Review: Taylor Swift — The Life of a Showgirl

Taylor Swift
The Life of a Showgirl
Republic Records
Street: 10.03.2025
Taylor Swift = Lorde x Sabrina Carpenter 

It must be said that following up a sprawling 31-track album that is full of merciless melancholy and innate restlessness is a difficult task for any artist. How can you go back to a stickier pop sound after releasing The Tortured Poets Department? And for that matter, the three predecessors before that album, too. 

Usually, if anyone is up to the task, it’s the woman, the moment, the showgirl: Taylor Alison Swift. Her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is way more digestible. 12 tracks, around 40 minutes. Yet there’s a lighter, more glittery feel to the whole thing. 

But as the light fades, the glitter loses its shine. It lies flat and underwhelming. It’s hard for me to compute that the artist behind The Life of a Showgirl is the same artist who wrote the soul-crushing “loml” and “So Long, London.” 

Opening Tracks Shine: “The Fate of Ophelia”

We’re welcomed to the show with a flourish of drums and a building piano beat in the opener “The Fate of Ophelia”. Here, Swift states that she was able to dodge the fate of Shakespeare’s Ophelia, who slowly descends into madness. “I might’ve drowned in the melancholy,” Swift sings, “I swore my loyalty to me, myself and I”. It’s beautiful imagery to open the album with. 

However, from there, the body of work suffers from a bad case of shock-factor-laced lyrics. It is an unwelcome surprise for a woman who can and has wielded the English language like the sharpest sword for the better part of the last decade. For better or worse, Swift has cemented herself as a wordsmith, especially since the release of folklore. It sets expectations undoubtedly high. 

Take, for example, “Wood” — an infectious beat. If you listen to the lyrics too closely, the double meanings come off as tacky. Swift has written lush, lust-driven tracks in the past, like “False God”  and even “Dress” that don’t feel so off-kilter and jarring. Though the lyrics fall short, the album is a production wonder. Max Martin and Shellback, who’ve worked on hits from albums like Red and the perfect pop album 1989, collaborated with Swift on this album. 

Standout Tracks on The Life of a Showgirl

On “Ruin the Friendship” (whose lyrics you should never, under any circumstances, follow as advice), the groovy slow vibe might just convince you to follow Swift’s recommendations. “Actually Romantic” is subtle sonically, but snarky lyrically  in a way that’s reminiscent of “I Forgot That You Existed”. “Opalite” is a bright spot on the album. 

One thing is clear from The Life of a Showgirl — Swift is finally, at long last, happy. It’s something to celebrate, as millions of fans did when she announced her engagement to Travis Kelce. Is it unfair to expect continued misery and heartbreak from musicians for the sake of relatability for a general audience? Yes, undoubtedly. 

But the thing about Swift is she CAN and HAS written beautiful, upbeat love songs. Lover, the album, is full of these types of songs. Speak Now as well, even with its heartwrenchers, leans on the laurels of “Sparks Fly” and “Enchanted”. “Love Story” is arguably one of the most recognizable love songs in the modern pop discography.

Taylor Swift’s Emotional Magic: Missing But Present

Swift’s trademark is writing songs that rock you to your core. Crafting tracks so perfectly that they often put into words what millions of listeners cannot even begin to explain. She’s proven herself capable of writing music that is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, solidifying herself as an emotional wizard. 

That patent magic is what’s missing in this new body of work. It makes a rare appearance here and there. 

Like the delicate ruffle of a showgirl’s feathers, “Honey” is one of the best tracks on the album. Listeners don’t have to play mental gymnastics to keep up with the lyrics. It is a sweet, sweet song, as the title suggests, with the slow reverb in the bridge that’s just as dreamy. In the same vein, “Eldest Daughter,” the infamous track five, finally provides a bit of depth. 

Confidence and Glamour Shine in Later Tracks

There’s also an interesting tension in the latter half of the album. “Wi$h Li$t,” a rare Taylor song where confidence is abundant and doled out heartily. It’s an exquisite follow-up to “The Prophecy.” Instead of begging, she now has a list of wishes that will come true in due time. 

Songs like “Elizabeth Taylor,” where she says, “You’re only as hot as your last hit,” and the closing track is where we get to the showgirl framework. It’s the first time the title track of one of her albums has had a featured artist Sabrina Carpenter) since “evermore” with Bon Iver. 

Carpenter’s voice is a good addition, a delicate touch, and there’s something cinematic about the song as a whole — the production, the back and forth, plays out like the closing number of a show. 

It’s up to the audience, of course, to determine how they feel as the lights come down and the feathers get dusted away. 

Final Thoughts on The Life of a Showgirl

On Instagram, Swift says her producers helped her paint a “self-portrait” in this album. The line reminds me of going to an art museum. Standing in front of a complicated work, waiting for that “Aha!” moment to happen, where the hidden meaning in the brushstrokes clicks,  it all makes sense and you can stop tilting your head and squinting your eyes. 

I guess I’m still waiting to understand in this case. But then again, as she sings in that last track, maybe we aren’t meant to fully fathom the life of a showgirl, whose eras have been sweeping and gobbled up by the public for so long. 

The Life of a Showgirl is bold, bright and boisterous, but, it’s not timeless like Swift’s other works, and if you dust all the glitter away to take a closer look, it ultimately pales in comparison. —Palak Jayswal

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