The deluxe set introduces the tracks “Patient Zero,” “Pink Clouding,” “Babylon” and “Cleveland!”
Taylor Swift
TAS Rights Management
It started with a cryptic moment in an Emmys Law & Order: SVU spoof. Then there were the zeros that mysteriously appeared in her Instagram bio and song lyrics on Apple Music. After that, a countdown on her website. By then, even the most skeptical of fans couldn’t deny: Taylor Swift was up to something.
What that was turned out to be The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, a deluxe version of the pop star’s 12th studio album that spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and smashed records for biggest opening sales week in the modern age. Led by focus single “Patient Zero,” the extended project — which arrived Friday (Sept. 25), after a week of Easter eggs and reveals — features a total of four songs, all recorded after the original album dropped.
“I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max [Martin] and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album … to reflect and take in how grateful we were,” Swift wrote in her Encore announcement. “But there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”
Written with the same playfulness and effervescence of the main 12 songs on Showgirl — which spawned two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Opalite” — “Patient Zero,” “Pink Clouding,” “Babylon” and “Cleveland!” bring new insights into our showgirl’s personality and more domestic life as of late. She’s feeling more reflective this time around, looking back on the past and ruminating on the destructive qualities of nostalgia.
In honor of The Life of a Showgirl‘s final bow, here’s all four of the new tracks ranked.
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“Cleveland!”
“Cleveland!” is the most transparent track on the new set in terms of who it’s about, with Swift jubilantly celebrating her romance with Travis Kelce, whose home city is the Ohio metropolis. A step up from some of the love songs on the original Showgirl, this one uses the hate comments directed Swift’s way on a daily basis to underscore the love her husband has for her; “The taste of me is acquired, but it’s his favorite dish,” she sings.
What makes this song even better is how Swift leans into the criticism about the way she dresses, dances and acts, admitting, “I can see what you mean/ And now I guess there’s something we all can agree on/ But my baby likes what he likes.” Also, that drum roll that comes before each chorus is incredibly fun.
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“Patient Zero”
Announced as a single before the rest of Encore, “Patient Zero” — which will soon get a cinematic music video starring Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson, premiering at the 2026 VMAs — finds Swift back in her “Vigilante S–t” bag, extending an arm out to her toxic ex’s new woman and offering an alliance based in unlikely sisterhood. Stacked with percussive vocal harmonies, with an intriguingly folksy violin melody weaved through Martin and Shellback’s glimmering pop production, the song features one of Swift’s chattiest bridges — mimicking a gleeful flow state that can only be achieved by two girls s–t-talking a guy who sucks, finally finding someone who truly understands.
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“Pink Clouding”
Songs where Swift takes the full blame for a relationship ending are always some of her most interesting, and on “Pink Clouding,” she uses modern terminology — a songwriting approach she played with throughout The Life of a Showgirl — to diagnose why she behaved unfavorably in the past. “Pink clouding” refers to the “euphoria and elation” of the early stages of addiction recovery, according to Healthline, which Swift in this case compares to quitting her previous relationship and moving on too fast with someone new. And when she sings that she was “gray rocking” later on, she’s revealing that she emotionally disengaged from the new relationship after that initial romanticized chapter, so that the other person was forced to do the heavy lifting of calling things off. With this all packaged in an ultra catchy chorus, color-coded verses and bright synths, “Pink Clouding” makes difficult self-reflection seem fun.
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“Babylon”
“Babylon” is the only song on the new set that doesn’t play as autobiographical, with Swift instead tracing the life of an anonymous man — perhaps a patron at the Vegas resort where our showgirl narrator works, singing in the opening line, “The casino doesn’t like when you run the tables.”
Each verse and pre-chorus takes us through a different stage in the man’s journey, from rural childhood to free-wheeling businessman to disengaged husband and father, always missing out on the phase he’s in by longing for the phase before it. The thesis? “You’re using nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself,” Swift sings. “But darling, you end up hurting everybody else.”
The choruses are lush and reverberant, with Swift’s knowing voice and instantly memorable melody leading the show, as simple guitar, bass and drums follow.