Put on your fishnets and dancing heels: Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” is here! This new album is shimmery, bold, and radiant, with hues of mint green and sparkly orange to brighten your fall season.
Selling 2.7 million copies of the album on its release day alone, Taylor Swift proves, once again, that she is the music industry.
As a huge Swiftie, I played this album on loop as soon as it dropped. After several listens, here are my three takeaways from this album:
1. It’s one of her most bubbly, danceable albums.
Who doesn’t love a fun, full-on pop album? Upon first listen, it felt like a mix between “1989,” “Midnights,” and “Reputation,” but it also has a completely new feel to it. It is 41 minutes of love, lust, and energy.
Swifties have turned to social media to share their dance moves, particularly with the initial track, “The Fate of Ophelia.” Several also dressed up to sing and dance in theaters for the release party premiere screening, which set a new box office record at $33 million in ticket sales. One thing about Swifties is that we will always show up to support our girl in any and every way possible.
2. It has duller lyrics compared to other albums.
While I did enjoy its upbeat feel, the album’s lyricism did not blow me away. My favorite albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore,” are Shakespeare-level. Despite the opening track containing a Shakespeare reference, this album felt more like a Sparks Note translation of it.
In the song “Eldest Daughter,” slang words like “This isn’t savage” and “We looked fire” made me cringe a little. Yes, I know the slang emphasizes the fact that being an eldest daughter means “dying just from trying to seem cool,” but I just can’t take it seriously. In “Actually Romantic” (allegedly Swift’s response to Charli XCX’s “Sympathy is a Knife”), despite its catchiness, I didn’t like how Swift pettily compared Charli to “a toy Chihuahua barking…from a tiny purse.” And, in “Wood,” after hearing Swift discuss Travis Kelce’s “redwood tree,” and singing, “His love was the key that opened my thighs,” I almost skipped to the next track. While I am happy that Swift is happy, I do not need to hear about her fiancé in that way.
Despite these lyrics, I do adore some songs on this album. I love the charming twist on Hamlet in “The Fate of Ophelia,” found the confident chorus of “Father Figure” addicting, and “Ruin The Friendship” is my favorite lyrically and sonically.
3. Swift proves she will never stop performing.
The lyrics, upon first listen, feel cheap and surface-level, but maybe that’s the whole point. Swift has already shown us the deep and poetic side of herself in previous albums. But, at the end of the day, she is a showgirl first and foremost. She is always performing. As talented, beautiful, and entertaining as we find her, even we Swifties don’t really know her.
If you’re a Swiftie, you likely bought tickets to the Eras Tour or watched the screening of it in theaters – or both. Swift gave everything for her fans on this tour, performing three-hour shows every night and doing it flawlessly. But behind the curtain, she dealt with heartbreak and physical exhaustion. Fans had no idea. She put on the performance of a lifetime.
We see this in the final track that ties the album together, “The Life of a Showgirl.” It narrates a conversation between Swift and a showgirl named Kitty. She tells Kitty, “You’re living my dream,” to which she responds, “You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe…the more you play, the more that you pay.” This directly references Swift’s life of fame. At a young age, she “[sold] her soul to have a magnificent life,” but soon found out “That’s not what showgirls get,” suffering the pain, loss, and sacrifice it takes to be a famous entertainer. Through everything, the show must go on.
It’s easy to see that Taylor Swift is “married to the hustle,” even when she ties the knot with Travis Kelce.
Though a life in the spotlight is difficult, Swift makes it clear that she “wouldn’t have it any other way.” She will continue to write and perform for her fans. That is the life of a showgirl.
Featured image via YouTube, The Life Of A Showgirl Album
