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\n Emer McLysaght<\/p>\n
Author and journalist<\/p>\n
In Nobody Needs This, a series for The Journal, Emer McLysaght focuses her eagle eye on the trends, products and notions we can do without. It\u2019s not all giving out, however. She\u2019ll also be keeping up with what\u2019s catching her attention, keeping people interested and, quite frankly, driving her mad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am begging Taylor Swift to take a day off. Hell, take five years off. Has she never heard of the old showbiz adage to \u201calways leave them wanting more\u201d?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been less than two years since Swift\u2019s record-breaking Eras Tour (it\u2019s the highest grossing world tour ever, bringing in over $2 billion) but in that time she\u2019s released a new album, got engaged, got married, wrote and released a genuinely great song for the Toy Story 5 soundtrack (I Knew It, I Knew You) and became the youngest woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
![\"photo-by-zzxnystar-maxipx-2025-82625-taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce-are-engaged-star-max-file-photo-101124-taylor-swift-and-travis-kelce-are-seen-on-october-11-2024-outside-the-corner-store\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790320695_369_.jpeg\")
\n Swift and new husband, Travis Kelce. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Then, this week, she announced<\/a> a new single called Patient Zero and a new deluxe version of her most recent album The Life of a Showgirl complete with four newly written songs.<\/p>\n She is arguably the most famous and most visible woman in the world, with a legion of dedicated fans among which I count myself, and even I\u2019m saying, \u201cOkay Taylor Swift, that\u2019s enough now\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Could do better<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Taylor fan since 2014 when I sat beside a Swiftie at work and her infectious enthusiasm for the release of the 1989 album made me sit up and pay attention. I stuck with her through the tumultuous Kanye West feud years, felt like her 2020 album Folklore with The National\u2019s Aaron Dessner was tailor (sorry) made for me, and found some of my lifelong favourite songs on Midnights when it was released in 2022 \u2013 I\u2019ve even considered a tattoo in homage to You\u2019re On Your Own Kid.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been to hundreds of concerts in my life, every genre you can think of, and her Eras Tour shows are right up there at the top spot. They were more than just concerts, they were spectacles. I worked out that it cost me \u20ac47 an hour to be at The Eras Tour, the cheapest and best therapy I\u2019d ever had.<\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n Taylor Swift is undoubtedly an important figure in my life, but when she announced her new songs and deluxe album this week and my first instinct was \u201cOh no, now I have to defend this\u201d, I knew my relationship to her had entered a rocky patch.<\/p>\n In truth, there\u2019s been trouble on the horizon for a year since the release of The Life of a Showgirl, an album that, while musically interesting and undeniably catchy, is not her best work tonally or lyrically. A Charli XCX diss track and a cringe-inducing ode to her now-husband\u2019s \u201cwood\u201d (that\u2019s his penis, in case the song didn\u2019t smack you hard enough over the head with the metaphor) left me wondering why she didn\u2019t just wait. Just take a nice long beat to let the success of The Eras Tour sink in, have a lovely wedding and leave them wanting more.<\/p>\n For God\u2019s sake, the woman recorded and released The Tortured Poet\u2019s Department (an acclaimed double album) while she was on The Eras Tour and changed the format of the show mid-tour to accommodate the new music. Let that be the album legacy for a while, not the lyrics:<\/p>\n \u201cRedwood tree, it ain\u2019t hard to see<\/p>\n His love was th\u0435 key that opened my thighs\u201d<\/p>\n His love was the key that opened my thighs. Come on Taylor, you\u2019re better than that.<\/p>\n Stoking the feud\u00a0<\/p>\n Swift\u2019s cringiness has often been the thing that endears her to me. Yes, she\u2019s a genius songwriter with more resilience than most people could muster in a lifetime, but she\u2019s also cheesy and awkward and wears her heart on her sleeve. While I was fuming with Taylor for stoking the Charli XCX feud, I also got that she wanted to try to have the last word in an unwinnable war against the \u201ccool\u201d girls.<\/p>\n However, any misstep Swift makes just serves to feed into the millions of people who hate her, the people who have an emotionally negative response whenever her name is in the headlines, the people who are having a field day with this deluxe album news and the cash grab it infers.<\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n The criticisms of Taylor Swift are endless, which I guess comes with the territory of being Taylor Swift. She\u2019s got an estimated net worth of $2 billion (\u20ac1.75 billion), with most of her value coming from the publishing rights of her extensive back catalogue, she owns a private jet, she\u2019s dipped her toe in political issues but never enough to produce the world peace critics seem to think she\u2019s capable of, she donates millions but never enough millions, she provides a convenient representation of capitalism to baulk at, and is a woman on top of it all.<\/p>\n Misogyny is always mentioned when questions around the hatred of Taylor Swift are raised. Jay-Z is richer than she is, where\u2019s all the Jay-Z hate? Bruce Springsteen isn\u2019t far behind her, and everyone loves The Boss. Some of the worst commentary I\u2019ve seen in recent months is around the presumed imminent announcement of a pregnancy, because when is commentary around women\u2019s bodies and reproductive health ever not toxic?<\/p>\n I will never hate Taylor Swift, and I will never understand the people who seem to get up early in the morning (the Irish government must love them) to despise her, but I do think we need a break.<\/p>\n Unless, of course, she turns the tables on us again and today\u2019s deluxe release of The Life of a Showgirl is actually the somewhat delusionally hoped for \u201csecret good album\u201d that Swift has been sitting on, watching and giggling as her fans try desperately to reconcile with \u201chis love was the key that opened my thighs\u201d. Unfortunately, I think it\u2019s a classic case of Taylor failing to read the room, which is part of why I love her. Sometimes it\u2019s hard to be a Swiftie.<\/p>\n Listen to this<\/p>\n In more good album news, Republic of Loose have announced<\/a> they\u2019ll be releasing a special vinyl edition of Aaagh (one of the best Irish albums of the noughties) to celebrate its 20th anniversary.<\/p>\n Reading<\/p>\n Why does a man need 12 degrees? And how did he get them? It\u2019s in the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Coveting<\/p>\n Don\u2019t sleep on<\/p>\n Comic Shane Daniel Byrne has announced a 2027 Irish tour. Get your tickets here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Emer will be back next Friday morning with more recommendations.<\/p>\n ![\"editorial-use-only-taylor-swift-fans-outside-the-aviva-stadium-in-dublin-listen-to-taylor-performing-during-the-eras-tour-picture-date-friday-june-28-2024\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790320696_23_.jpeg\")
\n Taylor Swift fans outside the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, listen to Taylor performing during the Eras Tour in 2024. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![\"taylor-swift-left-and-charli-xcx-seen-at-billboard-women-in-music-at-cipriani-wall-street-on-friday-dec-12-2014-in-new-york-photo-by-diane-bondareffinvision-for-billboard-magazineap-images\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790320696_956_.jpeg\")
\n Swift and Charlie XCX in 2014. They two have beef. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n