Taylor Swift continues to dominate online platforms, but critics seem to be growing less patient with her. “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore,” the four-new-songs reissue, currently sits at an average of 39 on Metacritic, in the red, after a 4 from Pitchfork. The same outlet had given the original album a 5.9.
Pitchfork isn’t the center of the world, but the datum is telling because it was one of the publications that contributed the most to championing Swift’s discography. Remember that it rated ‘Red’ with a 9. Now it says it doesn’t even feel the need to wait for every release to reclaim the Taylor of old. That said, it still speaks of her as the author of “one of the greatest bodies of songwriting of all time.”
The poor scores for “Encore” have been piling up since Friday, with The Telegraph, The Independent and Clash giving it 4, Slant 3 and Paste 2.5. Variety directly headlines, “Taylor is losing us.” Drama!
The songs’ success, however, is evident, at least for now. “Patient Zero” remains at number 2 globally on Spotify, while “Cleveland!” and “Babylon” sit at 11 and 12. And precisely, “Cleveland!” has become the era’s great punching bag. The lyrics are fairly childish and amount to a “you can hate me all you want, but I’m married and I’m happy” directed at her haters.
On Friday, in fact, in the same outlet we said that “Cleveland!” was the best of the four unreleased tracks. But after seeing the reactions, it was hard not to think we might have misread the mood. While some wonder what got into Taylor to choose that Christmas-sounding sound, others question who on earth could envy her for visiting the state that hosts… the city of Ohio. The hate seems fairly general, and especially in the United States it’s running wild, as is evident from the string of viral responses the track has generated. The viral video of two American girls reacting to the song has become a factory of memes. The reaction of the YouTuber Swiftologist—who is named as such because he is a fan—deserves a viewing too, because the poor guy literally collapses.
@only_brans #taylorswift #patientzero #reaction #funny #bad ♬ original sound – only_brans
@yourfavesss9 #fyp #taylorswift #encore ♬ original sound – yourfaves
The paradox, of course, is that so much exposure of the song could end up benefiting it. Free publicity. Moreover, it has some defenders. The Sunday Times considers “Cleveland!” the best of the four new songs, and in the comments on our own article there are many defenses. Arsa says “what a banger.” The Boy places it first on his list of favorites. “Agree with Cleveland,” shares Juan Sebastián Rojas Gutiérrez. Polifemo Art says “how beautiful Cleveland is.” There is some negative criticism, such as from justagirl?, who comments that “Cleveland!” gives her a “very strong cringe.” But there exists a parallel world in which this song is not considered the worst Taylor has ever written. After years of saying Taylor repeats herself, at least here there is an attempt to do something different, even if the lyrics are hard to defend.
It should be noted and highlighted with a fluorescent marker that a 39 on Metacritic, while striking, does not equal “the criticism” in its entirety, because the site only aggregates a selection of publications. But it does show how much Swift’s reception has shifted in recent years. Her songs still perform massively, but critical consensus has never been so negative. Taylor doesn’t have positive reviews to share on social media this time, with which to soften the negativity, as she did during the promo for her previous album. Perhaps now that she has found love, she gives everything a more even-handed treatment.
