Taylor Swift released an extra four tracks to her The Life of a Showgirl album on 25 September, and all four of them felt as soulless as the original album. The Life of a Showgirl, released in October 2025, garnered criticism in its lack of creativity, lyricism, and empty cash grab-esque release. It tracks, then, that the deluxe version would follow down that path. The Encore, something typically begged for by an audience, came as an unwanted surprise and left a bitter taste in many long time fan’s mouths.
To preface, I’m a big Swiftie. I attended the Era’s Tour back in 2023. I eagerly awaited the release of Midnights, The Tortured Poets Department, and the Life of a Showgirl – of the three I can only say that I love Midnights. The very first CD I owned was 1989 and it was my most treasured possession at eight years old, it played in my Barbie-themed CD player enough to probably annoy my brothers to death. I like Taylor Swift, her music has brought me a lot of joy in my life. But she continues to disappoint with The Life of a Showgirl and The Encore has only dug that knife a little deeper into my back.
We’ll start, then, with the four tracks of Encore.
Patient Zero
First comes ‘Patient Zero’, inspired by a conversation between Swift and her friends about an ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend reaching out for advice. To put it plainly, it’s bad.
Musically, it’s boring, a bad beat that seems to run quicker than Swift can catch up to. There’s a background squeal of a violin, the only thing that adds depth or interest to the composition of the song. Swift is known for her ‘Pop Bible’ bangers, all of which are elevated by the music behind the lyrics. It seems she must have forgotten this concept, as ‘Patient Zero’ is boring and plain, with no concept of a catchy beat.
For a woman who has been consistently hailed as the lyricist of her generation, ‘Patient Zero’ is embarrassing. Boring, run to death metaphors of a devilish ex-boyfriend and references to a scorned woman haloed in party lights is all she can seem to muster up. We’ve been here before, Taylor, and you’ve done this well before. ‘Blank Space’ from 1989 comes to mind – a satirical play on her long list of awful ex-boyfriends. The difference between ‘Patient Zero’ and ‘Blank Space’ is that ‘Blank Space’ was actually good – it was musically interesting, lyrically clever, and it made you want to dance. These themes are lacking in ‘Patient Zero’.
One final thing to note for ‘Patient Zero’ is the bridge. As a fan of Swift, the bridge of a song is always intriguing. She can write amazing bridges that hook you from the start. They often flow well, align with the tempo of the beat, and make you want to scream. Again, ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ from The Tortured Poets Department comes to mind – a great, recent example that shows how strong Swift is in the art of bridge writing. The bridge in ‘Patient Zero’ is difficult to listen to.
She begins it with the phrase “so let’s get into it”, something that comes out of left field and does not follow the ending of the previous verse. Get into what, exactly, Taylor? She does not elaborate. Instead, what can only be described as word-vomit occurs.
“I know he charmed your family and friends, and you thought it was ‘cause he loves you, but it’s ‘cause he loves how everyone else loves him”.
I’m sorry, Taylor, what? The beat of the song moves faster than she can get out this jumble of words. It does not flow, it does not work, and she can do better than this. She has proved countless times that she can do better than this, so what exactly is holding her back?
‘Patient Zero’ is just bad. It’s disappointing and embarrassing, because she is better than this. Her fans expect better.
Cleveland!
Cleveland… what can I even say? It sounds like Sims 4 create-a-sim music, or some royalty-free song found in the worst of Hallmark Christmas movies. A jingle bell beat that she’s just talking over. It’s laskluster, to say the very least.
In ‘Cleveland!’, Taylor laments on her haters, crying woe is me as she opens by repeating all the nasty things people say about her.
“She’s not as hot as she was, but she was only a four, she was never a girl’s girl, she was just a – and with all that money, why’s she dressed like trash?”
Taylor, we’ve been here before. After she reached her peak with 1989, the internet turned on her and she disappeared for over three years. She came back with Reputation, a comeback album of a century, where she defended herself and showed how unaffected she was by the hate. The difference here is that Reputation was deserved and done well. She did receive an insane amount of hatred from the press following her feud with the Kardashians, and then she left the public eye. Reputation was her finding confidence again after that hit. What exactly is the hate that she’s pushing back on in ‘Cleveland!’?
People did not like The Life of a Showgirl because of its content – all valid criticisms aimed at an artist at the very top of the charts. Yet, with this song, it seems she has misinterpreted these criticisms into the public hating her marriage to Travis Kelce.
This translates into an empty sounding love song disguised as a bitter response to valid criticism. “My baby likes what he likes, he already took me to Cleveland and showed me New Heights. This is the love of my life”. The reference to Kelce’s podcast seems cheap, like Swift wants to remind us all that she married a successful American football player – yes, Taylor, we know, you got married in Madison Square Garden, it was hard not to notice. Their relationship is portrayed as juvenile in the song and it does not reflect well when you need to shout from the rooftops that your husband has a sports podcast.
The lyrics get worse, though. “The taste of me is acquired, but it’s his favourite dish.” Acquired? A rich, beautiful woman with an incredibly successful career is an acquired taste? Really? Or are you trying to show that this playground-esque relationship is mature by referencing that you are intimate with your husband? Swift has written about sexual experiences with a lot more skill than this – ‘Guilty as Sin’? from The Tortured Poets Department springs to mind. She does not need to dumb it down into a standard metaphor for us to pick up on the double entendre.
The song feels lacking in many ways. It sounds like she’s trying so hard to convince the audience that she’s in love and it’s ended up sounding like she’s trying to convince herself. What do you like about him, Taylor? You haven’t mentioned. “He likes what he likes, and he likes me, he likes what he likes, and he likes me.” Right, ok, understood. Is he a child? Does he like you or does he love you, because this sounds even more high-school like. Remind me, Taylor, does your husband like you? Oh right! Ok, I’m glad.
Swift can write beautiful love songs, she can do it in the pop genre and she can do it in the folk genre. ‘You Are In Love’ from 1989 and ‘Cardigan’ from Folklore are beautifully written and full of emotion. This emotion just is not here in ‘Cleveland!’.
To round it off, she begins the bridge with “You only need to find one person in this entire world who doesn’t find you completely insufferable, and I have an important announcement to make, I found mind.”
Thank you for informing us, I guess. I’m struggling to not find you insufferable right now, and I’m a massive fan.
If I were Kelce and this was the love song my wife managed to scrape together for me, when her previous boyfriend’s got entire albums dedicated to them, I’d be pretty confused. Is the song about how much she loves her husband, or is she showing the haters how unaffected she is, and thereby coming off as incredibly affected? Who can tell?
She ends with “This is the love of my life”. I’m happy for you, Taylor, but this doesn’t really come across in this song.
Pink Clouding
‘Pink Clouding’ is better than the previous tracks. Referring to an ex-fling that she did wrong, she reflects on how she feels terrible for how she acted with him.
It’s musically more interesting and she’s mostly not chasing the beat throughout. Producers Max Martin and Shellback worked their magic on this song, it’s just let down by generic story telling. Again, she lets herself down on the bridge. I don’t know why she decided to rap, but it’s certainly a choice.
To Swift’s credit, this one is pretty catchy. The background vocals throughout elevate the song, the repeated “Pink Clouding” at the end of most lines works in her favour.
There are no egregious lyrics, it’s just boring. If this song was on one of her better albums, it would be a skip, but on The Encore it sits nicely at number two.
Babylon
Babylon is The Encore’s saving grace – a mellow, almost acoustic, throwback to the type of music Swift is known to make. It’s a nice listen, the guitar carries the melody and Swift’s vocals lay cleanly over it.
This song reminds us of Swift’s roots as a storyteller and it works well. Seemingly about a different ex-partner, it takes a winding road down through nostalgia of a relationship long lost. The regrets and longing for a different outcome comes through in the chorus: “And you hate this song but you wake up on a train with your headphones on, that melody is all you want. You never knew it was Babylon ‘til it was gone.”
Swift loves a reference to Babylon, she’s used it in ‘Cowboy Like Me’ and ‘Us’, a Gracie Abrams song she co-wrote. It works nicely in this song, a reminder that she is a strong songwriter at her core. The chorus is catchy and if there was ever a song off this album that I’d re-listen to, it would be this one.
Out of the four tracks, ‘Babylon’ is by far the best. It shows that she hasn’t completely lost her touch.
The verdict
Taylor Swift is a good songwriter, although you wouldn’t know that from The Encore. This expansion on The Life of a Showgirl screams of bitterness and oozes indifference. It doesn’t reflect what she is capable of.
There isn’t soul in it. It comes across like she wanted more money and so she threw some songs together – the usual care and creativity is lost between boring beats and truly awful lyrics. She did not need to release this. Some songs are meant to stay in the vault.
So, The Encore gets a one out of five, and it is with a heavy heart that I say that. I love Taylor, and so I expect better. I know she can do better, so that isn’t a crazy expectation for her fans to have.
The Encore is a disappointing addition to an already bad album. It didn’t need to happen.
Featured Image Credit: Taylor Swift