Taylor Swift's new songs are facing a sharp critical backlash. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, released September 25 with four additional tracks, has been reported at 43 out of 100 on Metacritic. TV Fandom Lounge called it the second-worst-reviewed album by a pop star this decade, a claim repeated by The Express Tribune. The number is striking, though it reflects an early pool of reviews of an expanded album, not a settled verdict on Swift's entire career.
The timing invites a provocative question. Swift married Travis Kelce in July, and "Cleveland!" brings their relationship directly into the new music. Has married life changed her songwriting? Perhaps. But the reviews point to a more specific complaint than happiness itself: some critics think songs about love and security keep circling back to what strangers say about Swift.
In the Los Angeles Times, critic Mikael Wood ranked "Cleveland!" last among the four new tracks. He liked aspects of its sound but found its treatment of Swift and Kelce's romance uninspired because the relationship becomes a defense against public criticism. Vulture critic Craig Jenkins made a related point: for a song about finding a lifelong partner, "Cleveland!" spends a surprising amount of time looking toward the people watching them.
That distinction matters. Swift has written compelling love songs before, and marriage does not remove the tension, fear or complexity that can make a song memorable. The question raised by these reviews is whether The Encore gives its strongest ideas enough room to develop before returning to familiar arguments with exes and critics. Jenkins also faulted some of the new songs' metaphors and the polished production, suggesting that the trouble extends beyond Swift's choice of subject.
Even the harsher assessments find exceptions. Wood praised "Babylon" for its tender vocal and its story about loss and regret; Jenkins also singled it out as a moment when Swift sounds renewed. Their responses suggest a songwriter who can still move critics when a song follows its own story rather than the noise surrounding her fame.
So are Swift's songs getting worse? The 43 gives critics of The Encore a headline, but four bonus tracks are a narrow basis for judging what marriage has done to her art. The sharper question is whether her next project will explore this new chapter with the detail that made her best writing resonate-or keep answering an audience she already knows she cannot please.
