{"id":909039,"date":"2026-09-25T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/909039\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:04:10","slug":"the-life-of-a-showgirl-was-taylor-swifts-worst-album-its-encore-is-a-whole-lot-sharper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/909039\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life of a Showgirl was Taylor Swift\u2019s worst album. Its encore is a whole lot sharper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour concert in Paris in May, 2024.Lewis Joly\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Oh, sorry. I must be thinking of another Taylor Swift, the one who said her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl would not receive a deluxe edition or bonus tracks. \u201cThis is the record I\u2019ve been wanting to make for a very long time,\u201d that other Taylor told us on her now-husband\u2019s podcast a year ago. \u201cThere\u2019s not other ones coming,\u201d she said of the possibility of more songs.<\/p>\n

I know. It\u2019s on me that I took those words at face value, and I\u2019ll admit that was wishful thinking on my part. As a historically steadfast Swift fan, I didn\u2019t relish disliking The Life of a Showgirl<\/a> as much as I did and still do. I clung to hope that Swift\u2019s latest musical era would fizz into the next without incident \u2013 and that whatever came after Showgirl would feature fewer double entendres about redwood trees and hard rocks. (Ew.)<\/p>\n

But earlier this week, Swift announced \u2013 surprise! \u2013 that The Life of a Showgirl would be receiving an encore in the form of four bonus tracks. <\/p>\n

Listen: I\u2019m still annoyed Swift backtracked on the \u201cno deluxe\u201d bluster of this album\u2019s 2025 rollout. And, for now, The Life of a Showgirl continues to sit at the bottom of my personal ranking of Swift\u2019s creative output. <\/p>\n

But the four new tracks \u2013 Patient Zero, Cleveland!, Pink Clouding and Babylon \u2013 are markedly better than the rest of Swift\u2019s record-shattering record. It\u2019s hard not to wish that we\u2019d had these songs this time last year. (And that they\u2019d replaced such disasters as \u2013 ugh \u2013 Cancelled!)<\/p>\n

Then again, the new tracks introduce us to a version of Swift who didn\u2019t quite exist when The Life of a Showgirl dropped last October. Swift\u2019s a married lady now \u2013 you may have heard a thing or two about hers and Travis Kelce\u2019s wedding at Madison Square Garden this summer \u2013 and on the knowingly obnoxious Cleveland!, she shares at length how little she cares if you don\u2019t like her. \u201cThis is the love of my life,\u201d she croons as festive jingle bells rattle in the background. There\u2019s little doubt she means it.<\/p>\n

On Cleveland!\u2019s schmaltzy bridge, she speaks plainly: \u201cYou only need to find one person in this entire world who doesn\u2019t find you completely insufferable, and I have an important announcement to make. I found mine!\u201d Cleveland!, whose exclamation point suggests a sort-of sequel to 2024\u2019s far less cheerful Florida!!!, lands like a postcard from her honeymoon: This is unapologetic bliss, says Swift, and she\u2019s sharing it with anyone who will listen.<\/p>\n

Patient Zero, whose starry music video will premiere at MTV\u2019s Video Music Awards on Sunday evening, returns to more familiar sonic territory for Swift. Stacked vocals \u00e0 la Midnights or Reputation tell a story of commiseration: \u201cIf you\u2019re sick of him, I got you, I was patient zero,\u201d she confides as a descending string refrain pushes the confession ever-forward. <\/p>\n

Had Patient Zero been included in The Life of a Showgirl\u2019s original pressing, that album might have left more of an impact beyond its sales numbers. Now, the track feels like a dangling jewel, not quite anchored to its surrounding project but ultimately shinier in its lyrics and production.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce kisses Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in 2024.John Locher\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Pink Clouding might be the encore\u2019s weakest entry, a mishmash of Enya-ish vocals and mixed metaphors tied to the colour pink. The low-hanging lyrics of Showgirl\u2019s main album rear their heads here: \u201cHe crossed my heart, I hoped to die,\u201d she murmurs on its second verse. (Groan.) <\/p>\n

But she soon returns to her hot streak with Babylon, a haunting, ambiguous closing track that calls back to the nostalgic poetry of 2020s Folklore and Evermore. Swift riffs on order, chaos and the real life that happens in between, weighing the cost of desire versus ambition: \u201cTwenty watches in the safe \u2018cause your time is money,\u201d she sings. \u201cLove is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt Swift\u2019s climbed whatever ladders she once dreamed of climbing \u2013 she\u2019s among the richest, most creatively prolific artists of her generation. She\u2019s successful enough that oddities such as Showgirl\u2019s there-will-be-no-deluxe deluxe edition chafe more than they might if they came from another musician. Surely, if any singer-songwriter has the means to stick to their intended creative vision \u2013 even one as frustratingly banal as The Life of a Showgirl\u2019s \u2013 it\u2019s Swift.<\/p>\n

Oh, well. She\u2019s happy; she wants us to know about it. And she\u2019s been saying it herself for 12 months now: A showgirl knows to save her best tricks for the grand finale. Mission accomplished. (Mostly.)<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Standing with Donna Kelce, and her father Scott Swift, Taylor Swift points to her wedding ring after her husband, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, scored a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game, Sept. 20.Charlie Riedel\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour concert in Paris in May, 2024.Lewis Joly\/The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2922],"class_list":["post-909039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}