Дуучин Тэйлор Свифт өөрийн “The Life of a Showgirl” цомгийн “The Encore” нэртэй делюкс хувилбарыг гаргаж, шинэ дөрвөн дууг сонсогчдод хүргэлээ.
Уг шинэ дуунуудыг Макс Мартин болон Шеллбэк нартай хамтран бүтээсэн бөгөөд дуучин өөрийн шүтэн бишрэгчдийн дэмжлэгт талархаж буйгаа илэрхийлжээ. Гэвч шүүмжлэгчид эдгээр дууг өмнөх бүтээлүүдийнх нь давталт, уран бүтээлчийн хувьд хөгжил дэвшил багатай болсон хэмээн дүгнэж байна.
Шинэ цомогт багтсан “Cleveland!” дуу нь дуучны гэр бүлийн амьдрал болон Трэвис Келсид зориулсан агуулгатай бол “Patient Zero”, “Pink Clouding”, “Babylon” зэрэг дуунууд нь түүний өмнөх уран бүтээлүүдийн хэв маягийг санагдуулам байна. Сонсогчид эдгээр дууг Qobuz, Apple Music болон Amazon Music платформ дээрээс сонсох боломжтой.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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For a second I thought we were out of the woods (pun intended) with The Life of a Showgirl. But like any real girlboss, Taylor Swift always has more planned for us.
The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore follows an onslaught of digital variants: the Acoustic Collection (including Alone in my Tower, Life is a Song, and Dressing Room Rehearsal versions), the Track by Track commentary version, the So Glamorous Cabaret version, and the So Punk on the Internet version. Each offered its own alternate takes of the original Showgirl songs. (Swifties created a spreadsheet to keep track.)
Now, with The Encore, we’re getting a proper deluxe edition, featuring four new songs made with Max Martin and Shellback during what Swift described in an Instagram post as a state of “pure gratitude for [the fans’] exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.” Unfortunately, that rush of creativity brought on more of the same: a regurgitation of the album they were reveling in, with even more immaturity than its predecessor.
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It becomes clearer with every new release that Swift’s songwriting isn’t where it was even five years ago. It’s like she’s dumbing herself down, or maybe not trying as hard, because she knows whatever she puts out will be gobbled up simply because it’s a Taylor Swift™ song. She’s gotten more on the nose and less nuanced, often relying on language that borders chronically online (“You only need to find one person in this entire world/ Who doesn’t think you’re insufferable”). On “Cleveland!”, Swift does little besides declare her love for her now-husband Travis Kelce and tell the general hating public to suck it.
As on the Showgirl track “Wood,” “Cleveland!” finds Swift letting the listener fill in the blanks on the track’s most vulgar lyrics, never saying the bad words outright. I wonder what insults rhyme with “four” and “dish.” There’s also the album’s second New Heights podcast callout (was this contractually obligated?), in the midst of which Swift emphasizes how much Kelce “likes” her. That repeated “like” gets at the issue with Showgirl, more broadly: the Taylor Swift of the mid-2020s skates on top of feeling without letting anyone see anything they haven’t already seen. It relays the giddiness of young love, but shouldn’t we expect a little more from her than that?
Still, as often is the case with Swift, many of the melodies are catchy. Almost unfortunately so. The “Patient Zero” chorus wiggles its way into my ear canal in a reluctantly satisfying fashion. But that doesn’t change the fact that the track is made up of a boom-chicka 808 with a literal fiddle layered on top, making it the most frustrating listen of the four new tracks. Just as I get into its groove and the diddling fiddling turns into white noise, Swift launches into another one of her quintessential spoken-word bridges. In a blasé, “Been there, done that” tone, she urges her ex’s new girl to brush it off and let him go.
The remaining two tracks, “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon,” are peak Swift-doing-Swift. The former sounds as if it could be on any post-2018 Swift LP, a potential Midnights reject with its dated synthy keys and an air of nostalgia begging to be picked apart by breadcrumb-obsessed fans. (The title references pink cloud syndrome, a bout of optimism and euphoria that occurs in early addiction recovery. In poor taste, if you ask me.)
“Babylon,” meanwhile, sounds like what would happen if you asked AI to write a Debut-era Swift track: wordy but going nowhere (“Love is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb”???), but also the obligatory reminder that Swift hasn’t forgotten her roots.
These four songs sound like four Taylor Swift songs. But a Taylor Swift song can mean anything at this point: no distinct identity, the name alone acting as the connective tissue. Swift is slowly folding in on herself like the people stuck in Backrooms. She’s become a predictable, bordering-on-bland caricature, falling further behind a pop zeitgeist that’s growing more niche as it whizzes past her. Four more songs only make that disconnect harder to ignore, and the encore sounds a lot like the show we just sat through.
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Stream Taylor Swift’sThe Life of a Showgirl: The Encore via Qobuz,Apple Music, or Amazon Music.
