Dear Simpson Swifties,
It’s been a little while, but I’m back again to bring you my thoughts on Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
I previously promised you my review of “The Tortured Poets Department” would be my last while I was on campus… but I never said I wouldn’t write one off campus.
So, here I am, writing another review for a Taylor Swift album.
This is my fourth since my beginnings in 2022, starting with “Midnights”, and also including the re-recording of “1989” (I’m sorry I didn’t do “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version”)).
But, since then, things have changed. I’ve graduated, gone to grad school (still going strong) and learned to branch out in more ways than the music I listen to.
Let’s get it out of the way: it’s not what I, nor millions of others, expected. That’s apparently putting it nicely.
I waited up to listen to the album, but it didn’t feel the same as it did for other albums. I went to bed unsatisfied, but with an eager ear to listen again; then came the comments on social media that made me question everything.
There are too many to include, but the sentiment was that listeners — from casual to devotee — were left with a taste in their mouth that they didn’t expect and didn’t quite like.
Swift announced the album on August 12, coming just months after the news broke that she bought back her masters (meaning she won’t re-record self-titled or “reputation”). Needless to say, fans expected a lot out of her twelfth album.
Glittery orange and mint green painted the hopes and dreams of Swifties. It was officially announced on her fiancé, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce’s, podcast “New Heights.”
In the following weeks, alternate album covers that teased old Hollywood vibes were released. We only found out on Thursday, Oct. 3, at 11 p.m. here in Central Time, that we were promised an album we didn’t really get, at least in my opinion.
At least on the surface.
It started off strong. So strong, in fact, I wanted more. “The Fate of Ophelia” was a strong opener for the album, especially when you consider how it sets the stage for the album being about the perceptions of being in the spotlight.
The themes of madness intertwining with being saved (by Travis Kelce) were actually well-received. I don’t think it really follows the true story of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” but neither did “Love Story” from “Fearless.”
I’ve read comments on social media that point to this song being the best on the album. Between the Shakespearean references and the syncopation, this definitely proved to be a strong song that set the stage.
Speaking of stages, did you know she recorded this album between Eras Tour shows? Talk about dedication, but also maybe the stage set her up for failure from a Swiftie’s perspective.
The album begins to taper off — at least for me — after “Father Figure”, which has writing credits for George Michael, famous for “Father Figure” released back in 1987.
Here, she sings about power dynamics: “I’ll be your father figure; I drink that brown liquor; I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger.”
It’s a unique spin on the 1987 song that played into similar motifs of power dynamics. But, for Swift, it’s about the power dynamics she has been embattled with since the fight over album ownership.
In that battle, she found comfort in producer Jack Antanoff, who has produced the second half of Swift’s discography. That was until this album, and I feel like we had gotten used to Antanoff’s production style.
She went back to her roots for a lot of the album, in ways that make me feel like each song could be attributed to another album. For example, “Opalite” makes sense for “Lover”, and “Elizabeth Taylor” would fit right in with “reputation”.
Where Swift lost me in this album, however, is when her lyricism didn’t match the expectations she had set for herself starting back in 2020 with “folklore”.
I think some of the lyricism may have gotten lost in translation, like in “Eldest Daughter” where she says, “I’m not a bad bitch,” or in “Wood” with “Forgive me, it sounds cocky; He dick-matized me and opened my eyes; Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see; His love was the key that opened my thighs,” or even in “CANCELLED!” with “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?”
It seems like she exchanged her romantic prose for common slang — which isn’t uncommon in pop music — but it paled in comparison to her previous albums. It is almost cheap-sounding and a cheesiness that many don’t welcome.
There are other controversies that surround the album: “Actually Romantic” is an unsubstantiated diss track for Charli xcx; most songs sound like they’ve been sampled without proper credit; some even say it sounds AI-generated. There are more, but those are the hot-button issues at least for right now.
But, no matter the decisions she made lyrically or stylistically (it seems like a lot of fans only like her for her sad music and didn’t witness her pop-fame come to with hard pop that resembles much of this album), she made this album to reflect her experiences while on tour and living life in the spotlight.
This has definitely defined a separation in her fans: the listeners who love the “fun” of the album; the millennials who resonate with the motifs; and the listeners who don’t want anything to do with her hyper-pop. Also, can we admit that if, say, Sabrina Carpenter released this album, it wouldn’t have been as controversial?
This album is definitely much different than recent albums. I can’t deny that. But perhaps, if you step back and look at Showgirl without your preconceived notions of what Taylor Swift “should be,” you’ll see that she wrote it for herself; maybe you aren’t her target audience anymore.
In fact, I think we can all agree that we don’t like every song Swift has produced; we can also agree with the notion that most listeners of hers don’t like her albums at first but quickly grow on them the more they listen. I know this is the case for me.
That said, here are my top songs:
- The Fate of Ophelia
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Opalite
(Yes, I know it’s the first three tracks of the album.)
Between the controversies of lyrics, style, attribution and whatever else people may find wrong with the album, you have to admit it stopped the world it its tracks: according to Billboard, she sold 2.7 million copies of the album the day it dropped. According to Spotify, she broke the record of album presaves with over 6 million, and is the second biggest album debut of all-time (the record is held by her previous album “The Tortured Poets Department”) according to Chart Data.
It may not have been the album I, or really anyone else expected, but it’s an album that may redefine the “Taylor Swift” brand and change the course of how we know her personally and musically.
Sincerely,
Kyle Werner
