Taylor Swift

The album is mediocre. Catchy songs, but it's mediocre. I walked into this album coming off the highs of Folklore, Evermore, The Tortured Poets' Department anthology, and was overall optimistic for The Life of a Showgirl.

In her previous albums, I thoroughly enjoyed Taylor's insightful lyrics, stories, and honesty. I enjoyed those previous albums because of how well-written they are. TTPD is one of my favorites because of the honesty, the emotion, and the artistic and masterful writing. Showgirl left me disappointed, and it's the one Swift album I've listened to only a handful of times to try to force myself to figure out what this album means, no matter how catchy some of the songs are. Turns out the album is direct, and I don't detect any metaphors or hidden meanings. But I'm also not a full-fledged Swiftie and don't know the lore and all the intricate connections between the albums. So, the only conclusion I can draw is that Life of a Showgirl is just... vapid.

I talked about this new album with my swifty spouse, and they gave me some backstory I wasn't aware of. My spouse watched the lead-up podcast with Jason and Travic Kelce. Taylor Swift talked about this album, the production, inspiration, etc. I'm paraphrasing my spouse, but basically Taylor Swift said that she loves getting the recognition for her albums because she's competitive. When she didn't get anything for TTPD, she was disappointed. So she did a 180. Her inspiration for Showgirl was to make a catchy and showy album, with lots of bops and bangers. She decided she wasn't going to use her eloquent lyrical prowess, and thus, we get Showgirl. A vapid album that doesn't mean much to me. There's no honesty. The lyrics suck. It sounds like a pop album rather than a Taylor Swift album. The notorious track 5 was a let down. But I guess she wants an award and the accolades or something.

How can we go from beautiful lyrics like this:

We hereby conduct this post-mortem
He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman
Our maladies were such we could not cure them 
And so a touch that was my birthright became foreign

Say it once again with feeling
How the death rattle breathing
Silenced as the soul was leaving
The deflation of our dreaming
Leaving me bereft and reeling
My beloved ghost and me
Sitting in a tree
D-Y-I-N-G

To the lyrics in "Wood" from The Life of a Showgirl. I'm flabbergasted.

Frankly, I'm disappointed in the album. I'll still listen to Fate of Ophelia, Opalite, and The Life of a Showgirl (track), but the rest of it is just mediocre, and I can think of at least one song that I genuinely hate. That final track introduced me to Sabrina Carpenter, and she has a lovely voice. Haven't heard anything from her but I'll check out some of her work.

As for Showgirl, this one will sit in a drawer. I hope that, if she puts out a new album, she'll return back to the masterful writing of Folklore, Evermore, and TTPD.