With Taylor Swift reuniting with photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, and producers Max Martin and Shellback – who were involved in her sixth album, ‘Reputation’ – many assumed her latest album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ would be a bombastic pop record. It seemed like a welcome departure from the moody tone of her previous record, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ (TTPD).
That’s why it was surprising that what ended up on her 12th album was another mid-tempo record that didn’t match the glamorous aesthetic of the Mert and Marcus photo shoot, nor the euphoric melodies Swift, Martin, and Shellback usually produce.
I’ve been a Swiftie since her ‘Red’ era in 2012, often defending her artistic choices when fans were divided. But I can’t defend this latest artistic choice. While I am a huge Swift fan, I am a pop listener first, and I value the little details that shape a record’s sound and aesthetic.
It’s especially frustrating when Swift herself has always had showgirl tendencies as a performer, evident throughout ‘The Eras Tour,’ where she leaned into this concept while performing ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ in the TTPD segment, as well as in the music video for ‘Bejeweled.’ I assumed she would double down on the ‘showgirl’ concept for this album, so you can imagine my confusion when the album dropped last October 3.
Where’s the showgirl vibe?
The first half somehow lived up to its assumed concept, especially in the first three tracks: the opener ‘The Fate of Ophelia,’ a romantic ode to her fiancé Travis Kelce over a ’60s girl group jam; ‘Elizabeth Taylor,’ in which Swift finds familiarity in the chaotic life of the Hollywood icon; and ‘Opalite,’ which seems primed to be the album’s next single.
The second half takes a confusing turn, especially in songs like ‘Actually Romantic’ and ‘Ruin the Friendship,’ which sound more pop-rock than ‘showgirl’. Despite the latter being one of the best songs on the album, it feels out of place with its theme of regret in a melancholic guitar sound, fitting more with ‘Midnights.’
Then there are head-scratchers like ‘CANCELLED!’ and ‘Honey’ that make me question Swift’s ear at times, and whether the album should even be called ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ in the first place.
At least the album closes gracefully with its titular track featuring Sabrina Carpenter. But it makes me wish the songs before it carried the same ‘showgirl’ splendor to justify its ceremonial tone.
Speaking of Carpenter, I noticed that Swift attempted to emulate her sound in a few songs, such as ‘Wood,’ where she isn’t subtle about her sexual attraction to Kelce, and ‘Opalite,’ where she meshes a bit of her own sound with Carpenter’s style for a serviceable track for the radio and TikTok.
Swift, who usually excels at channeling her contemporaries like Lana Del Rey, falls flat here in imitating Carpenter’s style. Sabrina’s colorful personality goes hand-in-hand with her songwriting, making her songs charming for their in-your-face attitude – something Swift lacks.
That’s why ‘Actually Romantic,’ in which she jokingly gets aroused by the subject of a certain ‘brat’ pop star’s one-sided beef with her, sounds immature.
One of the criticisms of her recent output is that her lyrics have become too ‘wordy,’ a result of her experimentation to showcase her expanded vocabulary on her 2020 pandemic albums, ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore.’
I never had an issue with this, even with how verbose TTPD can be, until ‘Father Figure’ made me wish she would use simpler words that could have created a greater dramatic effect. The lyric ‘I pay the check before it kisses the mahogany grain,’ where Swift talks about being able to pay the bill regardless of the cost, would’ve been more effective had she simply replaced that metaphor with ‘table.’
Take ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’ from her 2019 album ‘Lover’ as an example. She wasn’t as wordy in describing the vivid image of a life-changing breakup, akin to the story beats from ‘Someone Great’, which inspired Swift to prove she could write an epic breakup song while still in a relationship.
Even with my issue with ‘Father Figure’ lyrically, it still shows Swift’s strength as a storyteller and her ability to reference pop culture and apply it to her personal experiences, taking influence from ‘The Godfather’ trilogy and Logan Roy, the patriarchal antagonist in HBO’s ‘Succession.’
However, it’s clear that throughout this record, Swift aims for buzzword-heavy lyrics that fit for Instagram captions, while the storyteller I know her for takes a backseat.
As Swift aims to make this era bigger than the last, this isn’t surprising. People often forget that the Swift who wrote ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ in 2020 is also the same woman who released ‘Lover’ in 2019, which had songs like ‘ME!’ and ‘You Need to Calm Down,’ aimed for radio play rather than critical acclaim.
We have to understand that Swift’s songwriting and business moves usually go hand in hand in her creative process, a balance she has long mastered. But the latter seems to be driving her creative direction more this time. It makes sense, given how people dissected this through social media. Whether the reaction is positive or negative, the discourse still works in her favor – though at the expense of fans who have to sit through the many bad-faith interpretations surrounding some of the tracks.
Will this record age better with time?
While I am mixed toward Swift’s songwriting in this album, it’s not to say she’s become artistically unrecognizable. Her creativity is still evident in the way she directed the music video for ‘The Fate of Ophelia,’ showing her growing confidence as a director, aided by Oscar-winning cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (‘Barbie,’ ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’), who best understands Swift’s ideas.
Swift’s strength as a storyteller now seems to lie in her visuals rather than in her lyrics, which is why I would have preferred for her to focus on her upcoming directorial feature-length film for Searchlight Pictures as her next project instead of another album.
Since Swift isn’t planning to tour for this album, she said in interviews that she has more time to direct music videos, with ‘Opalite’ likely being the next single – one that could find more success with a similarly infectious video as ‘Ophelia.’ It’s these music videos that will keep me tuned in as a fan, despite my mixed feelings toward the record itself.
Swift is hopeful that listeners, regardless of how they feel initially, will eventually warm up to its sound. She told Lowe, ‘What I often love seeing my fans say is, ‘I used to be someone who didn’t relate to Reputation. And now that I’ve been through some other things in my life, that’s my favorite album.’ Or, ‘I used to be a Fearless girlie, now I’m obsessed with Evermore. We’re doing this thing for keeps.’ I know what I made. I know I adore it, and on the theme of the Showgirl, all of this is part of it.’
Swift has a point. ‘Reputation’ was divisive when it came out in 2017, as the toxic political climate and her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were still fresh, focusing more on her tabloidized celebrity image than on her as an artist. It took time and a stadium tour for the album to be appreciated more positively than when it was first released.
As for TTPD, many, including myself, who were initially underwhelmed by that album later appreciated how Swift stuck to her concept and how her storytelling shone through despite its monotonous sound.
Who knows if I might eventually appreciate this album in a few years? That’s the fascinating part of pop culture and why I pay attention to it as a journalist. Some things that were panned at first might eventually get their flowers. And Swift is betting on that.
As of now, as a Swiftie in October 2025, I can confidently say that my frustration with not liking ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ stems from being a fan for 15 years who knows that Swift can create a better album than this.