“The Life of a Showgirl” Continues the Show

Kelsy Brown

Staff Writer

On October 3rd, global pop sensation Taylor Swift dropped her highly anticipated twelfth album The Life of a Showgirl. With this album, Swift added twelve new songs to her discography. Many of the songs are inspired by her time traveling and performing during the Eras Tour, the highest grossing tour of all time, as well as her whirlwind romance with Travis Kelce, a tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs. With the wild success of her tour and the announcement of her engagement to Kelce, many fans expected her new album to be filled with her poetic, storytelling lyrics. But, The Life of a Showgirl has sparked debates across all social media platforms wondering if this begins the downfall of the popstar.

Growing up, I have always had Taylor Swift playing. Whether in the car or on my CD player when I was young, she has been a constant artist being played in my house. Of course, I was so excited for the release of The Life of a Showgirl especially as she was collaborating with Max Martin who produced some of her greatest hits. Martin also produced her albums Red, 1989, and Reputation which include some of Swift’s most well-known hits. With Reputation being my all-time favorite Swift album, I was excited and hopeful that The Life of a Showgirl would somewhat resemble it, especially with the emotional love songs that show the genuine feelings of love with her new engagement to Kelce. I was hoping for songs that were similar to “Call It What You Want” and “Delicate” as those songs have gone triple-platinum in my car. Like any college student who is also a Swiftie, I was too tired to stay up until midnight to listen to the album when it first dropped, but it was the first action I did in the morning. With my commute in the morning, the 42 minute long album was perfect to listen to on my drive to campus.

The absolute first part that I noticed with The Life of a Showgirl, was the amazing sounds of the beats and the production. But as I began to listen closer and pay attention to the lyrics, I often found myself cringing. Sure the album is fun and is filled with uplifting grooves of the music, but it lacks the emotional depth that Swift normally provides for her albums. Throughout listening to the album, I found it hard to listen and digest the lyrics as some of them including how she “girl-bossed too close to the sun” just made it hard to listen to. When I listen to music, I focus mostly on the lyrics rather than the beat or the rhythm. I think that is why it is so hard for me to enjoy this album as Swift strays from her normally poetic lyrics. If I just listened for the beat, I would love the album. But the very cringey lyrics makes this such a hard album to appreciate.

Even with the album being out for a few weeks now, I have not found myself gravitating to turn it on again even for a quick car ride. Maybe I’m still at the restaurant, but this Taylor Swift album was quite a disappointment for me as it lacked meaningful, storytelling lyrics. I will always be a Swiftie, but I find myself enjoying her past albums much more than I have The Life of a Showgirl.