Taylor Swift arrives for the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025. Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images via TNS
Taylor Swift is on top of the world. She is a self-made billionaire coming off the Eras Tour — the highest grossing concert tour of all time, according to a New York Times article — and is newly engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” released Friday, is already sparking widespread debates across social media.
During her Aug. 13 album announcement on “New Heights” — Kelce’s podcast with his brother, Jason — Swift guaranteed “melodies that [are] so infectious that you’re almost angry at it, and lyrics that are just as vivid but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
“The Life of a Showgirl” falls short of this promise.
While the album does have its moments of honest self-expression and commendable reflection, its overarching themes feel overly blunt and tone deaf, especially within Swift’s discography.
Swift has long excelled in maintaining vulnerable lyricism over upbeat tracks, but “The Life of a Showgirl” simply does not capture this. In place of the lighthearted nature she tried to portray, its lyrics feel more hollow and passionless than anything else.
Swift’s greatest strength as a songwriter has always been her storytelling. In albums past, she has made a habit of using specific examples in her songs to paint a portrait of her experiences, emotionally appealing to listeners.
On “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift reunites with Grammy-winning “1989” producers Max Martin and Shellback, attempting to prove this strength.
On 2014’s “1989,” Swift depicts herself as an up-and-coming singer who moves to New York to make a new name for herself. On this album, her vivid lyricism represents her journey in finding a new sense of self.
Fans theorized her latest album would take inspiration from their previous collaboration. However, the new tracks feel incoherent and lack the familiar inclusion of specificity seen in her earlier work.
In working alongside her past producers Martin and Shellback on “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift was deprived of the honest feedback the album needed during the revisionary process.
Swift’s immense success has pushed her to the point where everyone around her instinctually trusts her judgement. She no longer has collaborators who will push her to create something inventive or meaningful.
Her use of overtly online lingo — she sings “Every joke’s just trolling and memes” on “Eldest Daughter” and “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun” on “CANCELLED!” — emphasizes this gap in her once-profound narratives.
The album hits its stride with its fourth track, “Father Figure.” This song details Swift’s decade long power struggle with her prior management team, as well as her outlook on reclaiming the master recordings of her first six albums.
In contrast, the album’s fifth track, “Eldest Daughter,” is exceedingly disappointing. In its pre-chorus, she sings “I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness / I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool.” This lead-up, into what could have been an analysis of her duties as a global role model, quickly crumbles.
“The Life of a Showgirl” also lacks subtlety. Swift spells out every thought rather than relying on her usual visual narratives to provide context.
In love songs past, Swift has excelled in describing exactly why she falls in love. While the album heavily focuses on Swift’s relationship with Kelce, her depiction of their love story lacks vulnerability, such as that of Swift’s 2019 album “Lover” and 2020 album, “folklore.”
On “The Life of a Showgirl,” from its lyricism alone, listeners cannot be sure of anything Swift admires about Kelce — other than his podcast, which she name-drops on the ninth track, “Wood.”
In “Wood,” Swift sings “Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet / To know a hard rock is on the way.” While this is an attempt at being lighthearted, Swift comes off as more unsure than anything else.
For the first time in her 19-year-long career, Swift has nothing new to say.
Arguably, all of Swift’s past albums have been released in honor of a new chapter in her life — when she’s at a point in which things are subject to change in a moment’s notice.
Her writing thrives when she is confronted with her own choices, and in return, has something to say: having her lyricism scrutinized by critics and proving them wrong on “Speak Now” or her ostracization by the public and reclaiming her career with “reputation.”
The most nuanced aspect of Swift’s past lyricism is that every one of her most sentimental songs — whether they have been about growing up, falling in love or breaking down — have always been tinged with sadness. Her writing has always felt authentic and conveyed that nothing in life is promised.
On “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift lost the authenticism of her past, melancholy-riddled lyricism. In place of the imaginative and reflective tone of her past albums, she adopts a more by-the-book songwriting method.
Swift maintains her use of multiple verses to show different points of view, making the bridge the focal point of a song’s lyrical appeal and including higher harmonies in the final chorus, on the album. However, when paired with repetitive lyrics and a newfound jaded perspective, “The Life of a Showgirl” is deprived of her familiar sound.
The album is misaligned with the values that Swift has trademarked as an artist. While she has long profited off her relatability in her songs and character, her demeanor in “The Life of a Showgirl” feels more out of reach than ever.
In closing the album, it feels as though Swift understands this, at least somewhat.
In the album’s title — and final — track, Swift sings, “But you don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe / And you’re never, ever gonna.”
Rating: 2.5/5
