Taylor Swift fans were gearing up for the release of "Patient Zero" on Friday, September 25. Easter eggs had been dropped, and news had been announced, but as it turns out, the song was about so much more. A whole addendum to a previous album, in fact.
"Patient Zero" is part of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, which will be released on Friday and features four new songs in total. Those tracks include the previously mentioned one, as well as “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding,” and “Babylon."
Despite the name "Cleveland!" sounding like something that should appear on one of Sufjan Stevens' early records, one can assume the track is about Travis Kelce, whose family is from a suburb of the city on Lake Erie. As for the others, one can assume they are Kelce-related too, or at least one is.
Taylor Swift will release four new songs this week
The Encore album is available for pre-order on Taylor Swift's official site, or one could wait until Friday and buy it then. At this point, the deluxe edition doesn't have an obvious physical format and could only be available via streaming, but more about that will be known on Friday, of course.
Swift isn't normally one to produce one-off singles. She did so with Toy Story 5, of course, delivering "I Knew It, I Knew You," but that was clearly attached to an overall non-Swift project and to a soundtrack. Releasing "Patient Zero" alone would have been a bit of a break from Swift's norm.
The initial release of The Life of a Showgirl happened in October 2025 and set a record for the most sales in the opening week. Eventually, having a deluxe edition come out was something most Swifties anticipated.
Now that the icon owns the masters to her early Big Machine Records albums, she no longer needs to worry about re-recording her earlier work.
The only two she hasn't re-recorded are her 2006 debut album and 2017's Reputation. Since The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore is being released in September, Taylor Swift fans might need to wait until 2027 to see if a re-recorded Reputation is dropped.
Instead of worrying about recording music she had previously recorded, Swift can focus on hanging out with friends like Tom Cruise at the Kansas City Chiefs games and just enjoying life. Meanwhile, her legion of fans can enjoy her four new songs that will be released on Friday.
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