Taylor Swift - The Life Of A Showgirl

2025-10-03

Taylor Swift - The Life Of A Showgirl

I had low expectations coming into this album, which were somewhat overcome when the album was very much an improvement on her last two: Midnights and TTPD. Despite the lack of an overarching theme, and not at all the 'Twelve Pop Bangers' we were promised, the album doesn't seem like it's struggling to find its place or have ideas which play out. We start with a decent run of The Fate of Ophelia - Elizabeth Taylor - Opalite, which set good expectations for the album. The rest of the album scaresly delivers and is mostly songs that don't land or aren't at all memorable - the occasional hit is drowned out by songs which feel boring or filler. I feel these could have met fans' expectations given a month or so extra in the oven, as they feel almost there, but unfortunately they does cheapen the album. Some of the tracks here have very poor, hard-to-listen-to lyrics, like 'Wood' which otherwise would be one of the better songs on the album, or 'Actually Romantic', which she spends painting Charli XCX as a crazed, obsessive hater, without realising the irony of the situation.

The production on this album was great thanks to Max Martin, who is very talanted and takes the material further than it likely would have under the supervision of Jack Antonoff, and generally the album's sound and instrumentation are quality and enjoyable to listen to, but just miss the strong lyrical backing Taylor's music has been desperately needing since Evermore, which many consider to be her 'last good album'. I can imagine fans of 'Red' or 'Midnights' also enjoying this record, despite not really sounding that similar, but because of the emotion and 'vibe' of the record, but to me it seems inconsistent and her music is generally in need of a little shake-up or refresh.