Following the end of her worldwide Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has released yet another album. I had very little hope going into this album, as I was not a fan of her previous release, “The Tortured Poets Department,” because of the poor lyrics. However, I was hopeful for a high-quality pop album because it was produced by Max Martin and Shellback who she collaborated with for some of her best works, “1989” and “Reputation.” However, my already doubtful hopes were not met as “The Life of a Showgirl” was not only dry but borderline unlistenable.
“The Fate of Ophelia” does not sound like an album opener, more like a track that should be in the middle of the album. As soon as I pressed play, I was thrown off by how the first verse immediately sounds off-rhythm with the beat, somehow giving it an AI-generated like quality. Normally, Swift is good at choosing a track order, yet the track order on this album felt wrong with the opening track being, “The Fate of Ophelia” which immediately did not keep up with the album’s promise of a showgirl aesthetic. The second chorus is not much better than the first, beginning by saying “Eldest daughter,” awkwardly foreshadowing the fifth track off the album. The best part of this song is the post-chorus with its very admittedly catchy lyrics, “Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky.” However, the words themselves lack meaning. And do not do justice to the literary allusions used. Little did I know, this is one of the better produced songs off the album and the strangeness of the opening track was only a warning of the worse to come.
Similar to the first track, “Elizabeth Taylor” starts on a bad foot with an off-putting intro. This song shows none of Swift’s famous lyrical ability as all of the lyrics are mediocre. The production, however, overshadows the lyrics as the production reminds me of elements I liked from previous albums like "Reputation" because of the snare and piano throughout the chorus. Although it would be a “Reputation” song, I would probably skip it as it would be the weakest song on the album. This song doesn’t transition nicely into either of its neighboring tracks because of the drastic difference in production, as the other songs have lesser, mellow production. “Elizabeth Taylor” somehow falls to the top of my ranking of this album as the upcoming songs are even weaker songs.
While “Opalite” seems like an honest attempt at a fun, leading pop song with its upbeat intro, it still falls flat. The production was stale and the lyrics weren't any better, making it downright boring to listen to. With a boring premise and production that fails to sell it, the shallow lyrics and even more shallow production just makes the song sound like a rushed job, as it was made in between Eras Tour shows. Swift is known for being able to create fun pop songs, so this one was a let down.
No one is fully sure what Swift is trying to say in "Father Figure," as some believe it's about Scott Borchetta, the one who sold her masters back in 2019 and others believe that it's about Swift's relationship with younger pop stars such as Olivia Rodrigo. Throughout the album, she uses several lines to add unnecessary shock value, a main one from this song being, “I can make deals with the devil because my dick's bigger.” The rest of the lyrics are mediocre but compared to the rest of the album, they’re suitable. There is a simple beat that does not lay off, until the bridge, making the listening experience uninteresting and featureless.
By far, “Eldest Daughter” holds some of Swift’s poorest written lyrics on the album, and maybe her entire discography, opening with some of the songs worst: "Everybody's so punk on the internet/Every joke’s just trolling and memes.” She continues into the chorus with “But I’m not a bad bitch and this isn’t savage” which are painfully cringy lyrics. This song is a Track 5, which for Taylor Swift, means it’s supposed to be the most emotionally moving song off the album. However, I doubt even some of the most die-hard Swifties are crying to the lyrics, “But I’m not a bad bitch and this isn’t savage”. This song fails to deliver anything but cringe, “We all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire.” While the piano and an acoustic guitar playing throughout, deliver the expectation of a sad ballad, the strange lyrics completely change the feel of the song. “Eldest Daughter” is one of the least favorable songs from this album with the unfortunate lyrics and the inconsistent production.
“Actually Romantic” is speculated by fans online to be in response to the Charli XCX song “Sympathy is a Knife” off of “Brat” where Charli XCX discusses how she feels insecure around super huge pop stars, such as Swift. Swift decided to respond with a diss track about how it’s romantic with the amount of time and effort Charli XCX has spent on her, giving this song a very different theme from any of the others songs from this album. The lyrics are a pitiful attempt at Swift trying to get back at Charli XCX, however, “Actually Romantic” has some of the best production on the album, with its consistent guitar melody and layers of drums. Despite the thematic disconnect from the rest of the album, this is one of the best songs on “The Life of a Showgirl” because of the production.
“Wi$h Li$t” is a very dull song with nothing special about it. “Wi$h Li$t” discusses Swift's wishes for her future, such as having children. Somehow, Taylor Swift is making songs so boring it feels like there's almost nothing to analyze from it. When Swift has had albums twice as long, a 12 track album should not have this many forgettable songs. The lyrics are repetitive and boring, for example, “And they should have what they want/They deserve what they want/I hope they get what they want.” Unfortunately, the production isn’t any better, sounding like it was produced quickly with an absence of depth. Not only does “Wi$h Li$t” fade into the background within Swift’s album and discography, but the charts as a whole.
This song makes me so uncomfortable with all the double entendres, such as “New Heights of manhood” in reference to the muse’s “redwood tree.” The song talks about how all her bad luck is in the past and her future is looking up. This song has some of the better production off the album with the basic guitar, bass and drums, however the production is not enough to make up for the vile lyrics. To me, “Wood” sounds like she asked Chat GPT to write a Sabrina Carpenter song, as the lyrics are on the vulgar side. This is my least favorite song of “The Life of a Showgirl” as the lyrics are quite revolting as the song goes on. In the beginning she discusses different superstitions up until the first post-chorus where the lyrics fall apart and she goes on and on with all the repulsive double entendres throughout the rest of the song.
This is one of the worst songs on the album, both on a production and lyrical level. It includes some of the weakest lyrics, such as “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?” and “Welcome to my underworld, where it gets quite dark.” This is a song where it sticks out how privileged she is, when she says how she likes having rich, problematic friends, “I like ‘em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal.” The production sounds like it's trying to have the edge that "Reputation" had, but fell very short of that because it misses the emotional struggle of “Reputation”.
When I saw the track list, I expected “Honey” to sound more similar to her 2019 album “Lover,” however, this song did not come close to the dynamic, fun production of that album, instead coming off as dull. This song is the most forgettable on the album, with both repetitive lyrics and bland production. Nonetheless, the vocals on this song are decent, especially throughout the chorus. Throughout her previous releases, Swift has done a good job of making the songs sound unified, yet different, nevertheless, throughout “The Life of a Showgirl,” the songs blend together because they all sound so similar.
Unfortunately, “The Life of a Showgirl” is a weak song for the title track with its poor lyrics and production. During the first chorus, Swift rhymes so many lines directly after each other, “Her name was Kitty/Made her money being pretty and witty/They gave her the keys to this city/Then they said she didn't do it legitly,” which makes the lyric writing sound rushed. The stomping and clapping throughout gives the song a musical theater vibe, which I wished she leaned into more throughout the album in order to go with the showgirl aesthetic that was so heavily advertised throughout the marketing for this album. Sabrina Carpenter is heavily featured throughout this song, which unfortunately does not do any favors for Swift’s own performance as Carpenter shows a larger vocal range which overshadows Swift in her own song
After sitting with this album for multiple days, I would give “The Life of a Showgirl” one out of five stars as the album does not have much emotional depth. The more I listened to this album, the more I disliked it, as the songs are disconnected in a thematic sense. Swift discusses how this album was going to give us a look into the behind the scenes of her life as a performer, however all of the songs are written with such surface-level lyrics. However, several of the songs had some favorable elements such as the production on “Actually Romantic” and the vocals on “Honey,” but not enough to be redeemable. The production is lazy, and the lyrics do not compensate for it in any way, resulting in almost all of the songs sounding the same. “The Life of a Showgirl” feels like an album with a little thought or effort put into it therefore making it seem like a lackluster cash grab.
