“The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” may have broken the record of pre-saved songs, with 574,000 pre-saves in a single day, but the lyrics aren’t impressing anyone. (Image Courtesy of Variety)
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Taylor Swift’s newest four releases have audiences wanting… less?
Swift released an encore to her 2025 album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” at midnight on Friday. The encore expands on the original 12-track album, adding four new songs following a creative session in Sweden with Max Martin and Shellback.
At first glimpse, Swift’s first song, “Patient Zero,” is eerily similar to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Deja Vu,” released in 2021. Both songs feature a tale of past lovers gaining new girlfriends and the sentiment that “he was mine first.” The difference between Swift and Rodrigo’s tracks, though, is that I wasn’t constantly checking to see if “Deja Vu” was over yet. The violin, played by Fredrik Burstedt, in the beginning of the track peaks the listener’s interest, and then you hear Swift’s lyrics and you lose all interest. I appreciated the feeling of solidarity that Swift is trying to convey, I really did, but that cannot be the only pull that this song brings. I wish there was more self-reflection, or maybe even pure sadness without a synth beat. Swift has proven time and time again that she can make a devastating song without dressing it up in something shiny and danceable. “Patient Zero” feels like it is constantly trying to outrun its own sadness, when, ironically, sitting in that sadness might have made the song much more effective.
“Cleveland!” centers on the idea that “well, you all might not like me, but my husband does.” It has hints of “reputation,” but it fails to deliver any emotional depth. Instead, it repeats “something we can all agree on, is that my baby likes what he likes” over and over again, almost like a mantra meant to convince herself that she settled down with the right man. Her mention of “New Heights,” the podcast hosted by Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce, a former Philadelphia Eagles center, is not lost on the listener, either. The song boils down to Swift announcing that she has found the one, with little else to offer.
Next on the chopping block is “Pink Clouding,” a love child of her song “Lavender Haze” and a synth-pop melody paired with sad lyrics. The song is both unique to Swift’s discography and reminiscent of other tracks that pair heavy sadness with an upbeat pop sound, as seen in “Anti-Hero” and “Death by a Thousand Cuts.” Additionally, “Pink Clouding,” like three-fourths of the songs released as part of “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore,” almost completely lacks emotional depth. What sets this track apart, however, are the lines: “You realized my kind of trouble wasn’t worth it … And the way I treated you, you never deserved it … And I swear to God, to this day … I wake up scared that I left scars on a good person.” These lyrics are some of the most vulnerable on the entire encore (besides “Babylon”), making it all the more disappointing that the rest of the song does not reach the same emotional level. There is something genuinely interesting about Swift acknowledging the damage she may have caused to someone else, rather than simply positioning herself as the victim of a failed relationship. For a few moments, “Pink Clouding” feels like the kind of self-reflection that made Swift’s earlier work so compelling. Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between, leaving the song feeling like a glimpse of what the encore could have been rather than a fully realized addition to her discography.
The final track, “Babylon,” is by far the best of the new songs. The track captures the essence of all of Swift’s previous tracks into one, telling the story of a regretful wanderer who fails to appreciate what he has in front of him, constantly chasing status, freedom or greener grass until he loses it all. The track title, “Babylon,” is an especially prudent choice as religious texts, including the Bible, associate Babylon with the Tower of Babel and portray it as a symbol of pride and doom. If “Pink Clouding” follows her own failures, then “Babylon” is the song to dedicate to all of her exes’ failures. If this is the last break-up track I ever hear from Swift’s lips, I would be perfectly content with that. “Babylon” feels like a conclusion, not necessarily to Swift’s love life, but to the endless cycle of writing about the men who got away. It is dramatic, reflective and, most importantly, actually says something about her as a person. Not the billionaire Taylor. Not the pop icon Taylor. Just Taylor, and that is something that keeps me a Swiftie when songs like “Patient Zero” come out. Additionally, it’s the quietest of the seemingly Travis Kelce-inspired tracks, and I think that’s what I appreciate about it.
When talking about this album both online and in-person, many feel a strong longing for Swift’s iconic poetic lyricism once seen in twin albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.” The former of the two is widely considered to be Swift’s best album, and also marked her third genre-transition, moving from pop to indie-folk. That shift allowed Swift to lean more heavily into vivid storytelling, layered metaphors and fictional narratives, which are qualities that many listeners feel are noticeably absent from “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.”
Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m not a Swiftie anymore, or that Taylor Swift has lost a listener that I’m sure she won’t miss, but I am here to say that I don’t think that the numbers are on her side for this release. Despite “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” (574,000) becoming the greatest number of pre-saves in a single day on Spotify, I don’t think that it will achieve the success of its parent album, nor will it achieve the acclaim. And that is probably what bothers me most about it. I dislike “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” because I know Swift is capable of so much more. There are flashes of the lyricist who wrote “Folklore” and “Evermore,” but they are buried underneath catchy choruses and songs that sometimes feel more interested in sounding like Taylor Swift than actually saying something. As a Swiftie, I don’t need every album to be “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” or “The One.” I just want to feel something when the song ends. I know that maybe that is an unfair expectation to place on one artist after more than a decade of music. Maybe Swift simply has different things to say now. But after listening to these four songs, I find myself wanting less, less production, less repetition and more of the Taylor Swift who could make an entire stadium go silent with nothing more than a guitar and a devastating lyric.
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Alexia Bailey at Alexia.Bailey@colorado.edu
