It would appear that the reviews for Taylor Swift’s latest musical offerings certainly haven’t deterred people from listening to them in their droves.
On Friday, the Grammy winner unveiled a deluxe edition of her latest album The Life Of A Showgirl, known as The Encore, consisting of four brand new tracks written over the course of the last year.
Unfortunately, The Encore has been widely panned by critics, with an average score on the review aggregation site Metacritic of just 39 out of 100, the lowest of her entire career (prior to that, her 2006 debut album held this distinction, with a still-respectable 67).
Still, that doesn’t mean that Taylor isn’t bringing in the streams with her new material.
On Sunday, the Official Charts Company teased that Taylor was on course to occupy the top three slots on the UK singles chart this week.
Lead single Patient Zero is tipped to become her eighth number one, while the “first look” chart had Cleveland! and Pink Clouding estimated for numbers two and three, respectively.
Her nearest competition is Ella Langley’s country hit Choosin’ Texas, which has already topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic this year.
The I Knew You Were Trouble singer also won three awards during the ceremony, including the coveted Video Of The Year title for The Fate Of Ophelia, extending her lead as the artist who has won this category the most times.
Last week, Taylor said of The Encore: “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.
“I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max [Martin] 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 added: “I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”
