This year alone, Jack Antonoff — musician, producer, husband of Margaret Qualley — has worked with Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Japanese Breakfast, Bartess Strange, Nick Cave, The 1975, and Kendrick Lamar. He’s the prolific pop and indie producer of the moment, and with that comes a lot of fans for his ability to make “beautiful art” with other musicians… and a lot of detractors over accusations of an increasingly formulaic sound (think: lots of synths and introspection). But it’s undeniable that he’s helped shepherd some of the best albums of the 2010s and 2020s.
Below, you’ll find a ranking of every album produced by Jack Antonoff. A few disclaimers: his bands — Bleachers, fun., Steel Train, and Outline — are omitted. I also only included albums where he produced at least five songs, which leaves off Taylor Swift’s 1989 (including the Taylor’s Version), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated Side B, etc.
Get off the bleachers, let’s have some fun.
20. Daddy’s Home by St. Vincent
Daddy’s Home is St. Vincent’s attempt at making a “sleazy, grimy record” that recreates what it was like “being down and out Downtown in New York, 1973.” So why does it sound so sterile? There’s no swagger, no grit, no glam to Daddy’s Home, only gauzy retro-pop with too-thick production from Antonoff. Thankfully, another album of theirs will be much higher on this list.
19. Lost At Sea by Rob Grant
Looking at a photo of Rob Grant, you would think his debut album sounds like Jimmy Buffett. But there’s no “attitude” to be found on Lost At Sea, only relaxation. It’s a slight-but-calming album of piano ambience, save for two songs with Grant’s daughter, Lana Del Rey. Antonoff, who produced five tracks, stays out of the way, letting the piano do the talking (minus any actual talking). “My Deep Dream Blue” sounds best while wrapped in seaweed at the spa.
18. Solar Power by Lorde
After the out-of-nowhere success of Pure Heroine and an Album of the Year nomination for Melodrama, Lorde wanted to “just chill out” on her third LP. She chilled out too much. On Solar Power, Lorde sounds subdued, with little momentum from song to song. There are individual moments of spark (closer “Oceanic Feeling” is a highlight), but the album as a whole lacks personality. The most spirited Lorde gets on Solar Power are the comments she made to The New York Times about working with Antonoff. “I haven’t made a Jack Antonoff record. I’ve made a Lorde record and he’s helped me make it and very much deferred to me on production and arrangement,” she said. “Jack would agree with this. To give him that amount of credit is frankly insulting.”
17. Minions: The Rise of Gru (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists
Look, as far as soundtracks for Minions movies with contemporary artists covering popular songs from the 1970s goes, this one is the best. You’ve got “Hollywood Swinging” by Brockhampton, “Black Magic Woman” by Tierra Whack, and so on. Some covers work better than others (H.E.R.’s “Dance To The Music” isn’t nearly chaotic enough, while St. Vincent’s robotic “Funkytown” is somehow more grating than the Minions singing “Cecilia”), but Antonoff sounds at home working with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Weyes Blood, and Caroline Polachek on the more melancholy renditions.
16. The New Look: Season 1 by Various Artists
The kind of soundtrack — for a peak-streaming Apple TV+ series starring Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche as fashion designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel — that I’m happy exists, but can’t imagine ever listening to the whole album. It’s an Antonoff-curated playlist of modern renditions of classic songs, including Perfume Genius’ lovely “What A Difference A Day Makes” and Bartees Strange’s stirring “You Always Hurt the One You Love.” The highlight is “La Vie En Rose” by Nick Cave, who sounds like a frail Tom Waits.
15. Chemtrails Over The Country Club by Lana Del Rey
The album after an opus is a tricky proposition, and Lana Del Rey felt the pressure of Norman Fucking Rockwell! in making Chemtrails Over The Country Club. “I’ve been really stressed about this album,” she admitted. Wisely, instead of trying to top NFR, she made her most restrained album to date. Chemtrails Over The Country Club is a wistful exploration of fame and wanting to leave California behind for the “Tulsa Jesus Freaks” of middle-America, bathed in what she called “seamless, sun-kissed production” from Antonoff.
14. Arizona Baby by Kevin Abstract
In an interview with Vulture, Kevin Abstract, a founding member of rap collective Brockhampton, was asked what he learned about working with Antonoff on Arizona Baby. “He taught me how to pick a single,” he said before reflecting on the unfiltered album as a whole. “I’m always telling myself I want to make a pop album, and then I make this introspective artsy album with him. Looking back, I wish I understood my intentions a little more.” Abstract is being too harsh on himself: there are times where Arizona Baby is too caught between genres, but it also “contains so many moments that make the listener feel the aching pull of adolescence,” as my co-worker Aaron Williams glowingly put it. Try not to be moved by “Baby Boy,” which begins crisp and smooth before building into a swirl of strings, drums, and synths.
13. Midnights by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff met in 2012. A year later, they released their first collaboration, “Sweeter Than Fiction,” for the otherwise-forgotten film, One Chance. A year after that came 1989, where Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced the massive-sounding “Out Of The Woods.” Since then, he’s been listed as a producer on every one of her albums, including Midnights. It’s Swift’s most low-key pop album, full of moody synths and chill beats. Midnights is sometimes too much of the same — which makes the exclusion of “Hits Different” on the original tracklist so confounding. The exhilarating blast of ‘90s guitar-pop should have been a No. 1 hit; instead, it was relegated to the bonus tracks. (This applies to “Is It Over Now?” on 1989 (Taylor’s Version), too.)
12. Dance Fever by Florence and the Machine
A common criticism of Jack Antonoff as a producer is that he’s too repetitive, too mellow, too nice. None of those complaints applies to Dance Fever. Inspired by everything from Iggy Pop to author Carmen Maria Machado to folk horror films like A24’s The Witch and Midsommar, Florence + the Machine’s post-pandemic album is a triumph of festival and arena-filling anthems. The album title is a nod to the “plague” that swept across Europe during the Middle Ages that caused people to spontaneously begin dancing. The modern equivalent is listening to the euphoric “Heaven Is Here.”
11. The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift
Is The Tortured Poets Department too long? Yes. But is it also raw, and funny, and unapologetically dramatic, with some of the finest songs Swift has ever written? Also yes (shout out to “The Black Dog” and “Guilty As Sin?” in particular). The expectations-defying album is an introspective mashup of eras: the autobiographical lyrics of her older albums; the character studies of Folklore and Evermore; the sleek synth-pop production of Midnights. If Swift decides it’s time to switch things up and work with someone new, The Tortured Poets Department is a worthy ending to the Swift/Antonoff (and Dessner!) era.
10. Lover by Taylor Swift
I recently wrote a whole lot of words on Swift’s “what if?” album, which you can read here. So, instead of recapping everything about her era-less era, here are the five best songs on Lover produced by Antonoff:
5) “The Archer”
4) “Lover”
3) “Death By A Thousand Cuts”
2) “Cornelia Street”
1) “Cruel Summer”
9. Being Funny In A Foreign Language by The 1975
The 1975’s tour behind Being Funny In A Foreign Language was called At Their Very Best. That’s not quite accurate (it’s a toss-up between I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It or A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships), but it’s still a profound, focused album that has something for everyone. The funky “Happiness,” the mixtape vibe setter “I’m In Love With You,” the shoegaze-y “About You.” The 1975 and Jack Antonoff is a match made in sax solo heaven.
8. Gaslighter by The Chicks
The Chicks enlisted Antonoff — who they met through Taylor Swift — for the country group’s first album in 14 years (and since changing their name). The original plan was for Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer to “write with a bunch of different people and get different producers,” Strayer explained, but “he blew us away.” There’s no karaoke classic like “Goodbye Earl” on Gaslighter, but it’s a strong return from The Chicks.
7. Reputation by Taylor Swift
Swift recruited Antonoff for Reputation‘s winking first single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” and he’s all over the place on the second half of the album. Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s the stronger, more vulnerable half, with Swift looking to find “something sacred throughout all the battle cries.” (Is there anything more 2017 coded than songwriting inspired by Game Of Thrones?) “Getaway Car” recaptures the breathlessness of “Out Of The Woods” (the moment they wrote the iconic bridge was captured for all to see), while “New Year’s Day” is a romantic predecessor to the Folklore / Evermore era. Reputation was divisive at the time, but it’s aged like fine wine (spilled in a bathtub).
6. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey
“When Jack comes in, you know you’re making a real record.” That’s Lana Dey Rey on the recording of Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, a masterful album that would be a career-best for most artists not named Lana Del Rey. These are knotty, confessional songs about family and motherhood, to an almost discomforting degree: “Will the baby be alright? / Will I have one of mine? / Can I handle it even if I do? / It’s said that my mind / Is not fit, or so they said, to carry a child” But Tunnel‘s highlight — and a peak achievement for Antonoff as a producer — is “A&W.” The song is split in two: the first half is muted with a spare guitar and a piano over Lana’s serene vocals, but around the four-minute mark, Antonoff adds a trap beat, a Mellotron, Moog bass, and synth bass and pads. It’s unpredictable, and thrilling.
5. Masseduction by St. Vincent
Masseduction still sounds as adventurous and lustful (“I can’t turn off what turns me on”) as it did when it came out. It’s St. Vincent and Antonoff at their most willing to experiment. “Hang On Me” glitches with tension, “Los Ageless” is a jolt of electro-pop energy, and the deceptively titled “Happy Birthday, Johnny” slows things down but doesn’t kill the momentum; the aching melody is gorgeous. There’s an anxiety that hovers over Masseduction (one of the best pop albums of the 2010s) that keeps it timelessly vital.
4. Sling by Clairo
The album cover for Sling is a photo of Clairo in the wintery woods with a dog’s paw gently touching her face. That’s somehow how the album sounds, too. It’s cozy and comforting, like sitting by a warm fire in a cabin while it’s snowing outside. Antonoff once described Clairo as having “an incredible toughness through sensitivity,” and it shows on Sling. She sings with conviction, but there’s a gracefulness to her lyrics. “Wade” and “Partridge” are supported with light touches of warm guitars and subtle drums (Clairo is credited with over a dozen instruments; it’s around 20 for Antonoff). It’s Joni Mitchell meets Elliott Smith. “There are so many things I wanted to experiment with on Sling that he was all for,” she told Spin about Antonoff. “He’s great at directing, but he’s also great at making you feel and know that it’s your record and your song.”
3. Norman F*cking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
Even if Lana Del Rey retires from the music industry tomorrow (where is Lasso?) to settle into a quiet life of gator wrangling, at least we’ll always have Norman F*cking Rockwell!. Featuring some of her most beautiful arrangements and sublime lyrics, it’s the kind of all-encompassing album that identities are built around. But it may not have existed without Antonoff’s involvement. She wasn’t in the mood to write, until he requested to meet her at “some random diner” and started playing atmospheric guitar riffs. Suddenly, she had an idea: “A folk record with a little surf twist.” There’s nothing little about Norman F*cking Rockwell!, however. It’s a huge achievement. F*ck it, I love you, NFR.
2. Folklore by Taylor Swift
If Taylor Swift had to pick her favorite Taylor Swift album, I bet it would be Folklore. Of course she would never pick a favorite, for the same reason that parents don’t have preferred kids. But let’s just say that Swift’s preferred kid isn’t Evermore (only one song produced by Jack, for what it’s worth). Folklore, which was written and recorded remotely during the pandemic, opened up new songwriting avenues for Swift. It was her first time writing character studies, eschewing the ripped-from-a-diary lyrics of her previous albums. It’s also when she stopped thinking about how a song would sound on the radio or in a stadium. Folklore is Swift at her most natural. Among Taylor and Jack albums, it’s the 1.
1. Melodrama by Lorde
In a 2016 Facebook post, Lorde waved goodbye to Pure Heroine — and sped through a green light to the future. “Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights forever so that part of me never dies,” she wrote before adding, “And this record – well, this one is about what comes next.” What came next was Melodrama, an intimate, Max Martin-defying triumph of self-reflective pop. It’s a near-perfect album (the lonely guitar outro of hushed-but-playful “The Louvre” into the achingly brittle “Liability” is peak) about imperfect emotions. Melodrama was a step up for both Lorde, as an artist, and Antonoff, as the behind-the-scenes talent helping guide her vision. It was Antonoff’s first album as a lead producer — and still his best.
4532