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Review Summary: I don't know the life of a showgirl and I never ever wanna Well, it's been a few months, time for another Taylor Swift release, I suppose.
I don't like to be cynical. I don't volunteer to spend time listening to albums, hoping that they will disappoint me and I'll get to write some nasty words about them. I don't begrudge artists, however millions they may own, who strike when the iron is hot. But this latest reissue, The Life Of A Showgirl: The Encore is a very cynical proposition. Its utter lack of sonic innovation, following the poor impression left by its parent album, does disappoint me. The additional variants, its "surprise" release and its cheeky attachment to The Life Of A Showgirl, after Swift herself flat-out denied deluxe editions for it, does make me suspicious of her intentions with this record cycle and her approach to releasing music. And yes, I do have some nasty barbs to say about it all.
Let's not dwell on the original twelve song tracklist; almost everyone, from Swift's harshest critics to her most devoted followers, has torn it apart as an imaginative bone dry affair. For my money, its biggest misstep is its overall failure to follow up on the showgirl-behind-the-scenes theme it itself set out to explore; most songs are sonic and thematic retreads from her previous work and of lesser quality. And, lo and behold, The Life Of A Showgirl: The Encore is similarly misguided and dull. Neither do any of those four bonus songs inch closer to a showgirl theme nor do they contain melodically memorable moments; these aren't even passable Showgirl cuts, let alone Taylor Swift songs.
Like an incredibly tedious onion, Swift's recent catalogue has layers upon layers of lyrical mediocrity to peel off. The problem this time lies less in the literal lines she pens and more in their conceptual nature. Where once Swift's musings were relatable and detailed and the songs' subjects were up to the consumer's interpretation, her recent output is devoid of nuance and is meant to be taken as it is. Another warning to an ex-lover's current partner ('Patient Zero')? Another declaration of love to her current beau ('Cleveland!)? Another apology to some other ex-lover ('Pink Clouding')? Another cautionary tale about fame and the importance of love and family ('Babylon')? These songs are played straight and they're, above all, disconnected from any showgirl theme. Even 'Babylon''s messages about fame fall short in comparison to previous attempts at tackling this exact topic ("You never knew that it was Babylon / 'Til it was gone" is small potatoes against the insightful commentaries in tracks like 'Clara Bow'). Her writing during this era of her career is indistinguishable from the ones before, especially the ones dealing with her usual boydemons ('Patient Zero', 'Pink Clouding'). While there's no line as shockingly bad as the worst offenders of the original release, we're still miles away from vivid imagery and compelling lyricism—something that once was Swift's bread and butter.
I can excuse this mediocrity if there's pop goodness for me to feast upon, but since she's traded her pop maximalism for moodier soundscapes with the turn of the decade, her music circa Midnights has leaned into tepidness. The Encore tacks on four additional songs that blend with her 2020s discography. 'Patient Zero' has to be among the worst pop tunes of the year; its DOA beats, synths and fake strings surely make a case of their own, but so does Swift's listless vocal performance and awkward melodies. Same goes for the hazy 'Pink Clouding' and the folk-leaning pop of 'Babylon', whose compositions sound like 1989 (Taylor's Version) or Midnights or The Tortured Poets Department leftovers, whose melodies are too wordy and whose production quality is very questionable. It's absurd that Max Martin and Shellback have attached their names to such tepid and lifeless instrumentals. 'Cleveland!' is the outlier here: despite a mismatched, subdued vocal delivery, the song sounds more theatrical and bright and I could see it have a spot in the original tracklisting. But for an artist whose bonus material usually yields excellent tunes ('New Romantics', 'Nothing New', 'Would've, Could've, Should've', to name a few), one acceptable track and three boring ones is puzzling.
One question permeates this release: Why? Almost a year later, Swift puts forward a new edition for one of the most critically panned albums of her discography. She’s never done anything quite like this for any of her original records—so why do it for The Life Of A Showgirl? One would think that such a decision would be made to alleviate said criticism; that album did cast doubt upon her songwriting capabilities and gave focus to her waning relatability: in other words, The Life Of A Showgirl presented an artist way far up her own ass. The Encore sounds like a narrative correction upon announcement but once the actual music comes up, it doesn’t rectify any of the issues: Taylor’s favorite subject is still Taylor herself, her pen has lost every single drop of its spark, this era of hers that we’re in still fails to be thematically and musically distinctive and the accompanying music feels like the shadow of a reflection of an afterthought. All of this points to a less flattering possibility: commercial dominance matters more than artistic necessity. That was always guaranteed, don’t get me wrong—but attaching four middling tracks to an already middling but record-breaking album reeks of cynicism.
So then, why talk about Taylor Swift? As she's stated in interviews before, any kind of conversation around her translates to more attention towards her releases, regardless of the conversation’s context. Whether or not people are actively enjoying the record has zero significance, as long as that record keeps shattering records and clogging up news sites with new variants. So then, why talk about Taylor Swift? I think it’s because conversation around her musical output is fascinating, not only because it spotlights her approach to artistry, but also our own expectations towards her. With such a streak of confusing offerings, we’re willing to accept anything that has a sliver of her usual luster, because let’s not forget that this woman does exhibit excellent songwriting abilities when she feels compelled to exhibit them. But there always needs to be some bare minimum standard—not a big one, just a basic quality line. Swift seems to think otherwise: that every single one of her ideas is worthy of being a release. For a multi-billionaire with twelve original albums in her catalogue and countless celebrated songs across twenty years and with such a vocal fanbase following her, such a notion is hard to dispel. But after such a disappointing run of projects and such a jaded attitude towards criticism, Swift needs to pull the brakes and find an editor willing to suppress her worst tendencies before she puts out another release. Therefore, the ball is in Swift’s court: with the curtains closed on The Life Of A Showgirl, will she shed her skin and begin again or is this going to be her encore?
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Album Rating: 2.0
such low hanging fruit
Wrote this very quickly so feel free to give me your feedback, always appreciated! Now time to stop writing things in a hurry and focus on some good music.
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Great review, agree with everything.
Even as someone who enjoys some of TS's music, these last releases have been awful (except for Fate of Ophelia which is a banger lol).
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Thank you @JacobsLadder — I too enjoy her music (heck, I have Evermore at 4.5) but these last releases have indeed been pretty bad; 'The Fate Of Ophelia' has been somewhat overplayed on radio and has lost a tad of its charm for me, but it is her best single in a long time.
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Although I haven’t listened to this, I really enjoyed reading your review. She is so overhyped
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@insomniac15 — thank you for reading! There's definitely a lot of fatigue surrounding her releases; that's why I think a break would do a world of good for her career moving forward.
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We need to be kinder. This is Travis Kelce's first time taking a swing at writing lyrics and I think he did a pretty good job for someone who likely has CTE.
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im glad the poptimism shit is over
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The issue with the fatigue is that it's been felt heavily for *years*. Even when i was an avid swiftie, i remember my first thought going into Midnights in 2022 was "really, we're doing this AGAIN?" after we got Lover, Folklore, Evermore and 2 TVs in three years time. Then the tour, the Kelce romance, and however many more albums, TVs, vault tracks, anthologies. At a certain point, once you divest yourself from the Swift vortex and think critically, you realize 1. the music is woefully mediocre and 2. the constant flow of releases is predatory and embodies the worst excesses of capitalism.
At this point, the notion that she's greedy and self-interested above all really can't be reasonably argued against. She *refuses* to take a fucking break and go the fuck away. Yes, those of us not wholly enraptured can choose not to willfully listen to her music, but the problem is that is the only recourse when she's forcibly shoved to the front of mainstream visibility at all times for years on end
I'm fucking sick of this woman, I've been sick of this woman. Many others are too. "Fatigued" doesn't do enough to convey that.
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I live in Cleveland and I hate the fact that we have an entire city wide holiday dedicated to Machine Gun Kelly and now we have arguably the worst song in Taylor Swift's entire discography linked to the city.
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
aint that that guy from family guy
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I read your review carefully, and one thing that stood out to me was that, at times, it almost felt like you were trying to soften the fact that you genuinely disliked the album and/or the artist. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I don't think you need to feel obligated to include notes like these:
"I don't like to be cynical. I don't volunteer to spend time listening to albums, hoping that they will disappoint me and I'll get to write some nasty words about them. I don't begrudge artists, however millions they may own, who strike when the iron is hot"
If you dislike something, you dislike it - end of story. If you can't stand the music or the artist's whole shtick, there's no need to apologize for it. Just say what you have to say and leave it at that.
And honestly, I can see why she gets under your skin. Her music and whole artistic persona seem to embody pretty much everything you can't stand about modern pop...
Nice review, btw
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This shit sounds like bullshit Apple used in ads for the App Store in the late 2000’s
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
@rockandmetaljunkie — thank you for your observations! They were quite insightful and considering that negative reviews are a tricky thing for me to put together and I'd love to experiment more with that kind of writing, I'm going to keep them in mind for future ones.
But onto those observations > My aim with this review was to focus on Swift's decision to extend a heavily-criticized album cycle almost a year later with additional tracks that are of poor quality equal to that of its original release. I don't completely detest the record itself (and there are three or four genuine highlights across The Encore's 16 songs), but for an artist who has some of the catchiest pop tunes of our times and often exhibits great instincts as a songwriter, "I don't completely detest it" isn't an exciting or desirable outcome. But for her, it is. And that's what my writing attempted to do: showcase that this album isn't merely disappointing, but that it's also cynical.
When I write: "I don't like to be cynical. I don't volunteer to spend time listening to albums, hoping that they will disappoint me and I'll get to write some nasty words about them. I don't begrudge artists, however millions they may own, who strike when the iron is hot.", I'm not trying to soften my negative claims, but rather sharpen them. For any kind of artist (even of Swift's status), I don't go into their releases expecting them to stink because they might be milking a fad; I genuinely approach any new album as a new opportunity for said musician to offer something new to the table. That's why I immediately follow up with: "But this latest reissue, The Life Of A Showgirl: The Encore is a very cynical proposition.", because from the get-go, this release (for reasons the write-up covered) set itself up to be viewed with a cynical eye and a waning interest.
I didn't consciously attempt to apologize for my negative impression and I actively tried to call out the album as a forgettable and musically dull affair and Swift's current creative output as incredibly poor compared to the heights she has demonstrated elsewhere, but I can see how certain lines could give an almost apologetic impression.
(1/2)
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Furthermore: your comment on "Her music and whole artistic persona seem to embody pretty much everything you can't stand about modern pop" is not only spot-on, but also echoes @Shamus248's biting comments on the matter. While I was never an avid fan of her music, I can't deny that she has multiple enjoyable and even excellent albums and her dominance during 2020-2022 was felt but wasn't outright suffocating. Once the Eras tour and the redundant TV releases and subsequent albums came up, a feeling of "seriously, again?" settled in and the two things that @Shamus248 mentioned above became clear, indeed: the music is mediocre and the constant flow of releases is predatory. Hence why my review tried to spotlight those things; rather than simply go "the album is bad and I don't like it", I thought there was an interesting discussion about how cynical, calculated and self-aggrandizing her output really is. And while it took me until this reissue to realise it, those things cannot be forgotten when Swift tries to sell us something again — there's some great pop out there and Swift won't be a provider for that anymore.
(2/2)
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
the way "patient zero" genuinely sounds like those "how locomotives work" ai songs 😭
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@PanosChris
That's just how the music business works. Artists have contractual obligations to fulfill, another album to put out, and the whole machine has to be somehow sustained to keep on moving, even if the "food" is dogshit.
Obviously, I can't say for sure that's what happened here -I wasn't there- but there are plenty of examples of famous musicians making and releasing albums simply because the label expected another record from them. This could very well be one of those cases...
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"negative reviews are a tricky thing for me to put together"
You're definitely not alone there. I have a hard time writing negatively about music too, which is probably why I tend to stick to albums I actually enjoy.
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I'm with RAMJ, while I appreciate Panos' measured, fair analysis, I definitely would encourage anyone interested in music journalism etc to be candid when they dislike something. No artist is entitled to having us as listeners and critics walk on eggshells, least of all a walking musical equivalent of vanilla ice cream, which is what Swift's music is. She's earned her place in history, and she's written some decent pop tunes, but all of the negative attributes she embodies, which those of us in this thread have any alluded to a small bit of, overshadows that in my estimation. She's cultivated an unhealthy, parasocial fan base that will engage in grievous, vile acts to defend a celebrity they don't know (source: first hand experience) and their large size can make it seem scary to think critically about her music and her conduct, and that's a sad commentary on where our culture, or part of it, is at.
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Worst artist of all time
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I also want to confer some praise on Panos for his analysis. Such thoughts, and the fair manner in which they're conveyed, are essential to, if nothing else, a music discourse ecosystem that is robust and diverse in thought. I say all of this to say, I acknowledge that I tend to be more scathing and candid about Swift than most, and I do not expect anyone to join me in litigating all of her faults. I myself am interested in letting her be. The problems are as follows: 1. *she* isn't interested in letting us let her be and 2. her, as mentioned, rabid fanbase can seem so large, loud and overwhelming, that honest discourse about her doesn't always seem possible
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