Once upon a time, in a timeline far, far away, there was a verbose country upstart from Pennsylvania who dreamed of becoming so big that no one could touch her. When Taylor Swift released "Mean" in 2010, she could still plausibly position herself as the David to the media's Goliath, a hearty little engine that could—and would—make it all the way to the top. Yet now, bigger than ever, Swift has never sounded more bogged down in criticism and less assured in her strengths.

Nowhere is this as apparent as on "Cleveland!," the nadir of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore: the latest new variant of the best-selling first-week debut in modern music history. Buried within production situated somewhere between Dear Evan Hansen and a Kohl's holiday playlist is an idea aligned with Swift's greatest work: Love turns the average into the extraordinary. A trip to her hubby's "home" (helpfully contextualized in "Babylon" as "where you're from") in the canonically normal Ohio city might as well be a private tour of Versailles.

But Swift is too mighty now to get swept off her feet. "Cleveland!" remains firmly committed to the defensive snarl of Showgirl songs "Actually Romantic" and "CANCELLED!," transforming what might have been a sweet love song into an exercise in self-flagellating spite. While Travis is ostensibly trying to show her where he grew up, her song's narrator is furiously name-searching on Twitter, collecting a laundry list of digs against herself: can't dance, "dressed like trash," "only a four," fake, annoying. She stops short of calling herself "a *****," but not a "*****." None of that's supposed to matter, of course, because she's found the love of her life, which Swift defines in a shell of a spoken-word bridge as the "one person in this entire world who doesn't find you completely insufferable." She wants us to know she wants for nothing. But it's tough to see the bar this low.

Pitchfork

Taylor Swift: “Cleveland!”

Read Hattie Lindert’s review of the track.

"Buried within production situated somewhere between Dear Evan Hansen and a Kohl's holiday playlist"

"it's tough to see the bar this low"

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by gelato

She's a laughing stock atp.. Oh how the mighty have fallen..

when will her brainwashed fanbase wake up?

I actually agree with them for once. This song should never have mentioned haters. She has plenty but she also has the biggest fanbase and a husband now. No reason to focus on the negatives here.

A total joke of a song. And even the Swifties agree.

Mess.

genuinely what happened

The Cleveland! Girl, that's where I'm from 💋, The Cleveland! girl was ready to call Pookie n Em to come over there and WHOOP YOUR ASS!

The panning omg

17 minutes ago, Killah said:

when will her brainwashed fanbase wake up?

not until someone doesn't drink the kool aid, and is able to look around.

12 minutes ago, Butters said:

genuinely what happened

This is what happens when you get high on your own supply, when you stop making music because you feel compelled to articulate a feeling or emotion and instead chase chart numbers. Maybe most crucially, this is what happens when you and your legion of fans block out every piece of criticism by labeling it "hate" and instead surround yourself with yes men.

Well she should've released patient zero as a standalone single and thats it. All the other three somehow made the showgirl midder

I'm not even being hyperbolic when I say this is one of the worst MPG songs ever made, like this is Auto-Tune Baby level bad

Pitchfork is so done with pop girls in 2026

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Spicy Pisces

Did anyone try the Patient Zero? I thought the Patient Zero was lovely

Buried within production situated somewhere between Dear Evan Hansen and a Kohl's holiday playlist

This is so accurate it hurts

Not a TS fan, and yes, she objectively makes bad music now but this hate feels so forced.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Vorfreude

If these hate comments go away, maybe you're not at your peak anymore. I think it's a privilege to be receiving these and rise above it!

Looks like she is not going to share the reviews on her stories right now

Mark my words I've seen this coming for years, Taylor is fully headed into Marvel/Super-hero movies trajectory. They kept breaking records on 10s. Once seen as to big to fail, too reliant on their own cosmos, eventually got clowned to death and faded because of it.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by SweetOreosOfHeaven

I've read the lyrics and legit thought they were fake considering how bad they are omg...

Another self victimizing documentary soon to be dropped

I don't dislike Cleveland but I understand why people don't enjoy it… so yeah, the review might be harsh but plenty of valid points were made.

Stream Pink Clouding instead!

1 hour ago, Sugden said:

When Taylor Swift released "Mean" in 2010, she could still plausibly position herself as the @David_Greengrass97 to the media's Goliath, a hearty little engine that could—and would—make it all the way to the top. Yet now, bigger than ever, Swift has never sounded more bogged down in criticism and less assured in her strengths.

Nowhere is this as apparent as on "Cleveland!," the nadir of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore: the latest new variant of the best-selling first-week debut in modern music history. Buried within production situated somewhere between Dear Evan Hansen and a Kohl's holiday playlist is an idea aligned with Swift's greatest work: Love turns the average into the extraordinary. A trip to her hubby's "home" (helpfully contextualized in "Babylon" as "where you're from") in the canonically normal Ohio city might as well be a private tour of Versailles.

But Swift is too mighty now to get swept off her feet. "Cleveland!" remains firmly committed to the defensive snarl of Showgirl songs "Actually Romantic" and "CANCELLED!," transforming what might have been a sweet love song into an exercise in self-flagellating spite. While Travis is ostensibly trying to show her where he grew up, her song's narrator is furiously name-searching on Twitter, collecting a laundry list of digs against herself: can't dance, "dressed like trash," "only a four," fake, annoying. She stops short of calling herself "a *****," but not a "*****." None of that's supposed to matter, of course, because she's found the love of her life, which Swift defines in a shell of a spoken-word bridge as the "one person in this entire world who doesn't find you completely insufferable." She wants us to know she wants for nothing. But it's tough to see the bar this low.

Pitchfork

Taylor Swift: "Cleveland!"

Read Hattie Lindert's review of the track.

Fixed

Some may think this is harsh but the criticisms are fair and completely deserved. As a 36 year old Taylor has been perpetually playing a victim for almost 20 years now…but the real victims here are the listeners of her music, which has exponentially worsened for many years now to the point that her fans are comparing it to 143 to revel in a sense of superiority