The 6 Worst 'Life of a Showgirl: The Encore' Lyrics, Ranked

Published Sep 27, 2026, 4:21 PM EDT

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Another year, another Taylor Swift release. Sort of. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore is what she has gifted the world in 2026, and it’s basically a re-release of 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl with four new tracks. You're getting leftovers from what was probably the least compelling album Swift’s put out to date, or at least the most divisive. For what it’s worth, calling these songs “leftovers” isn't entirely fair, because of the four, two are quite a bit better than most of the songs on the original album, while the other two are a little more awkwardly written and assembled, regrettably scratching the same itch as some of the most eyebrow-raising songs on the initial album.

Looking back at some of the lowlights from the original album, there was more ammunition there, and some genuinely cringe-inducing lines that inspired more discourse and led to funnier criticisms. You're not going to get the same thing below, because there isn't as much to say. There were 12 songs on the original album, and maybe seven or eight had at least one utterly disastrous line in them, while with the four songs here, you’ve got two that are pretty lackluster lyrically, with some mild cringe, and then two other songs that are mostly competent, outside maybe one line. Slim pickings, and criticizing Taylor Swift can lead to unavoidable doom/destruction, like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, but here’s an attempt at outlining the most out-of-line lines the new songs on this “deluxe version” of that infamous 2025 album have to offer.

6 "Met the magenta sunrise, fuchsia forever intertwined."

You have to get halfway through the four new tracks before you arrive at “Pink Clouding,” which is honestly not a bad song. These new songs don’t have the decency to give you the passable stuff straight away in the same fashion that the original album did, because The Life of a Showgirl kicked off with “The Fate of Ophelia,” which is easily the album’s best song. The third track’s “Opalite,” and that one’s admittedly an earworm as well, while the second track, “Elizabeth Taylor,” sounded a bit uninspired musically, but it was decent lyrically, especially compared to what came later.

Anyway, back to “Pink Clouding.” It’s the third “new” song. It’s pretty good. But it doesn’t begin well. Swift hits you with the line “Met the magenta sunrise, fuchsia forever intertwined” almost straight away… well, ah-ah-ahfter some “ah-ah-ahs.” It’s a clunky start, but then “Pink Clouding” gets pretty good after that. The rest of the lyrics are fine, and not bad compared to the previously mentioned The Life of a Showgirl standard. “Pink Clouding” works, though, because of the melody and production it offers. It sounds good, and if all four songs had been up to this song's standards, you probably couldn’t squeeze a sarcastic/bitter article like this one out of the new material.

5 "Love is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb. She captured your attention, so free of all pretension, it stopped you cold."

The part of “Babylon” where Taylor Swift sings, “She captured your attention, so free of all pretension” is enough to provoke flashbacks to the genuinely upsetting “Father Figure” from The Life of a Showgirl, where Swift sings, “Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition on foolish decisions, which led to misguided visions.” She has written in ways that suggest she can be – or has been – a great songwriter, but what is that rhyming? Come on. See also that album’s title track (“Her name was Kitty, made her money being pretty and witty. They gave her the keys to this city, then they said she didn't do it legitly…” genuine pain).

“She captured your attention, so free of all pretension” is enough to provoke flashbacks to the genuinely upsetting “Father Figure” from The Life of a Showgirl.

This “Babylon” lyric isn't as awkward, but it’s still a little awkward. “Love is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb” is also a bit ham-fisted, and these kinda not-good lines, one after the other, tank some of the momentum “Babylon” otherwise has. It’s not a terrible song overall, a bit like “Pink Clouding,” so the second half of the new material here, with this being the fourth and final song, overall isn't bad. It’s the first two songs that have more by way of questionable stuff, so brace yourself.

4 "If he's killing you, I see you, I was patient zero."

There’s just something unpleasant about “Patient Zero,” which is the first of the four new tracks and, at the time of writing, is the only one that’s been released as a single. The one song that hasn’t been mentioned yet would've technically been a worse pick for a lead single, if you're looking at this whole rollout of The Encore, but “Patient Zero” is still a pretty bad one. It’s about Taylor Swift seemingly talking to someone who is currently being screwed over by someone Swift was in a relationship with, or at least their pain is more recent.

Swift makes it all about herself in a weird way, and doesn’t really inspire empathy, nor is there anything by way of dark humor to be found with the “I told you so” kind of energy that’s (possibly accidentally?) contained within this song. It’s like there’s some kind of karma here, but without being a Taylor Swift expert, it’s hard to ascertain whether Swift should have this kind of attitude (Swifties might know who’s being addressed, both in terms of the ex and the newly wronged woman, but people who aren’t Swifties are exposed to Taylor Swift songs, and they can’t be expected to keep up with everything). “If he’s killing you” suggests it’s like, “oh, well.” This is also the last line of the song. It just sounds wrong. The tone and message here feel off, but “Patient Zero” does have some worse stuff lyrically that'll be touched on in a bit. "I see you" ain't bad, though, as a pun on "ICU," for what that's worth.

3 "You only need to find one person in this entire world who doesn't find you completely insufferable. And I have an important announcement to make: I found mine."

Well, this explains and critiques itself. If that’s the point, sure, great. Maybe the people who don’t like the line while appreciating its probable irony are the problem; it’s them. It’s about connecting with someone who doesn’t find you annoying done in the most annoying way possible. Potentially ironic, but still painfully done. It’s all there. “You only need to find one person in this entire world who doesn't find you completely insufferable. And I have an important announcement to make: I found mine” tells the whole story.

Commentary doesn’t feel necessary. It’s a poorly-written and poorly-delivered line that’s only potentially defensible if you're sure Taylor Swift meant it as a joke, but it can be hard to know with her. And if it is a joke, it’s still an annoying one, in the way the humor found in Deadpool can be sometimes grating; that whole “Oh, isn't it stupid when movies do this stupid thing?,” and then they do the stupid thing. You’re watching or listening, and it’s kind of like, “Yeah, but why not not do the stupid thing?” It’s stupid.

2 "Take it from somebody who lost his games but won the race, take it from someone who said all of this to his face, someone who knows she's more than just the chase, someone who had him and walked away."

Image via Republic Records

This hammers home the problem with “Patient Zero” more aggressively than that previously mentioned final line the song has. This is the bridge, and the bridges in The Life of Showgirl (both the original album and The Encore tracks) are generally the most frustrating parts. They feel perfunctory, and add to a real repetition with how the songs sound, but then they get even worse, obviously, when they contain particularly poor lyrics. Here, it feels like Swift just gets lost in her own experiences, and there’s this sense of her insisting her past pain is more important than the other person’s more current/recent pain.

Again, it feels wrong. Just putting yourself in the perspective of the person Swift seems to be talking to, it’s like someone’s approached you at a house party or a bar or something, and they seem like they want to talk about you at first, because they can tell you're looking/feeling a little sad and/or awkward, but then they keep on talking about themselves. Or it’s like a therapist suddenly treating you like you're not the patient. It’s such an odd shift, and if Taylor Swift is meant to be subtly taking down the person so many of the lyrics are addressed to, then sure, but if not, it’s a sign that “Patient Zero” is absolutely misguided lyrically. “Look how great I am, I won the race, I told him he sucked to his face, I’m more than just the chase, I was the one who walked away.” It’s all insecure and not supportive, and it smacks of selfishness. With the insecurity and intense (albeit annoying) introspection on offer, “Patient Zero” does perhaps emerge as the most The Life of a Showgirl-esque song of the four new ones (not a compliment).

1 "The taste of me is acquired, but it's his favorite dish."

Image via Republic Records

Like, yeah, what else could it be? On the topic of lyrics that would sound right at home on the original album, here you go. “The taste of me is acquired, but it's his favorite dish” can be read innocently, or it’s possibly one of those awkward sexually-charged lyrics that made The Life of a Showgirl hard to listen to, from start to finish. This part’s from “Cleveland!,” which is where the lyrics about being insufferable can also be found, and “Cleveland!” is probably the worst of these new songs.

And it’s got more by way of throwbacks to the worst parts of the original album; specifically, the parts where Taylor Swift swore awkwardly, and in a way that felt like a kid swearing for the first time. Here, she does two subverted rhymes, where you think she’s going to say something slightly scandalous, but then she self-censors. It’s not much better than her just awkwardly committing to saying something a bit more intense than PG-ish in content. On the subject of some more dishonorable mentions from this song, lyrically speaking, her singing “He likes what he likes, what he likes, and he likes me” twice in a row is also annoying. This whole song, truth be told, is pretty bad. And she didn’t even have the decency to reference The Cleveland Show once in the whole thing. Similarly disappointing: “Babylon” contains no references to the 2022 cinematic masterpiece of the same name… what are we even doing here?

Taylor Swift: The End of an Era

Cast

• 

  Taylor Swift

  Self

• Kameron Saunders

  Self - Dancer

• Amanda Balen

  Self - Dancer & Associate Choreographer

• Andrea Swift

  Self - Taylor's Mom & 13 Management