The Glamour of Taylor Swift’s 'The Life of a Showgirl' - Album Review

The tortured poet season is gone. And while I had a deep connection with that album and loved hearing all the poetry for months, I couldn't be more excited for this new record, with Max Martin and Shellback teaming up with Taylor again. I do love Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift's partnership, and I think we have gained great albums from this duo, but I was missing something really different from Taylor. In the past few years, she has almost exclusively worked with Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, even on the Taylor’s Version titles. And yes, while my favorite songs are almost all produced by both of them, I missed the Taylor that reinvents herself almost every album.

Getting right into it, when I first played The Life of a Showgirl and heard those first few seconds of 'The Fate of Ophelia', I realized I wasn't ready for what was coming. I was expecting something different, maybe similar to the upbeat tracks from reputation or the vibrant synth-pop of 1989. This caught me off guard, and I needed to shed all the expectations I was carrying so I could see what Taylor was showing me.

The first three songs gave me a perfect introduction to what to expect. Actually, 'The Fate of Ophelia' turned out to be so much more interesting than I anticipated. 'Elizabeth Taylor' didn't catch me with its first verse, and for a moment I wondered if I had the right expectations, but then THAT MOMENT happened. TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT. After that, I had so much fun with 'Opalite'. It is a delicious song to just vibe with, and I can't lie and say I was expecting something like this from her right now.

Moving on to the next chapter, I was expecting something deeper and maybe darker due to the track titles, and I couldn't have been more right. But the way 'Father Figure' surprised me with a single French word and then a deal-with-the-devil moment involving a dick-measuring competition? I've learned not to presume anything.

'Eldest Daughter' is the Track 5, and for those who don't know, that's a thing. According to Taylor herself, it's usually her most emotional, vulnerable, and raw track on the album — not necessarily the saddest, but as a 'folklore' appreciator I had high expectations for this one.

Now, what really punches me into the saddest moment of this album is 'Ruin The Friendship'. I don't want to get into the whole "who is this about?" game that sadly overshadows her music, but I truly believe this track could be about her former classmate Jeffrey Lang. And that's as far as I'm going with that speculation.

'Actually Romantic' is actually intriguing. If someone from the future went back in time and told me Taylor would be using words like 'coke' and 'wet' in her music, I would have said they were crazy. This song is so fresh for a career that's been around for almost 20 years and is still getting better. I think 'Actually Romantic' is exactly the type of thing Taylor needed to try. It's through the unfamiliar paths that you can reinvent yourself and find new meaning. It's different, but it's still so Taylor!

When you think about being surrounded by rich people and having your name everywhere, I hope you also think about how stressful that can be. To me, 'Wi$h Li$t' is a track so intimate as anything from The Tortured Poets Department; it's about seeing other ways of life within the life you have. This, to me, is the signature of the album.

'Wood' is different from anything I've ever heard Taylor do in terms of sonority. It's fun, it puts you in an upbeat mood, and it's romantic... maybe too romantic. It's really good to see Taylor have the courage and desire to step outside her creative box to do something this new.

I'm not gonna lie, we're now about to talk about one of my favorite tracks on the album in terms of production. 'CANCELLED!' got me on my first listen with the exact verse, "Like my whiskey sour". The dynamic break, the rhythm, and all the thrilling emotion it carries gave me goosebumps. I'm glad to find THIS Taylor here.

I did like 'Honey', but I missed something from Max Martin and Shellback here. It's a good track and, more than that, a very well-placed song. It gives you the vibe that the album is about to end and makes you think about whether you want it to be over (in my case, I NEED more). Overall, the track fits in well, but I couldn't feel anything too different from Midnights or Antonoff.

Hey, thank you for the lovely bouquet. In the final and title track, 'The Life of a Showgirl', Taylor delivers a perfect closing to the amazing experience I had while listening to this album. The feature with Sabrina Carpenter wasn't just a planned situation teased during the Eras Tour: It's a perfect conversation between life, fame, and idols.

After listening to The Life of a Showgirl as a complete album experience, my final conclusion is: Taylor Swift once again shows she is an artist who not only keeps up with the industry but also defines and shapes a part of it. For an artist who came from country and faced criticism when she moved to pop, and then was criticized again when she changed her musical style for Lover, only to have her career labeled as 'in decline' after venturing into folk with folklore and evermore — two albums completely different from anything she had done before — Taylor proves with The Life of a Showgirl that she has learned the pattern. She does what feels right to her and what she believes is necessary for the moment. This album explores a creative side of Taylor that is genuinely new because, beyond the joy, high spirits, and positive moments in her life, it is still inventive and attractive to a new audience.

The album's aesthetic and its coherence with the lyrics and melodies were harshly criticized on internet and labeled a "wasted aesthetic", but I have a question for you: isn't The Life of a Showgirl about the LIFE of a showgirl, and not about her SHOW?

To me, it's clear what a showgirl's show is since we had the Eras Tour for two years, and the show was there every weekend. Ever since the announcement on her fiancé Travis Kelce's podcast, New Heights, Taylor had already made it clear that the album was about the life behind the cameras that filmed her at every show. It was about what was happening behind the scenes in her life, and that includes meeting someone new and falling in love, rethinking what your life could have been if you had made different choices when you were younger, and seeing what happens in your friends' lives. That is how you understand the life of a showgirl.

In 12 tracks, Taylor Swift delivers a complete and cohesive work with a delicious sound that screams Max Martin and Shellback. What I can feel here is that 'The Life of a Showgirl' is an album that came to change things and will grow over time into a classic.

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