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On Friday September 25th, Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, the deluxe version of the 12th studio album that was released in October of last year. The original album immediately faced a lot of online hate and this seems to be the same reaction for the deluxe version as well, with some people saying, “just as derivative and flat as those that populated the original.”
As a Swiftie myself, the people I’ve talked to have said very negative things: “I didn’t finish it because it was so bad” and “It’s not getting added to my playlist”. Just over all at AHS people have not been loving these songs. For me, I really don’t understand all of the hate. Two of the four songs are genuinely good and catchy. One of the songs is now is quickly becoming one of my favorites for all the songs on The Life of a Showgirl!
Here’s a further review for each track:
“Patient Zero”– This song is rough. A Taylor Swift lead single comes with very high hopes. Most people, including me, find this song very boring and not very interesting as a concept – hearing from friends about an ex of an ex . I have said many times that one of the worst things Taylor Swift is bad at is picking lead singles and “Patient Zero” continues her streak of poor choices. The lead single is the one song most people only hear and when it’s always terrible for Taylor Swift, that gives a very bad impression on her.
“Cleveland!”- I’ve seen a lot of hate online and from my friends about this song, but I think people are being a little harsh on it. I do live in Pittsburgh though, so maybe I have to pause the feedback from my friends right here. What self-respecting Steelers fan would love a song about the mistake by the lake?
Is it the best song ever? No. But it doesn’t have to be. It feels like a song I’d add onto a Christmas playlist because of Max Martin’s glockenspiel cutting through the keyboards, piano, and the rest of the standard instruments Shellback played on LOAS. Maybe this song is much more for Swifties, because her husband Travis Kelce is the first person you see at the start of the video while they drive into Cleveland, and you get a little look into their life.
“Pink Clouding”- This song is so catchy and stuck in my head all day after hearing it. The second half of this album is so great, which sucks because her lead single strategy made multiple students at AHS stop after “Cleveland” and just give up on the release. This reminds me of a mix of her new sound along with elements from her 7th album, Lover. It especially reminds me of “Lover” during the bridge of the song with the almost rap like singing and just how the music sounds in general.
“Babylon”– THIS SONG IS SO GOOD! Everything about this song just makes me happy. And the song is very relatable about the feeling of not realizing how much something means to you until it’s gone, she sings “ And you hate this song /But wake up on the train/ with your headphones gone/, then that melody is all you want. You never knew that it was Babylon/ until it was gone”. I would recommend this song to anyone because I really can’t think of any reason to not enjoy this song! If you do like this song, I would recommend songs of her other albums, like “evermore” and “folklore”.
Overall I give these songs a 7 out of 10,with two of them being genuine highlights and only one of them being what I would consider a “bad” song. Most people look for any reason to hate on Taylor Swift and this is a prime example of this. I genuinely think if you give these 4 songs a chance without any pre-decided opinions you will end up having a positive listening experience.
