Taylor Swift has a lot of famous musician fans - Laufey and Clairo among them. So when the two Gen-Z singer-songwriters were asked to rank a selection of Swift’s albums in order of preference, they had something to think about.
The challenge was set on their Hot Ones Versus episode, which saw the two of them having to choose between answering the questions they put to each other truthfully or taking a bite of the spicy wings laid out in front of them.
Reading from a card about halfway through the challenge, Clairo says to Laufey: “You are a massive Swiftie. Rank these classic Taylor Swift albums from best to worst: Fearless, Red, 1989 and Lover.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Laufey comes up with her ranking in no time at all. “I would do that order,” she replied. “Fearless is my favourite, Red is my second favourite, 1989 and Lover.”
Interestingly, this is the order in which the albums were released, suggesting that, in classic ‘OG fan’ fashion, Laufey prefers Swift’s ‘early stuff’.
Clairo, though, isn’t so sure: “I’d probably do the same or I would put 1989 second,” she replies, but there’s something that bothers her about that order. “My favourite Taylor Swift song is False God on Lover, so that feels weird having it be really so low,” she says.
A lesser-known Swift cut, False God takes the star into jazzy neo-soul territory and is, as Laufey points, “the one with the saxophone”.
“Yeah girl,” confirms Clairo, “it’s a really sexy Taylor song.”
With both artists in agreement on that, the pair move on to discussing some of Swift’s later work - specifically, Folklore and Evermore, her duo of beloved lockdown-produced indie-folk albums.
Challenging herself to choose a favourite of the two, Clairo eventually says: “I think I like Evermore.” Nodding in agreement, Laufey says: “Evermore is more my favourite, I think, but I don’t know if that’s just me wanting to like the one that’s less popular.”
At which point the pair pivot to discussing other important matters - such as if there’s anything about Laufey’s home country of Iceland that she really hates - but we’re sure the Taylor talk is going to prompt some further debate in the Swiftie community.
Ranking her albums is now more complicated than ever, of course, because many of them now exist in two versions. However, now that Swift has ownership of, in her words, “all of the music I’ve ever made,” you don’t need to feel guilty about listening to or favouring any of it.
Laufey is currently counting down to the release of A Matter Of Time, her new album, which will land on 22 August. A fourth single from the record, Snow White, dropped yesterday (7 August). Clairo, meanwhile, has spent the summer on the festival circuit, and will next perform at All Things Go in September.
