Less than a day after announcing that a new song, “Patient Zero,” is coming out on Friday (Sept. 25), Taylor Swift unwrapped an even bigger gift on Wednesday morning (Sept. 23). The singer revealed that a deluxe edition of last year’s The Life of a Showgirl album, featuring four new songs, will also drop this week.
Describing the genesis of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore in an Instagram post, Swift said, “About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind… You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history,” of the LP that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 thanks to a record-smashing 4.002 million album-equivalent units moved.
“I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album. Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs,” she continued. “I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”
Swifties only need to wait another day and a half to listen to the other new tracks, “Pink Clouding,” “Babylon” and “Cleveland!,” the latter, no doubt, inspired by husband Travis Kelce’s Ohio hometown. Swift also revealed what appears to be the album cover, which finds her standing in front of a pinkish-red curtain in a glittery fringed minidress with the album’s title in sparkly gold letters across the front.
“Patient Zero” is available now to preorder on Swift’s website, along with an acoustic version and piano version, each of which come with an different cover. On the piano version cover, she strikes a thoughtful pose, hand under chin, showing off her engagement ring. On the acoustic cover she stares into the distance in a gray space while wearing a black, camisole-like top.
The original The Life of a Showgirl spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and spun off two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles, “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Opalite.”
