hit the most when you’re snowed in during a blizzard (or so I imagine).