Love Songs
13 Best Taylor Swift Songs About Falling in Love, Ranked
There are two guaranteed ways to infuriate a Swiftie: claim that Taylor Swift isn’t a talented artist and that she only writes songs about breakups. Today, we will dispel the second ridiculous notion, as the first is too laughable even to approach. Swift is known for drawing upon her own experiences in writing music. She mirrors reality with poetry, mythology, and literature to create songs that feel like they were crafted just for you.
Swift is particularly talented at capturing the myriad of feelings that come with falling in love. She is a “Lover,” and she knows exactly how to convey the giddy excitement of entering a new relationship. So next time you’re leaving a first date or waiting excitedly for your new fling to text, listen to this romantic Taylor Swift soundtrack. Here are 13 Taylor Swift songs dedicated to falling in love, and naturally, they’re all “Taylor’s Version!” Let us know if we missed anything in the comments below.
13. “So High School,” The Tortured Poets Department
While no amount of money could make us return to the halls of high school, we’d be tempted by the chance to experience adolescent love again. There is nothing as intoxicating and all-consuming as falling in love for the first time, or at least what you mistake for love at the time. In “So High School,” Swift uses adolescent comparisons to show the heat and passion of her new romance, such as the games Truth or Dare and Kiss, Marry, Kill. It’s rumored to be written about Travis Kelce, her hunky NFL boyfriend.
Despite being several years away from high school, Swift reassures her partner that “no one’s ever had me, not like you.” As we gather more experiences and notches on our belt, it’s natural to feel worried that you’re nothing new or different to your partner, so Swift reassures them that this is something she’s never experienced before. There’s no greater compliment than someone saying they “feel so high school every time [they] look at you,” suggesting they can’t keep their hands off you and only have eyes for you.
12. “Sparks Fly,” Speak Now
Written at 16, Swift based “Sparks Fly” on her crush of the moment: Jake Owen. This song captures the excitement and heat of falling for someone new. At the early stages of a relationship (or situationship, as Gen Z would say), absolutely everything about the other person feels new and exciting. Every word feels as loaded as dirty talk, every glance carries a thousand meanings, and each brush of their fingertips feels like a zap of electricity. Swift sings of being captivated “like a firework show” and seeing “sparks fly whenever you smile.”
This song conveys the urgency of fresh love, and how you’d drop everything to meet them in the pouring rain. Or, in our case, drop your social plans or errands just to spend another hour wrapped up together in bed. You become almost addicted to a person, and you want to drown in them.
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11. “Enchanted,” Speak Now
The only song from “Speak Now” to wrangle a spot on the Eras Tour, there’s magic in the air whenever Swift performs “Enchanted” in her purple ball gown. Love at first sight might be unachievable for most of us, but there’s undoubtedly lust at first sight. Swift captures that feeling of being unable to tear your eyes away from someone and feeling their presence even from the other side of the room. She sings of lying awake and wondering if the other person is thinking about her, something we can all relate to. It’s 2 a.m., and she’s “wishing you were at my door,” but not just in a booty-call way, of course.
10. “Delicate,” reputation
Many mistake reputation to be an album of grudges and vengeance, and while it certainly contains such themes, it’s also about rebirth and loyalty. In “Delicate,” Swift is nervous about pursuing a new relationship after all she’s been through. She doubts herself consistently and recognizes how “delicate” new love actually is.
But the catchy beat and repeated questions also convey the thrilling excitement of entering something new and all the uncertainty around it. There are no promises, no guarantees, just untapped potential. The excitement when your “phone lights up” and thinking “of the fun things we could do.” This song also conveys how easy it is to get ahead of yourself in something supposedly casual, despite Swift reiterating that it is too soon. She wants to know if her new lover is dreaming of her, and she can’t help but pretend they’re already hers. We’ve all pictured a wedding day before the end of a first date — don’t deny it.
9. “Wildest Dreams,” 1989
You don’t go into relationships hoping they’ll end, but at a certain age, you’re realistic enough to know that you might part ways at some point. In “Wildest Dreams,” Swift wants their relationship to be spectacular and memorable. She desires to be forever imprinted in her lover’s mind, a romantic image of her in a gorgeous dress at sunset. Basically, she wants to be the center of his “wildest dreams.” It’s a passionate song about being tangled up in sheets and wishing to escape public scrutiny. Falling in love doesn’t have to mean knowing something is forever, and Swift says as much as she reassures herself that “this is gettin’ good now.” If you can’t have forever, you’ll settle for always being the one that got away.
8. “Paris,” Midnights
The feeling that the rest of the world doesn’t exist when you’re with your lover is a cliche, but it’s a cliche for good reason. When you’re with the right person, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in a bedroom with faded grey sheets with only one pillow, a luxurious hotel room, or say… Paris, as nothing exists but the two of you. It seems surprising that a celebrity like Swift has ever experienced moments like this, but in “Paris,” Swift sings about the feeling of being consumed by your love for someone to the extent that nothing else exists. It revels in the dramatics of early love, like feeling “so in love that I might stop breathing” and that need to constantly “confess my truth.” Love can turn “cheap wine” into “champagne,” and it’s a glorious world of possibilities.
7. “Lover,” Lover
It comes as no surprise that this is a popular wedding song for Swifties, as it’s constructed to sound like vows and filled with the seemingly harmless promises of love. Instead of fidelity and commitment, Swift and her lover focus on being “overdramatic and true” and saving their “dirtiest jokes” for each other. Swoon.
This song centers itself on the small things that make up a relationship. As mundane as it can be, there is nothing more romantic than sharing a home with your partner. From picking out wall colors to hanging up Christmas lights, hosting your friends, to constructing IKEA furniture, all of it becomes special with the right person. “Lover” also captures the greediness and uncertainty of love, as Swift questions her partner consistently in the chorus about their future — it’s giving “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” But most of all, there’s the beauty of Swift promising, “At every table, I’ll save you a seat.” At the end of the day, isn’t that all we’re really looking for?
6. “Love Story,” Fearless
It’s a classic, but Swifties probably would have rioted if we hadn’t included it on this list. Every Swiftie and non-Swiftie remembers when this song played on every radio station, and almost all of us daydreamed about a similar scenario. It’s such a brilliant display of the infatuation and grandiose dreams of teenage love. There’s a reason we all can’t leave this song in the past, despite first dates involving talks of jobs, child-rearing, and the housing market more than getting our parents’ approval or meeting on balconies. But this song captures the wild fantasies of new love, the daydreams of everything you could become together. At the end of the day, “it’s a love story, baby, just say ‘yes.’”
5. “willow,” evermore
It’s 2020, and Swift has just released another surprise album. You grab your coat, plug in your headphones, and start listening as you walk along empty streets. The first song is “willow,” and through magical imagery and witchy tones, Swift takes you along the anticipation and enchanting experience of falling in love. This song stands out in how it doesn’t rely on realism to be relatable. Instead, it conjures up images of pirate ships, overgrown forests, and isolated cabins.
To Swift, the pull of her partner is like “a willow, and it bent right to your wind.” She wants to know everything about her new lover, asking them to “show [her] the places where the others gave you scars.” She is consistently “begging” them to take her hand, to lead her somewhere new, and to essentially “wreck [her] plans.” This song captures the intoxicating greed of fresh love, as you want all of your partner, yet it is never enough.
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4. “Daylight,” Lover
In a shocking turn of events, the titular song of “Lover” is not the most romantic track on the album! Instead, we’re handing the crown of romance to “Daylight,” a song about letting go of the past and moving into the glow of a new relationship. Swift describes her unlucky past as a “twenty-year dark night,” but her burgeoning relationship as “daylight.” She’s leaving the anger of reputation behind her and focusing on the good in people.
Once again, she resorts to the color imagery we’ve come to associate with her songs, and now she describes love as “golden” rather than the “burnin’ red” she once expected. This is an acute portrayal of recognizing mature love over passion, seeing the joy in intimacy over attraction.
3. “Begin Again,” Red
It’s unavoidable that you will, at some point, compare your new partner to your previous one, even unconsciously. We grow to know love through the lens of a specific person, and so their behavior and words unknowingly become our frame of reference. This can be both positive and negative, and the beginning stages of falling in love often involve such comparisons. “Begin Again” may seem like a song about fixating on your previous relationship, but it’s actually about noticing all the wonderful things about a person and letting go of who you were for your ex. Swift sings about wearing heels again, something her ex-boyfriend didn’t appreciate, likely due to her height. She expects her date to be late, but he’s early and even pulls out her chair — once again, swooning.
But the most heartwarming moment is how Swift notices his big laugh and that he finds her funny, something she hasn’t been considered before. She believed “all love ever does is break and burn and end,” but now she gets to see it begin again.
2. “You Are In Love,” 1989
Falling in love isn’t just about those initial butterflies, or the Pride and Prejudice brush of the fingertips; it’s about the smaller moments adding up to more. It’s when they know your coffee order, when you wake up to find them reaching for you in their sleep, when they message you just to wish you a good morning. In “You Are in Love,” Swift captures the sum of these tiny moments and all the signs that you’re in way deeper than you expected. It’s easy to see love in big proclamations, but Swift reminds us that “you can hear it in the silence,” and “you can see it with the lights out.” She sings of a love so powerful and pure that she finally understands all the fuss about it, despite having “spent [her] whole life trying to put it into words.” This is a big love song about little moments, realizing that everything you wanted is right there in front of you.
1. “Labyrinth,” Midnights
This is not only the top Taylor Swift song about falling in love, but the top song full stop. No other song has ever captured the giddy fear of a new relationship like “Labyrinth.” It’s a disservice to call this just a love song, as its true power comes in how it describes falling after you’ve been hurt before. Many of us are entering new relationships with our fair share of baggage. We’ve been betrayed, let down, or just disappointed before. In “Labyrinth,” Swift moves from her fear of falling, comparing it to an elevator’s ascent, to her realization that she is attracted to someone new.
In the chorus, she moves from “uh-oh” to “oh no” to “oh,” conveying the awareness to fear to acceptance that comes with opening your heart to someone new. She asks her new lover, “How’d you turn it right around?” She is surprised they managed to win over her broken and bruised heart and make her believe in the flight of love again. A simple song with a gorgeous chorus. Together with Swift, you can come to terms with the fact that you might be “fallin’ in love again” and get excited for the wonderful moments to come.
