Taylor Swift released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl on Oct. 3 this year following the hype around her engagement with NFL player Travis Kelce. With the climactic end of the Eras Tour in December 2024, Swift has progressed in her music career by not only completing one of the most successful tours of any music artist but also successfully buying back her masters, taking back her first six albums, which were previously profited and owned by Big Machine Records.
In anticipation of the album, Swift released several concept photos as well as the album cover, which displayed electric colors of orange and cyan with Swift at the center adorned with bedazzled headpieces and bodywear. In interviews leading up to the release, Swift described the “showgirl” as a metaphor for resilience and dedication to the upkeep of constant performance that she experienced firsthand as a top chart performer for nearly 20 years.
The showgirl aesthetic put at the forefront of the marketing campaign got fans excited about Swift reaching back to her pop roots, similar to her earlier albums, Speak Now and 1989, especially since her past four albums have been much slower and more focused on delivering a more intimate listening experience. But in The Life of a Showgirl, Swift’s thoughtful lyrics seem to disappear and fail to provide the quality upbeat pop music promised in the concept.
While not previously a problem for Swift, the lyrics such as “This isn’t savage” and “Did you girlboss too close to the sun” provide little to no depth, relying on forced slang terms to deliver her message, resulting in artificiality commonly associated with pop songs. Most of the tracks seem unoriginal, forgettable, and contain repetitive melodies from her previous songs without adding substantial innovation.
One prominent issue in the album is the tone deafness, which is especially clear in “Actually Romantic,” the song alleged to be in response to Charli XCX’s song “ Sympathy is a Knife.” In her song, Charli XCX expresses intimidation and insecurity regarding Swift’s fame and mass presence within the mainstream music scene. Swift’s response song oversteps by blatantly insulting Charli XCX with “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave” without a deeper understanding of what her song was truly about.
The lyrical and delivery issues in “Actually Romantic” are accompanied by a bland backtrack, which further hinders the messaging making the song sound flat and seem solely written for petty purposes. This song is by far the worst on the album and portrays Swift as immature and incognizant of the weight of her words which seeps into other tracks on the album such as “Canceled” and “Wi$h Li$t”.
However, some tracks stand out as exceptions to the mediocrity present throughout the album. The first track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” quickly became the most streamed song topping 100 million streams on Spotify with an allusion to Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, which strengthens the overall story told throughout the song instead of focusing on trivial grievances with other celebrities. This track was the only one released so far with a music video, displaying strong visuals taking the viewer from backstage to onstage performing as a showgirl. Other scenes were mixed with imagery alluding to the Shakespeare lyrics and ending on a shot similar to the main album cover.
Track three, “Opalite,” also gained traction from listeners as a lighthearted, upbeat song that most accurately delivers what the fans were expecting going into the album. In comparison to many of the other songs, “Opalite” is more vibrant and does a good job of combining familiar elements of Swift’s past work while still adding a distinct melody for the listeners to enjoy. The song is reminiscent of “Bejeweled,” a popular song from one of Swift’s past albums, Midnights, with similar themes of whimsy and carefree energy.
The song “The Life of a Showgirl” was the title track of the album and included a collaboration with fellow pop star Sabrina Carpenter. The song takes the audience through the experience of being a music artist both the positive, negative and the dedication it takes being “married to the hustle” with a very appropriate musical theater-esque bridge reminiscent of The Greatest Showman. Although the song successfully created a finale for the entire album, it ultimately felt conceptually disconnected from the rest of the tracks and fell short being a good song to end a different album.
Overall, the album The Life of a Showgirl was a major disappointment for fans and critics alike, with lacking lyrics, unoriginal music, and forgettable tracks. With the concept photos and album cover representing something fresh and new, the album underdelivered with bland songs that were almost indistinguishable from her previous pop albums, leaving fans wanting more.
Overall rating: 5.5/10