As a longtime fan, I have always been in Taylor’s corner. While I thoroughly enjoyed the record overall, it’s not my favorite—it’s not a 100% skipless album.
In the album’s ninth track, Wi$h Li$t, Taylor Swift cuts through a millisecond of soft, jewel-toned synth notes to make a simple yet striking declaration: “I just want you.”
It is in this silence that she rewrites her history—all the screaming in the rain, the thunderous chaos of wanting Romeo to save her, the barbed wire pinching her skin—and then, the key to the cage is handed to her. She is free.
“The Life of a Showgirl” ushers in Taylor Swift’s twelfth era—a glittering pop record of infectious earworms and confessions from behind The Eras Tour curtain. It also marks her reunion with Max Martin and Shellback, the hitmakers who shaped the pulse of “Red,” “Reputation” and “1989.”
As a longtime fan, I have always been in Taylor’s corner. But while I thoroughly enjoyed the record overall, it’s not my favorite—it’s not a 100% skipless album. The release drew a mixed bag from the general public, with some having gone as far as to vilify Taylor for her “lack of depth” in this songwriting era, trading her wordsmith cap for unserious internet slang. Though I did not enjoy some of the songs on this record, she did not earn my ire at all. If anything, she maintains her genius, cringy millennial moments and all.
With Taylor, people seem to forget that lyrics are only one piece of the whole musical experience. She welcomes spectators—fans and the holier-than-thou police alike—to a well-rounded universe, where each song is meant to feel as much as it’s meant to be heard. It doesn’t need a music video to play like a movie; it already feels like one.
Related story: Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ has us sitting, sinking and screaming in tempestuous ruin
Related story: 13 clues that, all along, an invisible string ties Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
Related story: Taylor Swift is Spotify Wrapped Global Artist of the Year with 26.6 billion streams
From Hamlet’s Ophelia to Elizabeth Taylor
Needless to say, The Fate of Ophelia is one of Taylor’s best album openers. She is the only one who can wax poetic about a Shakespearean tragedy and make it work. Because it is so catchy, I’ve had it on repeat the whole weekend. In the same breath, she can flex her English teacher knowledge while slipping in “pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes.”
Elizabeth Taylor is the closest to a “reputation” vault track and for that, I am grateful (I’ll take what I can get). While I wasn’t a fan of Clara Bow of “The Tortured Poets Department,” she redeemed herself with the second of the best four-track run in the Swiftian universe. Here, she appeals to the wisdom of the late starlet Elizabeth Taylor, known for her high-profile relationships. Though it has been proven that her lovelorn self is not forever, I’ll forever be thankful instead for the verses “We hit the best booth at Musso and Frank’s / They say I’m bad news, I just say ‘thanks.’”
Opalite is the sparkly, shimmery dance anthem of your dreams and it has had me on my toes the whole way through. Said to be inspired by her fiancé Travis Kelce’s birthstone, the song borrows from the manmade stone as a metaphor: “If you can’t find your own happiness, make it yourself.” And make it she did, with the most beautiful verse in tow: “It’s all right, you were dancing through the lightning strikes.”
Love over glitz
The four-track run closes with Father Figure, an offshoot of the ‘87 George Michael hit of the same name. While it’s less preacher teacher and more mob boss, I considered it to be the most visually stunning out of all the songs on the album. I could see the car rolling up on the driveway, the dimly lit office in shades of amber and the boss sitting squarely in his office as he makes the deal before Taylor flips the narrative and becomes that father figure, securing all the deals—a perfect homage, perhaps, to getting her masters back.
Wi$h Li$t is my top song of the album as of this writing, because there was no way a synth-pop song would make me cry. It’s dreamy, it’s tender, and it’s about finally knowing what you want, and finding that the love that you want is finally yours. She is a cornball here, sure, but the kind we root for: choosing love over glitz and glamour that she could easily have. “Boss up, settle down, got a wish (wish) list, I just want you” is such a ditty. Because, sometimes love is just simple.
Wood, though another favorite, could have toned down on the innuendos. I mean, happy for her, really, but I would have wanted it to show more than tell because that is her trademark. I like how she was smart about superstitions there, but knowing that her man is the myth and the legend (redwood trees and all) is what really cracked me up listening to this song. But the Jackson 5 beat, though, made up for everything.
Honey is another standout. It just made me smile the whole way through. She reclaims all the sweet names correlated to condescension and turns them into warmth. It is one of the more underrated love songs on the record, and deserves more laurels for its syrupy rendition.
Related story: Taylor Swift buys back her masters after a six-year battle
Related story: #TheErasTour: How Taylor Swift won Singapore (and the world!) in 10 albums
Diss track?
Now, I am lumping all the other tracks here because these are the ones that I just run through when the album is on loop. Eldest Daughter has the most potential to be a tearjerker track five (as most, if not all, of her track fives have been), but the internet slang took too much of the heart away to be painful. While I don’t doubt the sincerity of it, the core was only captured in the bridge. Though we love a good bridge, the whole song could have had the innocence and pain of Never Grow Up from “Speak Now.”
Actually Romantic is a funny yet mild diss track (that the world is currently debating on) but it is a track that I skip because I don’t need to hear it. Cancelled! is also another song that could have been catchy, but I don’t think it’s worthy on my list. Ruin The Friendship is slowly growing on me because of the story behind it, but it still needs some more simmering before I add them onto my on-repeat playlist.
That being said, The Life of A Showgirl was perfect and Sabrina Carpenter was the cherry on top feature to round the whole album out. It was such a beautiful torch-passing moment, and I think we may have to look towards a future where Taylor will need to settle down and leave her music career behind.
In summary, the album may be more soft rock than show tunes, but it still contains the trademark Swiftian wit and whimsy she has always carried. It is the album that “Lover” could have been—minus the anxiety—and “Reputation’s” lighter sister. It is as if “Midnights’” Sweet Nothing came into full view, except it’s Taylor humming with Travis in the kitchen, barefoot, making sourdough, and mapping the rest of their lives together with us as their witnesses.
It’s a testament to unbridled joy and to love—that it does not have to be spelled out in metaphors, that it does not have to skirt around declarations but instead stand boldly in the light and say, “I am truly, truly in love.”
In 1989, Taylor croons in “You Are In Love”: “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I spent my whole life trying to put it into words.” And in the words of the beloved Etta James: “At last.”
Stream The Life of A Showgirl on Spotify.
