Ranking Taylor Swift's Four New Tracks from 'The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore'

It started with a cryptic moment in an Emmys Law & Order: SVU spoof. Then there were the zeros that mysteriously appeared in her Instagram bio and song lyrics on Apple Music. After that, a countdown on her website. By then, even the most skeptical of fans couldn’t deny: Taylor Swift was up to something.

What that was turned out to be The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore , a deluxe version of the pop star’s 12th studio album that spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and smashed records for biggest opening sales week in the modern age. Led by focus single “Patient Zero,” the extended project — which arrived Friday (Sept. 25), after a week of Easter eggs and reveals — features a total of four songs, all recorded after the original album dropped.

“I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max [Martin] and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album … to reflect and take in how grateful we were,” Swift wrote in her Encore announcement. “But there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”

Written with the same playfulness and effervescence of the main 12 songs on Showgirl — which spawned two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Opalite” — “Patient Zero,” “Pink Clouding,” “Babylon” and “Cleveland!” bring new insights into our showgirl’s personality and more domestic life as of late. She’s feeling more reflective this time around, looking back on the past and ruminating on the destructive qualities of nostalgia.

In honor of The Life of a Showgirl ‘s final bow, here’s all four of the new tracks ranked.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swift-life-of-showgirl-encore-tracks-ranked/)._