Pop star Taylor Swift has broken two Spotify records with the release of her extended album Life of a Showgirl: The Encore despite underwhelming reviews.

The album, released on Friday, features four new songs, Patient Zero, Cleveland!, Pink Clouding and Babylon.

It marks her first new music since she married NFL star Travis Kelce at New York’s Madison Square Garden in July. The singer addresses critics of their relationship in one of her new songs, Cleveland! – the city where Kelce grew up.

The songs on the expanded edition were not left over from the original 2025 album but were instead penned after the record was a hit.

Patient Zero broke the record for the most-streamed song by a female artist in a day in 2026, while Swift had the most streams out of any female artist in a day this year, according to Variety.

The Telegraph’s Poppie Platt gave the new project a two-star review, with the headline “I’m a Swiftie and even I think these new songs are terrible.”

“So Swift has done what Swift does best,” Platt wrote, “write a few more songs for a ‘deluxe’ version and ‘surprise release’ it, ready to win those same fans back. What she doesn’t seem to have realised is that the music must be good to do so – and the songs on The Life of a Showgirl: Encore Edition are just as derivative and flat as those that populated the original.”

Writing the album for The Guardian, Laura Snapes agreed. “It is Swiftian Groundhog Day: she seems unwilling or unable to extricate herself from the vast web of self-reference she now seems condemned to operate within, having reached the point in the corporate life cycle where novelty is all but exhausted and it’s easier to double down on core values.”

On social media, a vocal portion of the fan base expressed fatigue with the new tracks, questioning the reversal of Swift’s initial promise not to expand the album.

The track Cleveland! is about a trip to the former hometown of Swift’s new husband Travis Kelce. Photo: AP

However USA Today critic Melissa Ruggieri argued the four new tracks “deserve an ovation” and praised Swift’s ability to pivot to an omniscient storytelling perspective on tracks like Patient Zero.

Swift will premiere the music video for Patient Zero, which stars actors Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony on Sunday.

She will also be honoured at the ceremony with the inagural MTV Artist Director award, which celebrates musicians who direct their own videos.

Earlier in 2026, Swift was named the most streamed artist of all time since Spotify was launched nearly 20 years ago.

She also made history in June as the youngest woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

-with AAP