Alright, yes, yes. Hi everyone, Showthony Girltano here, the internet's busiest music nerd.

And Taylor Swift, the top pop songwriter out there, as we know, her last full-length LP, The Life of a Showgirl, came out not too long ago. It was a pretty weak album, in my opinion. Maybe not her worst, but pretty weak, given its trimmer track list, the fact that Max Martin was back in the mix too. Very little in the way of memorable or compelling songs, cringe-free lyrics, and absolutely none of the razzle-dazzle that I was hoping for, given an album with this title and this album art.

Personally, I was kinda hoping that we would just soon leave this era in Taylor's career in the dustbin of history, because it's just one of her least flattering album cycles, point-blank period. But instead of doing that, the Showgirl herself is returning with an encore version of the album that includes four deluxe tracks. So I've decided to listen to these songs and see what exactly they have to offer.

So without any further ado, let's do it, starting with "Patient Zero," which Taylor is also pitching as a CD single, which I'm sure she's selling very many copies of.

Let's hear it out, "Patient Zero." Okay, we are done with round one in this Taylor deluxe, and I gotta say, "Patient Zero," while it's pleasant and palatable, I'm not really a fan. To start with the good, I'll say the gentle, very head-nodding, infectious little drum loop that acts as the spine of this track is nice. I love the dreamy synth patches, and Taylor's breathy vocal harmonies and layers are nice to hear too.

And I suppose I was also kind of surprised by what sounds like- I don't know- a slight nod toward some Celtic instrumentation toward the start of the track, and that weepy little string line that plays throughout much of the song; that's cool. But the song structure itself, nothing to write home about, and the lyrics... Taylor essentially trying to come up with a bit of an analogy here that this love that she had for her ex, or what she experienced with him, is almost like her overcoming a disease that she was "patient zero for."

And she's writing as if she's communicating with somebody who is with him now or also recently experienced this and is sick of him. To be honest, given the recent success and release of songs like "the cure" from Olivia Rodrigo's latest record, really numerous songs from that record, it's feeling kind of Olivia-coded. For sure, this is a song Taylor could have had in the can for months, and obviously neither Taylor nor Olivia have original writers credit on the idea of comparing love to a sickness.

Still, that doesn't stop this track from feeling more redundant in the current pop landscape because you just didn't hand your homework in first on this one. Beyond that, I think this could be a completely fine pop song from Taylor, but then we kind of go into this talk-song bridge where she kind of moves beyond some of the light love bombing descriptions that are encased in the verses and really tries to hammer down into these feelings. But I feel like rather than painting this guy as like the greatest evil here, she only makes herself sound more narcissistic, and she isn't really aware of it, I don't think.

Oh, you may think he's great, but he's actually just great because of you, because he's basking in your light and glowing because you're so amazing and you're giving him your shine.

Yeah, totally not a self-absorbed thing to say at all. So yeah, while the song is more or less fine while it's on, I do not want to stick around for the ending, simply because of that. I don't know.

Let's move on to "Cleveland!"

Ah! Okay. All right. Okay. I'm tapping out. I'm really tapping out this time. I'm tapping out on this one. Taylor has me in a fucking chokehold on this one. I'm in an arm bar, and she's about to snap my elbow.

First off, I cannot ignore the fact that with the wintery, dancey, peppy little synth melodies and the driving beat on this one, does this not sound like she's going in a slight new wave direction? And then also the performance on this one is interesting. The vocals are not as cleanly cut, segmented, chopped up, and delivered as they typically are on many a Taylor song as of late. Not as processed. It's like she's kind of giving this very live, organic, in-the-moment performance where the talk singing is embraced even harder. It's really to the point where she's kind of narrating more than she is legitimately singing.

Once again, not that talk-singing is a bad thing, but it's what Taylor is talking about that is like almost impossible to stand because she just cannot get past a lot of the criticism that she receives online. A lot of the very thin, and annoying, and boring, redundant, cliché criticisms around how she's dressing, who she's dating, what she looks like, etc. Which I mean, I get it. It's, it's very obnoxious. It's very shallow. It's very senseless. And if you're somebody as big as Taylor Swift is, you could read those comments all day and still not even get through 50% of them. And the act of doing that would be very daunting, very tedious, very boring. Like you would imagine that a normal person would just get tired of it after a while.

And I'm sorry, like hearing about all of that stuff second hand in a song that she's writing is also tedious, annoying, and boring. And from a woman who made such a big deal on her last record, with, like, including swears in these songs and making such obvious allusions to dick. I'm sorry, but I just find the whole bit about like, oh, I'm going to write a lyric around rhyming with a swear, but I'm not going to say the swear. I'm going to go, oh, she almost said bitch!

Give me a break. It's painfully corny. I don't want to hear this terrible, I don't know, The Cure ripoff. I'm done.

Okay. "Pink Clouding" has to be better. There's no way that is worse than this.

Time. Time. Banger? Bopperino? Not only Bopperino, but like if Taylor Swift and Max Martin and Shellback were going to get back together, this is exactly what I would have hoped we would have gotten out of it.

Like, this is completely a callback to the 1989 era. Like it's glitzy, fun, groovy, lush, sharply written. Pop music with just a lot of bright synthetics and dreamy little production details. It's absolutely lovely. Amazing burst of instrumentation on the chorus. Love Taylor's vocal line there too. I'm not even going to sing it out of fear of being demonetized, but believe me, best chorus of the three songs so far.

I mean, all these years later, I will say, this almost an Obama-era pop vibe does sound a little dated, but it's still a very well written song. And I'll say in terms of like the narrative and the descriptions of what's going on here, like very smart and even handed and actually introspective.

Like Taylor does actually put some of the problems in this romantic dynamic that she's describing, like on herself and her sort of, like, decision to eject and is still, like kind of wondering and thinking about this person, thinking of how all these years later to possibly apologize in some way. It's not a song where she's beating herself up or anything, but it is very much like a track about regret. I also love how things get like super stripped back and dramatic on the chorus as well. And come to a very well-put-together finale.

It's just a very good, well-assembled pop song through and through. And yeah, I wish there were more songs on The Life of a Showgirl like this.

All right. That seems to have picked things up a little bit. Let's try "Babylon," and we will finish up this encore.

Okay. We have officially on encored, and "Babylon," not my favorite, but better than "Patient Zero" and "Cleveland!" for sure.

I'll say the Achilles' heel of this track is really the melody and the song structure, which I feel like is a little one-note. Like, this is not a tune or a vocal line I'm going to be singing in my head or humming after the song is over. And instrumentally, as this track kind of transitions from the verses to the choruses, it's more like a slight, very gentle buildup as opposed to a thrilling transition.

Like we're progressing through the song, but simultaneously, it doesn't feel like we're progressing through the song because so many elements of the track just kind of refuse to change or evolve in any significant way. But with that being said, like lyrically, I do think this is one of the most compelling tracks of The Encore. But, The Encore generally is a bit of a mixed bag for me and the positive moments again, to me feel a little bittersweet.

They really just serve as a reminder of what narratively and musically The Life of a Showgirl could have been. If maybe Taylor and Max decided, production-wise, to play towards sounds, they already knew they did together well. And if the writing and lyricism were geared in a way to where it was telling a more compelling story. But instead we're getting tracks about how she loves all of her friends canceled and how she wants to fill the neighborhood with little Travises, and penis.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on The Encore.

If you've heard them, let me know yours down in the comments; I'm sure you will. Over here next to my head, another video that you can check out; hit that up, or a link to subscribe to the channel.

Anthony Fantano, Taylor Swift, Encore forever.