By Ross Motter
Coming after two colossal pieces of work, “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl” feels more condensed and polished. Compared to over 50 songs between her two most recent works, “The Life of a Showgirl” feels intentional with 12 songs and no deluxe companion drop.
This album was produced with Max Martin and Shellback, collaborators from Swift’s “Red,” “1989” and “reputation” albums. It seems like a reconnection with her pop roots, but in a way that feels gentler and still feels like Taylor Swift.
After “The Tortured Poets Department,” I, among many of Swift’s fans, expected this project to be a large shift into a spectacle-focused era. Instead, she delivered something more intimate, clear, and sonically cohesive. “The Life of a Showgirl” has reopened my eyes to expectation bias, a phenomenon where our preconceived expectations shape perceptions and experiences.
Many were expecting this to be a pop resurrection and were underwhelmed in the execution. Leading to disdain about the album; this is expectation bias in full swing.
When looking at the album itself, it is not about “being the showgirl,” it is about the life and the behind the scenes of her life during the second leg of the Eras Tour. It was never intended to be a spectacle of an album; it was meant to be her “dressing room diary.”
While it was very different to her most recent work, it felt very similar to “The Tortured Poets Department.” “The Tortured Poets Department” feels like it was about living with the wounds from heartbreak when so many eyes are on her, while “The Life of a Showgirl” is about learning to reclaim her identity and joy while on the mend of the heartbreak. They seem like two halves of the same self-portrait, with “Tortured Poets” being about the performance of pain, and “Showgirl” being about the performance of poise.
Announced on her now fiancee’s sports podcast, “New Heights,” it came as a shock that the pop superstar would be announcing an album called “The Life of a Showgirl” on a football podcast. However, it seems that she wasn’t promoting this album, she was more of less sharing it with the world.
With the announcement on “New Heights” and various interviews since the album’s release, it felt that Swift was trying to confront the expectation bias that she was expecting to get and started to play into the expectations only to subvert them.
Anyways—With all of that being said, once I had gotten over my initial expectation biases, I really enjoyed this album.
“The Fate of Ophelia”
I think that this song could easily be the next earworm for everyone for the next four to six months. Loosely based off Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” this song feels similar to “Love Story,” where she takes a Shakespearean tragedy and flips it on its head.
“Elizabeth Taylor”
Shockingly, this is not Swift’s first reference to Elizabeth Taylor. She first referenced Taylor in “…Ready for it?” on her sixth album, “reputation.” She tells the story of this track through the personification of Taylor.
“Opalite”
This song genuinely has no notes. It’s catchy, it’s fun, and I think that it will be one of the most popular songs on the entire album.
“Father Figure”
This song, seemingly tongue-in-cheek, seems to focus on Swift’s relationship with past executives within the music industry, where she was their protégé. She turns the relationship on its head, where she now feels like the “father figure” of her brand and is her own protégé.
“Eldest Daughter”
Though this isn’t my favorite track five of Taylor’s, it still has a lot of weight. She takes a ton of modern and almost “cringe” phrases and wraps them into double entendres and metaphors. It seems that Swift has taken the “eldest daughter syndrome,” and applied it not only literally, but also metaphorically in the music industry. She has been in the public eye for the last 20 years and has really grown up in the spotlight and has taken a position as an “eldest daughter” with many of the up-and-coming artists.
“Ruin the Friendship”
This was another song that I wasn’t a big fan of until I realized how similar it was to a bunch of the tracks on Swift’s album, “Red.” A seemingly tongue-in-cheek song about how she wished that she romantically acted on a friend, it takes a darker turn when it’s discovered that the friend that she yearned for has passed away.
“Actually Romantic”
This song seems to be a dig at Charli xcx, another pop singer who has released “Sympathy is a Knife,” a song directed at Swift. Charli and Swift had both dated singers from the band The 1975, which had ended terribly for Swift, but ended in a marriage for Charli. There seems to be some unknowns about the two singers’ relationship, but it was clearly very rocky. I wish there was a moment of ‘working it out on the remix,’ like Charli had done with Lorde, another singer who had a rocky relationship with Charli. The two released the song “girl, so confusing,” ending their public feud.
“Wi$h Li$t”
This song was very different from the last few songs, as this song has really encapsulated what Swift’s life has been like post-Eras Tour. She discusses how she wants her partner, maybe a couple kids and all the things that had seemed unattainable for her in the spotlight. It seems as though this song might be a goodbye to the showgirl as we know her, but has since rebuked the idea of her stepping away from her career with her new life change.
“Wood”
This song is raunchy. Though Swift has said that this song is about superstitions and luck, it is a song packed with risqué double entendres and innuendos. Though she has not publicly addressed the lyrics at the time of publication, it’s become clear that it’s supposed to be cheeky and left unaddressed.
“CANCELLED!”
This song seems to be a very divisive song. With many calling the song tone deaf, while others applaud swift for taking aim at cancel culture rooted in misogyny. The person Sweift is referencing in this song is unclear, as it may be directed at fellow Kansas City Chiefs’ WAG (Wives and Girlfriends of famous players) Brittany Mahomes, who has gotten into some controversy over the last few months. It may also be a dig at Blake Lively. Overall, I’m unsure of how I feel about this track.
“Honey”
This track is sweet. Pet names such as “honey” and “sweetheart” have been weaponized against Swift to discredit her and make her feel smaller. However, now that she has discovered these pet names in a way that is unequivocally genuine, she has started to form new connections with these names that had been so detrimental to her.
“The Life of a Showgirl”
The final track on the album, in collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, follows an imaginary showgirl who warns an aspiring performer that this life isn’t glamorous, but how both Swift and Carpenter have reinvented the idea of what a showgirl can be and how they’ve not conformed to the expectations and ideas surrounding how to make it in the industry, but how they’ve also subverted the expectations placed on them.
Overall, the album has its flaws. It is in no means perfect and has a lot of room for discourse, but the expectation biases placed upon the album must be stripped away before one can find true meaning and appreciation for the album. And baby, that’s show business for you.
