As a long time Taylor Swift music fan and attendee of the Eras Tour, I, like many others, waited with bated breath for the drop of her newest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which was released on Friday.
I imagined the dramatics, the bridges, the parallels between Swift’s life and that of a showgirl. A showgirl is loosely defined as an “actress who sings and dances in musicals, variety acts, and similar shows”, the title being largely associated with feathers, camp, and the theater. They are coined for their feathers, dramatics and revealing attire.
Unfortunately, I was left disappointed. The album is not nearly as showtune influenced as you would expect — save the title track — and did not feature a whirlwind of references to the life of any known showgirl.
The musical composition is the closest thing to cohesion the album achieves; it’s very pop heavy, and dips into Sabrina Carpenter’s current niche. Sabrina Carpenter is known more for her disco-pop, raunchy tongue-and-cheek music, and it seems Swift takes inspiration from that on this album. Which is not to say that the pop girls can’t take a dip in the same pool, but coming from Swift, the same woman who wrote “1989”, “Red” and “Evermore” – one starts to expect more.
The album has plenty of signature Taylor moves: references to her personal life, famous actresses and women of literature. However, she fails to fulfill them in the previous way she had done with tracks like “Peter” from “The Tortured Poets Department,” and “Tolerate it” from “Evermore.”
Swift also makes references to popular phrases like “savage” and “cancelled,” but she again fails to bring levity to the topics she sings about with the inclusion of the phrases. This is particularly devastating to me, as on her previous album “The Tortured Poets Department,” she reworked modern phrases like “Down Bad” and “I hate it here” into certified hits with her classic lyricism and subversions.
I also found the track “Cancelled” to be self-aware and woefully tasteless at the same time. In the song she writes, “Good thing I like my friends cancelled. I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal.” Swift has a myriad of friends and colleagues who are “canceled” for serious accusations ranging from illegal to lack of decorum.
In the song, she makes the point essentially that they may not be good people, especially in the view of fans, but they’re good to me, so I will keep them as friends. I can respect someone who knows their friends may be bad people. I can’t respect someone who continues the friendship only because said friends are only good to them, but not good people.
Some consumers will exclaim it’s not that deep! I ask them to engage critically and ask “What if it was?”
Standouts on the album are “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite” and the title track – the unifying aspect being that they sound good, and have catchy one liners.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is neither a gimmick nor great, but middling at best in Swift’s discography. There’s nothing wrong with a fun pop album, but I know she can do this kind of album better like she has previously with tracks including “Miss Americana,” “Me” and “Style.”
If you’re looking for Swift’s lyrical prowess, skip this one. If you’re looking for pop akin to Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae, this is definitely an album for you.
