Taylor Swift Is Ready for an 'Encore.' Plus, Miley Cyrus's 'Bass Persuades'

Every Single Album

The hosts discuss Taylor Swift's sudden announcement of 'Encore,' an expanded edition of her album 'The Life of a Showgirl.' They also evalu

Key takeaways

Taylor Swift is releasing four bonus tracks under the title 'Encore' for 'The Life of a Showgirl.'
Hosts debate if the new songs signal a transition toward country music or a way to boost Grammy prospects.

Main topics

Taylor Swift's 'Encore' announcement
Analysis of 'The Life of a Showgirl'

Notable quotes

We can't do a stale-ass milk podcast.

Conclusion

The episode provides a deep dive into the strategic moves of two major

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hello and welcome to Every Single Album. I'm Nora Princiati. And as always, I am joined by my friend Nathan Hubbard. And in fact, I am joined by my friend Nathan Hubbard for the second time in two days. Because what you are listening to now is, of course, a Speaker 3 (0:27) re-recorded Speaker 1 (0:28) podcast segment. Speaker 1 (0:31) Done 24 hours after the original because of the actions of Taylor Allison Swim. Speaker 2 (0:41) Oh, boy. And it's wonderful to see your face Speaker 1 (0:45) again. Swim in Speaker 2 (0:47) the bucket. Speaker 1 (0:49) Unusable. We felt so good, by the way, because we really should have known. We recorded an episode yesterday that, by the way, was supposed to be about Miley Cyrus and her new album, Bass Persuades. And you are going to hear that segment at the end of this. But we spent probably the first two-thirds of that episode talking about Taylor Swift and her announcement. of an upcoming single on Friday, Patient Zero. Taylor Speaker 2 (1:20) Swift at the Chiefs game. Speaker 1 (1:22) Taylor Swift at the Chiefs game. We were talking about all these things. We were talking about, you know, okay, this one single, like releasing one single. It's such a different mode from what we've experienced from her. Is it part of Showgirl? Like, what does it belong to? And we were so happy because we were like... Well, she never does. You know, this countdown, it ended at 2 p.m. Eastern on a Tuesday and we record on Tuesday afternoons Eastern. Like it never works out like this for us. We really should have known. We really should have known better. Speaker 2 (1:54) We should have known better. The whole premise of the discussion really boiled down to it's going to be fascinating to see what... patient zero, what style it is, who the producers are, because this is the second time that she's released a single that's really unaffiliated with any other project. But it's really the first time because I Knew What I Knew You was obviously affiliated with the movie soundtrack. And this is the first time that she hasn't sort of designated what it is. And less than 24 hours later, she comes up with this. We now have a completely different conversation to have. Speaker 1 (2:35) Yes. And by the way, that's why we're re-recording this. I'm sure at various points along this conversation, we can point out the ways in which we were completely wrong about things that we were discussing yesterday. This is in no way an attempt to save face. It just frankly, that conversation was obsolete and made no sense. Yeah, Speaker 2 (2:55) it's Speaker 1 (2:55) a Speaker 2 (2:55) complete save face for me. I texted you at 6 a.m. when I'm looking at my phone and I go, oh my God, here it is. And then I text you right away and I'm like, we have to rerecord. What we have now is stale-ass milk. We can't do a stale-ass milk podcast. Speaker 1 (3:13) Okay, well, maybe that's what it is for you, but I'm going to identify some ways in which I was extremely wrong. But that's good. We're just trying to give you guys as high-quality information as we can muster and as good of a podcast as we can make. Let's do the specifics here, right? So on Friday, there's going to be a four song encore to the Life of a Showgirl album. Speaker 3 (3:44) And this is music Speaker 1 (3:46) that according to Taylor Swift on Instagram. was recorded in the week after the release of that album last year, last fall. The Speaker 2 (3:59) week after? Speaker 1 (4:00) Or like a week plus after. Right? She said she went to Sweden to... Speaker 2 (4:05) Well, to celebrate. Speaker 1 (4:07) To celebrate the first week of the album. I guess I assumed that to be like... After the first week, she went to Sweden. She Speaker 2 (4:14) just says, you gave Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history. Me think she does celebrate too much. I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max and Shellback. Really, we just wanted to reflect. Oh, you're right. So I guess she Speaker 1 (4:29) doesn't say that she went like right after. In my head, I felt like she was saying it had this amazing first week, so then I flew to Sweden. Speaker 2 (4:39) Well, I got some questions about this Sweden trip, but not because of so much the timing. It's the next sentence, which is, really, we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in. Speaker 3 (4:53) Mm-hmm. Which Speaker 2 (4:54) is to say, originally, we just got on a plane to fly to Sweden. Speaker 3 (4:58) Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 (4:59) For a gratitude celebration. Speaker 1 (5:02) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, can we, like, center this part of this conversation? Like, what's interesting to me, because it's been obvious for some time that something has been coming. Speaker 2 (5:19) A foot. Speaker 1 (5:19) And we knew that the Emmys sketch had some Easter eggs that felt like there was some legitimacy to them. And then there was the decoding of the third letter of all of the things that she said. Yeah, I got to Speaker 2 (5:36) talk about that because I have a real problem with that theory. Speaker 1 (5:40) Okay, talk to me. Well. South Speaker 2 (5:45) or south are words that are not used as a part of the third letter of each word going to encore. So if that's all it was, why did she say north or south? She could have just said north and not had any superfluous words. There's more to that Easter egg. Speaker 2 (6:08) There was no reason to say North or South. Unless... Speaker 1 (6:12) Well, so, or doesn't... My poll theory survives. Or Speaker 2 (6:15) I'm comfortable Speaker 1 (6:15) with because it doesn't have a third letter. The third letter of South is U. Exactly. Interesting. It doesn't work. Speaker 2 (6:25) There's more here. Speaker 1 (6:26) And do you have an idea of what that is? Speaker 2 (6:29) No. Unless Cleveland exclamation point is the sequel to Wood. In which case... Speaker 2 (6:38) My poll theory survives. Speaker 1 (6:40) Okay. I still want to talk about the fact that this belongs to Showgirl, but we need to discuss Cleveland and we need to discuss the exclamation point at some point in this conversation. Speaker 2 (6:52) We will. Speaker 1 (6:54) I'm like... I think just because she did I Knew It, I Knew You. And also, frankly, because, like, yes, Showgirl was a, you can make a sort of metrics-based volume argument that Showgirl was this, like, huge album. But I think it's, I don't, I'm not trying to be a hater here. I don't think that album is going to be held up in the illustrious career of Taylor Swift as a success. I'm a bit surprised that Speaker 2 (7:23) she's, like. Speaker 1 (7:23) Wait, really? As a Speaker 2 (7:24) success? Speaker 1 (7:26) As a relative success to her other work. Speaker 2 (7:29) I think it just didn't, its reception and the way that it pierced culture. I mean... Speaker 2 (7:37) Quantitatively, from a measurement perspective, it is a success in terms of the streaming. Speaker 1 (7:43) Yes, but do you think that 10 years from now, people are going to be talking about Taylor Swift and be like, and you know what, and the life of a showgirl album. I feel that it will ultimately be a bit of an afterthought. Speaker 2 (7:57) I do too. And again, I love this artist. I love this human being. I could not be a bigger fan than I am. That album just didn't do it for me. And I don't think for most people, I don't know there's anybody who says that's their favorite album. And I think that she heard it. And I think it bothered her. And I think that's why there are lots of references to its quantitative success versus the qualitative reception across large portions of the fan base and the critical press. Speaker 1 (8:31) And I'm just surprised that that doesn't, like I would have expected that to translate to, and so therefore we turn the page. Speaker 2 (8:41) No. Like, Speaker 1 (8:41) let's move on to a new project or a new something that can be different and maybe it's more successful from that perspective. I think there's Speaker 3 (8:50) a Speaker 1 (8:50) cognitive disconnect for her. So do you feel like this is an effort to raise it up a little bit? Speaker 2 (8:58) Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:59) And then my follow-up question is like, do you think that bonus tracks can do that? Speaker 2 (9:05) No. not when they come a year later, and not when the original pitch on this album was 12 songs, 12 bangers, that's it. And this was the constraint that I worked under. Speaker 1 (9:19) Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:20) No, this is, and I do think so. And by the way, I really hope these songs are awesome. I'm going to be excited. I'm giddy that she's doing this. I'm giddy that she just constantly uses her power as a, and we talked about this on the now, Never to be heard again podcast. But I said she is kind of a media company. What I meant by that Speaker 1 (9:44) is she Speaker 2 (9:46) has a direct line to almost every person on the planet. And so it's an enormously powerful position and she uses it. But I just, I think... Speaker 1 (9:55) I know, Nathan called Taylor Swift a media company and I got kind of mad about it because I was like, stop asking me to be a fan of Walmart. Speaker 2 (10:02) But they're not a media company. Taylor can reach every person on the planet. Stop asking me to be Speaker 1 (10:07) like a fan of Forbes magazine. Speaker 2 (10:10) When I was at Twitter, one of our core values was reach every person on the planet. And that was aspirational. Taylor, except for that tribe that they're flying the drones over in the Amazon right now and like just needlessly interfering with, Taylor can basically reach every person on the planet on her own. She doesn't need that help. So I think that... We are now in the Grammy voting season. I think there is a cognitive disconnect for her because she does still have her finger on the pulse of the fan base. There is a disconnect between the quantitative success of a few songs on this album and the practical performance of it in culture, which is to say it did not pierce through. Speaker 2 (10:57) And I think it bothers her because she is relentless and driven and believes passionately in the work that she does. And she's gonna breathe new life into it while she can. And that's what this is. Speaker 1 (11:12) And so then she, I mean, is she trying to improve the chances of awards for this album with these four songs? I Speaker 2 (11:23) think she has four songs that she's excited about. And this is that she wants to get out. In her mind, now is the time to do that. Apparently instead of debut or reputation vault, because I do think you and I have a sense that she's holding those for when she can't be out front as much or when she has a lull or something going on in her personal life where she's not able to put in the work on something new that she can. stay present and out front by releasing it. And now is a time when she can clearly do that. But I just, look, I'd want her on my team. Doesn't seem like she leaves a man on the battlefield. You know, she's not abandoning this thing. She's not giving up. Speaker 1 (12:11) Right. Right. Well, and one thing that like, one thing I really admire about Taylor Swift, she really likes her job. She really likes to work and she really likes what she does for a living. And like that, that comes through. When do you think this was made? If you don't think it was like right directly in the aftermath of Showgirl. Speaker 2 (12:31) Yeah, that's what I want more detail on, honestly, because when we look at the track listings, we've got some very interesting names. The most obvious that we will talk about is Cleveland. Speaker 1 (12:46) Cleveland exclamation point. Unfortunately, you can never trust a Taylor Swift song with a single exclamation point. And this has been proven time and time again. Speaker 2 (12:57) Because of slut. Speaker 1 (13:08) Well, Speaker 2 (13:08) I mean, first and foremost, because of Speaker 1 (13:10) me exclamation point. Speaker 3 (13:19) But Speaker 1 (13:24) I think people, I think listeners of this podcast know my feelings about the song canceled. And then slut is more. Slept to me is more disappointing than it is bad. It's just like a song that really doesn't live up to its title. And that's the list. And now Cleveland is joining the list. Speaker 2 (13:56) Do you think they're all jealous of Florida?