Grace Diviny, Staff Writer
On Friday, September 25th, Taylor Swift dropped four new tracks from her album The Life of a Showgirl that was met with a mixed reaction from even her own fans this time around, a slight change from how her previous works have been received by them.
The singer-songwriter has been critically acclaimed for her exceptional songwriting, with her raw work on Evermore and Folklore gaining her a newfound appreciation from fans and non fans alike in 2020 alongside her vault re-releases such as Red. The Life of a Showgirl, however, has seemed to be the weakest in her discography that has many fans wondering if the old Taylor’s music will come back to the phone someday.
When the album originally dropped back in October 2025, it was already viewed as a weak point in her music history, with a lack of the poetic lyricism and sound production creativity that was seen in her previous albums, such as The Tortured Poets Department and Midnights. However, Swift announcing her new single “Patient Zero” alongside the ‘encore’ version of “The Life of a Showgirl” on September 22nd had many fans excited, with many in high hopes that there would be more variety this time around. However, to many of her Swifties, the four new singles felt as though there was something missing from her writing and production that ultimately left them unsure how to feel about the entirety of the album.
“Patient Zero” at least felt promising to many fans, and according to Rolling Stone, the song felt less of a Showgirl track and more so something that could be seen in her previous musical endeavors such as Midnights or The Tortured Poets Department, in which was apparently the case as the song was made around the time of the latter’s release
“The sound is very different from anything on The Life of a Showgirl, so it makes some sense to learn that this and the other tracks were recorded after that album was already out (and very long after it was recorded).” The Rolling Stone stated in a review of Swift’s new singles. “The dry drum sound heard on much of “Showgirl” is replaced here with electronic percussion, while the key bit of instrumentation is a violin, or something built to emulate one. If you didn’t know better, you might guess this was a stray Jack Antonoff track, since it doesn’t bear any of the obvious Martin/Shellback hallmarks.” Rolling Stone then pointed out the fresh change with the song production that many fans have missed. “There’s a bittersweet, lopingly mid-tempo feel to it that we haven’t heard in, well, a fortnight.”
However, songs such as “Cleveland!” were met with such poor fanfare that many of her fans have considered it a full skip on their playlist. The clear love letter to her new husband Travis Kelce’s hometown, while sweet, feels a bit rushed in terms of production and writing to critics and fans alike to where other disliked songs of hers such as “ME” or “Wood” have been considered better than this. While Taylor can get goofy in many of her songs, such as”Shake It Off”, people feel as though this song is almost like overcompensation for proving that love is easy for her after years of feeling ‘tortured’ by previous lovers.
While the new releases may not be Taylor’s best work yet, Swift proves that she is not afraid to try different musical styles in her career, even if it seems risky and at the expense of her own fanbase and their comparisons to the songs she has written about Travis compared to her previous exes.
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