Taylor Swift’s “Encore” is sparkling yet impressive

It’s autumn now: With the air crisp and every stoop covered in decorative gourds, Taylor Swift, the patron saint of silk scarves, has unveiled four new songs culled from extra studio time with Max Martin and Shellback, her collaborators on last year’s chart-topping “Life of a Showgirl.” The album was divisive even among Swift’s most ardent fans — who could forget “Wood,” a Swiftian “song of myself” that celebrated her now-husband Travis Kelce’s allegedly gorgeous jingle? — which makes revisiting the album a surprising choice, despite Swift’s confidence in the merit of her work. (Or, as my editor joked, maybe she was doing it to do her friend a favor Ed Sheeran.)

“The Life of a Showgirl” is by turns effusive and resentful, smug and self-pitying. (i didn’t pay attention to it.) Swift is now stuck in her billionaire days, and it’s fun to watch her play the role, starting with “Welcome, shareholders!” head shot She had announced this release. Considered a victory lap, “Showgirls: Encore” was recorded after she flew to Sweden to celebrate the commercial success of “Showgirls” with Martin and Sherlbach. (Its record-breaking sales were certainly boosted by the fact that she released 34 nominally different versions of the album, a ruthless and mercenary tactic that Swift has used before. (My boyfriend pointed out that the intro to “Cleveland!” sounds a lot like Dave House’s “sandy sheets,“Starting in 2021.”) Like “Wood,” the song contains what I consider to be an embarrassing reference to Kelce’s podcast: “He’s taken me to Cleveland/And shown me the highlands.” (I hate it!)

The best song of the set is probably “Babylon,” perhaps because it hearkens back to Swift’s earlier work, before she was motivated by spite. (I hear echoes of “Fearless” and “Evermore,” two of her best records.) It’s about someone who can’t commit, and the age-old idea of ​​not knowing what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, but the way it’s melodic and wistful now feels almost proprietary to Swift. I hope its placement at the end of “Encore”—nothing is accidental in Swift’s world—suggests that it’s a hint at what’s to come. If the future is “Cleveland!” I worry for all of us.

This morning the Supreme Court ruled Supports the Trump administration’s efforts to allow states to use a controversial federal data set to search for cases of non-citizens registering to vote.

What does this ruling say?

“What we have just seen is another example – although it is not a Maga Court – This is a very conservative court that tends to side with the Trump administration and tends to overturn lower courts. Just before this, we saw A more dangerous and potentially damaging casea court blocked the government from letting the Postal Service implement new rules regarding mail-in ballots. Even for the Supreme Court, this was too much.

“This time, a majority of the justices saw the situation differently. But the court’s approach did not pose a huge risk to large numbers of voters. And non-citizens had no incentive to vote. I call it a ‘phantom threat.’ Justice Jackson himself, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan all dissented, but even they said the short-term real-world effects were not trivial.”

—Ruth Marcus, staff writer covering the courts

learn more: Read Marcus on the postal voting decision.

Gisele Bündchen is the ultimate, you might say.Photography: Andrew H. Walker/Getty

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