Fun Times in Cleveland! Taylor Swift’s New Song About Travis Kelce Is the Worst of Her Musical Career

When Taylor Swift was 17 years old, she penned one of the most iconic love songs of all time. It begins with a scene-setting verse like no other: “We were both young when I first saw you/ I close my eyes and the flashback starts/ I'm standin' there/ On a balcony in summer air.” The Shakespearean pop-country anthem has since rightfully earned its reputation as a certified banger at parties and weddings, and will go down in history as one of Swift’s most romantic love letters in her glorious songwriting career.

Now 36 and married, Swift is entering a new era that not all her fans are going to like. Even the greatest songwriters of all time own their duds. For the world’s most famous pop girlie, that came swiftly in the form of “Cleveland!”, one of four tracks from her Life of a Showgirl encore release on Friday.

As many of you are probably aware, Swift and Travis Kelce tied the knot this summer at a private-as-can-be ceremony behind the closed doors of Madison Square Garden, and they’ve been living happily ever after.

God forbid Swift tries her hand at writing a honeymoon anthem for the first time in her life. This is, after all, uncharted territory for the Ophelia-esque tragic heroine, who once waxed poetic about dying on the altar waiting for the love/loss of her life (“So Long, London”) and about a love affair whose twin flame bruise may have painted her ex-boyfriend blue (“All Too Well 10-minute version”). Heartbreak was a recurring theme in every single one of her albums—until this one.

MORE: Stop Being a Curmudgeon About Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Wedding

Enter “Cleveland!”, Swift’s latest joyous ode to her goofy, football-playing husband that continues the pop star’s trend of making shallow—albeit relentlessly upbeat—music for the masses. It also might be the worst song she’s ever written in her decades-long career.

The music in “Cleveland!” is fine. Average, passable. The synth-pop beats get the job done for what it’s about. In the song, Swift details her authentic relationship with Kelce, visiting his hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio and how she finally found her soulmate.

Here’s a snippet of the chorus:

He already took me to Cleveland
And showed me The Heights, so hate all you like
This is the love of my life, hey, hey, hey

Thematically and sonically, the song echoes the same undertones as the corny, exclamatory messaging of “ME!” and the cloying sentimentality of “Paper Rings” from Swift’s Lover era. Look, I’m no cynic. There’s nothing wrong with expressing your feelings after finding the supposed love of your life. Lyrically, however, the song falls flat across every verse.

The opening verse immediately sets the stage for superficiality and marks an obvious shift away from Swift’s typical show-don’t-tell lyricism:

She's not as hot as she was, but she was only a four
She was never a girls' girl, she was just a—
And with all of that money, why's she dressed like trash?
When she smiles, it's annoying, and have you seen her

It’s almost as if Swift has consciously chosen to adopt her husband’s vocabulary and, well, simplify her songs, so to speak.

I will give you that it appears more of Travis’ vocabulary has crept into hers than hers has crept into his although it is impressively close
— Nathan Hubbard (@NathanCHubbard) September 25, 2026

This isn’t the first time Swift has deliberately toyed with surface-level descriptions of women in her songs. In “Better Than Revenge” from her Speak Now era, a song in which she infamously changed one of the misogynist lyrics that essentially called her opp a slut, Swift again writes with a snarky pen and girly attitude (she was still in her teens!). But she at least did so with more expressive phrases and sharper wit (“Oh they didn’t teach you that in prep school so it’s up to me/ But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity”).

Imagery and figurative language are severely lacking in “Cleveland!” So is any meaning or substance deeper than the fact that Kelce is head over heels in love with Swift. “He likes what he likes, what he likes, and he likes me,” she sings twice.

And it gets worse. The real lyrical injustice happens in the bridge, when Swift turns up her sappy Lover-era songwriting a few notches and delivers a monologue on top of her rose-colored soapbox that oozes cringe and mawkishness:

You only need to find one person in this entire world
Who doesn't find you completely insufferable
And I have an important announcement to make
I found mine (That's right)

To be fair, the cheeky, self-absorbed sensibilities of “Cleveland!” fall in line with other songs from her Life of a Showgirl album, like the unashamedly sexual “Wood” or the faux-edgy “Eldest Daughter.” Swift admitted during her 2025 podcast debut on New Heights that the album comes from “the most infectiously joyful” place that she was in her life with Kelce, and it shows.

MORE: What Taylor Swift Was Talking to Tom Cruise About at Chiefs Game, and Why It Matters

“Making this album was really something I’ve been wanting to do for my entire career, because I have always wanted to have fun in this type of way,” she told Rolling Stone. “To have fun, to exhibit mischief and be flirty, and fun, and make jokes, and get to have that side of my personality. That’s a huge part of my personality.”

It’s also not lost on me that Swift directly addressed her “haters” in each chorus of “Cleveland!” Hate her marriage all you like, hate the song all you like. She’s not changing who she is, which would appear to be a happy wife with a happy life. She's going to keep showing up to support Kelce at Chiefs games, and she’s going to keep releasing music to build the legacy she aspires. Love her or hate her, this is her double-dipping into both of her public personas as mega-famous artist and NFL wife.

“I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art,” Swift said in her Rolling Stone interview. “I’m not the art police. It’s like everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want. And what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror.”

Perhaps Swift could hold up a mirror to herself as well and reflect on whether, after 12 mostly acclaimed studio albums and after becoming the youngest woman ever to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, that this is really the direction she wants to take her music and lyrics. Marriage has inevitably changed her, for good. It just shouldn’t have to change her once-renowned ability to tell a good story.

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