Taylor Swift's expanded edition of last year's critically maligned album, The Life of a Showgirl, subtitled The Encore, adds four new songs. The release has sparked fan speculation about Swift's motives, with many suspecting it was designed to remind Grammy members of the album's existence during their voting period, or to oust country singer Ella Langley from her record-breaking US No 1 run.
When Swift announced Showgirl last year, she said the purposefully concise 12-track record would not be expanded, unlike her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, which was inflated from 16 to 31 songs on release day. This did not stop her from releasing 34 variants of Showgirl with various acoustic demos to boost sales.
Swedish studio sessions
After Showgirl had the biggest US opening week ever, Swift went to Sweden to celebrate with collaborators Max Martin and Shellback. She wrote on Instagram that the trip was intended for reflection and gratitude, but added: "there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: we wrote more songs."
The album's initial promise that Showgirl was all "bangers" and about "keeping the bar really high" was quickly dismissed. The record was panned for its excessive wordiness and defaulting on the promised bangers. These Encore songs largely pare back the verbiage and double down on hooks and firework-laden bridges.
Highs and lows
Two of the Encore songs contain a palpable sense of humanity, unlike anything from its parent album. Patient Zero, hooked around a mournful and curiously processed Celtic fiddle sample, recalls the spirit of Lover. Pink Clouding is a mature apology to a kind ex she let down, with the line "Neither of us knew at the time / That I was a liar".
However, Cleveland! is about how her husband Travis Kelce loves her despite internet commenters saying she can't dance and that she's annoying. It is sung with such oozing self-satisfaction it's like being repeatedly poked and asked if it hurts. Spiritually, it is a cut-and-shut of two of her worst songs ever, Lover's Me! and Showgirl's Honey.
A weakening output
The more criticism Swift releases, the more it may garner, in turn generating inspiration for more songs like this. It is Swiftian Groundhog Day: she seems unwilling or unable to extricate herself from the vast web of self-reference she now seems condemned to operate within.
Closing track Babylon is sub-Evermore in its overcomplicated narrative of a fractured family and grave, watery production. The greater truth affirmed by this batch of music is that the more Swift releases, the weaker her output gets. It doesn't take any detective work to deduce that the healthiest thing for her creativity would be to let the curtain fall for a while.
